268 ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY x 



effect, and only one who worked it out completely. 

 The persons to whom 1 refer were the eminent 

 physiologist Bichat, and the great naturalist La- 

 marck, in France; and a distinguished German, 

 Treviranus. ]3ichat * assumed the existence of a 

 special group of '^ physiological " sciences. La- 

 marck, in a work published in 1801, f for the first 

 time made use of the name " Biologic," from the 

 two Greek words which signify a discourse upon 

 life and living things. About the same time it 

 occurred to Treviranus, that all those sciences 

 which deal with living matter are essentially and 

 fundamentally one, and ought to be treated as a 

 whole; and, in the year 1802, he published the 

 first volume of what he also called " Biologic." 

 Treviranus's great merit lies in this, that he 

 worked out his idea, and wrote the very remark- 

 able book to which I refer. It consists of six 

 volumes, and occupied its author for twenty years 

 —from 1802 to 1822. 



That is the origin of the term " Biology "; 

 and that is how it has come about that all clear 

 thinkers and lovers of consistent nomenclature 

 have substituted for the old confusing name of 

 " Xatural History," which has conveyed so many 

 meanings, the term " Biology " which denotes the 

 whole of the sciences which deal witli living 



* See tho distinction botwepn tho "soicnoe? physif)Uos" 

 and the " sciences phvsiologiqucs" in the Anaiomie G^)ierale, 

 1801. 



f HydrogeoJogie, an. x. (1801). 



