80 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



of his voyage about the world collecting' and observing objects and phenomena 

 with the eve and the interests of a naturalist. He was indeed a naturalist in the 

 oldest and most uncontaminated meaning of the word. His interest was in animals 

 and plants as complete and functioning wholes, living with other animals and 

 plants, themselves complete and functioning wholes. The impact of this idea of 

 evolution has been felt not only in biology, of which it is the great and unifying 

 idea — indeed the greatest idea that has been contributed to human thought — 

 but it extends into every field — philosophy, theology, sociology, even politics. Its 

 influence extends indirectly even into the newest of all fields, nuclear physics; 

 indirectly into this last field, since the idea of organic evolution has broadened 

 into a concept of inorganic evolution as well, and nuclear physics has contributed 

 to the idea of the transformation of one element into another as an accepted and 

 established process. The idea of a physical world which is not static but is for- 

 ever changing and evolving is made possible by the prior establishment and 

 acceptance of an organic world that is changing and evolving. 



The evolution of life and the evolution of nonliving matter are no longer 

 separate and distinct things but are merely parts of a continuum. The idea of 

 organic evolution gave cogency to the thought that for this evolution time was 

 needed and the realization of the need for this time undoubtedly influenced the 

 thought that time must be found. From a world that was perhaps a little more 

 than flve thousand years old to a world that is probably two billion years old 

 and on which life has existed for probably five hundred million years — that is 

 the measure of the influence of an idea which sprang from the activities of a 

 naturalist! That is the measure of the foundations which natural history of the 

 nineteenth century laid down for us. 



What difference does it make that Darwin knew no physiology, no c}i:ology, 

 no histology, no chemistry, no experimental biology, no biochemistry, no genetics, 

 no nuclear physics ? All that counted for the development of his great idea was 

 the fact that he had some appreciation of the richness of life upon the earth and 

 some appreciation of the fact that all these organisms live in a world of other 

 organisms with which they must compete. The remainder is the development of 

 inferences to be drawn from this recognition and the development of the tech- 

 niques necessary to investigate the facts. Most of this work would probably have 

 been done even if the idea of evolution had never been brought forth, but the 

 idea of evolution gave a guidance and a direction to the whole process that would 

 otherwise have been lacking. Without this central theme one can conceive only 

 of confusion resulting from all this uncoordinated activity. 



In the ancient religions of the Mediterranean world and the Near East there 

 recurs time after time the concept of the "Great Mother" and we see this concept 

 continued today in what some students regard as a lineal succession in one of 

 the predominant religions of the western world. Cybele, she was once called, 

 this "Great Mother." If a biologist were to accept this idea as having had an 

 influence on the development of biological thought and were to seek her name it 

 might justifiably be accepted as natural history, which was the great mother of 

 all the branches of investigation and thought which we now place under biology. 

 These branches are her children and her grandchildren, and we can even see 

 something of the gestation, at least, of her great-grandchildren. 



It is perhaps here that natural history has its chief claim to our respect. As 



