CHAPTER LXXV 



HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY 



The field of medicine, and in connection with it certain aspects of 

 zoology, was developed to a considerable extent by the early Egyptians, 

 a medical papyrus translated by Ebers dating from as early as the fifteenth 



Fig. 395. — Aristotle, 384-322 B.C. {From. Shull, "Principles of Animal Biology," 

 after Hekler, "Greek and Roman Portraits," and by the courtesy of McGraw-Hill Book Com- 

 pany, Inc.) 



century before Christ. The beginnings of modern science, however, 

 must be sought in the writings of the Greeks. 



623. Greeks. — The history of zoology in Greece may be begun with 

 the name of Thales (624-548 b.c), who had a theory that the ocean 

 mothered all life. Empedocles and others have been referred to in the 

 chapter on evolution. Hippocrates (460-370 b.c), who placed medicine 

 on a scientific basis, has been called the father of medicine. The work 

 of the early Greeks was largely of a philosophical nature and was not 

 based upon exact observation. Aristotle (Fig. 395), however, to whom 

 we owe the scientific method, the basis of which is the gathering of facts 

 from direct observation, used that method in his work and thus reached 

 scientific conclusions. In addition to inherited wealth, social position, 

 and excellent education, he had the advantage of the first endowment for 



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