BIOLOGY AND HUMAN PROBLEMS 



of tropistic response, and even of more complex types of 

 behavior. It stimulated the more precise investigation of 

 all sorts of bodily functions. It gave us a more accurate 

 conception of the body as machine, and showed us how to 

 accelerate or retard the wheels of the various parts. It 

 showed us, moreover, the interdependence of these different 

 parts and demonstrated the unity of the organism as a 

 whole. It made possible such apparent miracles as the 

 development of the egg without fertilization. It budded 

 off colloidal chemistry and biophysics. It was the starting 

 point of immunology and serology, those Siamese twins 

 of science that have revolutionized medicine. Most impor- 

 tant of all, because of the effect such demonstrations have 

 on belief in the universal applicability of the scientific 

 method, it proved the influence of the secretions of the 

 body upon behavior. 



One might dwell upon the rise of comparative anatomy, 

 and histology, and embryology, and paleontology, and 

 anthropology, upon the development of more natural 

 systems of classification, upon life histories, upon geo- 

 graphical distribution. These subjects certainly are impor- 

 tant. The knowledge such departments give us of the world 

 in which we live is sound. It delivers a history whose 

 accuracy is more to be depended upon than those social 

 chronicles which come to us under that name. One could 

 justify such studies even on economic grounds. But these 

 sub-sciences — sciences of the classical type, as Ostwald 

 calls them — have had little influence, by themselves, in 

 changing man's intellectual habits. But this is not to their 

 discredit. Collectively they furnished the evidence by 

 which Charles Darwin proved the fact that Organic 

 Evolution had occurred, a generalization which has done 

 more to overthrow bigotry and install rationalism than 

 any other. And when I use the words proved and faa, I use 

 them intentionally. Only those unfamiliar with the evi- 



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