CHARLES DARWIN {1809-1882) 

 CARL LINNAEUS {1707-1778) 



AND THE INVESTIGATION OF LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER HIS TIME 



Living matter only became an object of science at a late 

 period. The main reason for this is certainly a reluctance to 

 disturb living things, to interfere with them, not to say to 

 destroy them, when they do not confront us as enemies; a 

 reluctance which is particularly characteristic of the type of 

 humanity which is inclined to scientific investigation. The 

 purely utilitarian object of increasing knowledge does not 

 suffice the human mind of a high type, and cannot reconcile 

 him with the idea of torturing an animal or even of making 

 use of a corpse; what has, or has had life has always, and in 

 all ages, been sacred to him. But the coming into play of 

 a much higher intention, namely that of actually aiding life 

 by means of knowledge thus obtained, finally induced men 

 with high gifts to examine thoroughly what goes on in the 

 interior of the animal and man. 



It was thus the art of healing which led to a science of 

 living things (anatomy, physiology, and biology), when 

 it became more and more clear that life could not be 

 effectively aided without such knowledge. Assuredly also, 

 the quite obvious complexity of all processes taking place in 

 living matter was a great hindrance, and this must have been 

 sufficiently alarming, as long as even such a simple process as 

 the fall of a stone had not been grasped in all its details. 

 However, not only had all lifeless machines been already well 

 investigated from Archimedes to Stevin, but even the laws 

 of motion of the planets in their orbits had already been 

 found by Kepler, before anything at all was known of the 

 circulation of the blood in animal and man; indeed such 

 a circulation was almost refused any consideration. It was 

 a physician, William Harvey (i 578-1 657) in England, who 

 first elucidated the movement of the blood, and the function 



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