l88 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



day and which he himself stimulated and developed by his lively personality 

 and his keen interest in the whole domain of thought. Finally, by his writings 

 he promoted also an interest in the study of nature; his Allgemeine Naturge- 

 schichte fur alle Stdnde is a compilation of a very high standard of excellence, 

 based on comprehensive material, which has widely increased the knowledge 

 of and interest in the study of nature. 



Oken's natural philosophy 

 Oken's own contributions to exact natural science are, on the other hand, of 

 but little importance. In his youth, before going to Jena, he carried out an 

 investigation into the development of the intestine in the embryo, which 

 contains a number of sound observations, though his conclusions were partly 

 drawn from principles that were not very successfully thought out. Oken, in 

 fact, considered himself above all a natural philosopher and set great store 

 by his best work, Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie, which he rewrote twice. He 

 was, however, not very learned as a philosopher; his conclusions were as 

 fantastic as Schelling's, but had not even the latter's small degree of formal 

 consistency and logic. Nor did he possess Goethe's poetical imagination, 

 and his speculations were therefore as grotesque as they were irrational. In 

 particular, the first part of his work, which, strikingly enough, is called 

 "Theosophie," is simply extraordinary; its first sentence runs: "Die hdchste 

 mathematische Idee oder das Grundprincip aller M.athematik ist das Zero = 0." 



Then we learn that God and the world = O H , while God alone or 



the primal idea = O, and space is O = + O -. When we come to the living 

 creatures, the whole is certainly somewhat closer to facts; organic life is 

 derived from a primal slime, which is described as "oxydierter, gewdsserter 

 Kohlensfojf," and which had its origin in the sea, whence all life comes. Life 

 is formed of three "entelechia;" : magnetism, chemism, and respiration. In 

 regard to plants, Oken, like Goethe later on, speculates upon the spiral 

 ducts; to Oken they are ' 'das Lichtsystem in der PJJanze. ' ' The parts of the plant 

 correspond to the four elements, the root being the earth-organ, the stem 

 the water-organ, the leaf the air-organ, and the flower the fire-organ. With 

 regard to the animal kingdom, all animal life is derived from a follicle; there 

 are four consecutive formations thereof — the point-, the ball-, the fibre-, 

 and the cell-formation. The organs of animals constitute special systems, 

 first "pfianzliche" (namely, intestine, gills, veins); then "thierige" (bony, 

 muscular, and nervous systems). Moreover, the animal is composed of 

 "Hirnfier" and "Geschlechtstier," both of which possess organs that corre- 

 spond to one another, as, for instance, lung and bladder, mouth and rectum, 

 thorax and pelvis. The animal kingdom in its entirety is regarded as one 

 mighty animal, the various parts of which correspond to different animal 

 forms; the lowest animals have only intestine, as the polypi; then come such 

 as have intestine and skin — snails and insects; finally, those having in- 



