3o8 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



Darwinism by its conservative opponents. In other points, too, these cham- 

 pions of man's high dignity could be satisfied with Blumenbach's views; 

 he believes, for instance, in species' having been created as one pair of each — 

 at least as far as man is concerned — and he holds the view that the Cau- 

 casian race was the original out of which the others were created later by 

 "degeneration," due to climatic and economic conditions. During the fight- 

 ing days of Darwinism, therefore, old Blumenbach received but little 

 gratitude at the hands of the champions of progress, but a later age must 

 indubitably do him the justice of acknowledging him as the founder of 

 comparative anthropology. 



Blumenbach, however, extended his research and educational work to 

 other spheres; actually, like Linnasus, he has dealt with all the three king- 

 doms of nature. His botanical knowledge is based entirely on Linnasus, whose 

 system he uses in its entirety; in mineralogy, too, his activities were not 

 very remarkable. As a zoologist he is likewise limited; he deals with the 

 invertebrates in a summary fashion and has but little new to tell of them. 

 The vertebrates, on the other hand, he studied carefully from the comparative 

 point of view, with special reference to the mammals; he discusses the lat- 

 ter's anatomy in detail, principally their bone-structure, and his work on 

 this subject is worthy to be compared with Daubenton's and Vicq d'Azyr's. 

 In contrast to the last-named he divides his comparative anatomy according 

 to organs and not according to physiological functions, which gives to the 

 entire work a far more modern character. 



His vitalism 

 He was also, however, keenly interested in physiological problems and be- 

 lieved that he had created something essentially new in this field; in a treatise 

 entitled tjber den Bildungstrieb he expounds a theory of reproduction and em- 

 bryonic development, which he afterwards advances repeatedly in various 

 connexions. In this work he first of all gives an account of earlier theories 

 of evolution; the preformation theory is criticized and rejected, with a cer- 

 tain degree of satire, his principal target being, as usual. Bonnet's incap- 

 sulating theory; the spermatozoa are declared to be parasites, and finally 

 the epigenesis theory is advanced as the true explanation of the phenomenon 

 of evolution. With C. F. Wolff, he holds that the prospective individual 

 is evolved out of a completely indifferentiated mass. Blumenbach, however, 

 rejects his predecessor's theory of " vis essenfialis" (see Part II, p. 2.49), hold- 

 ing instead that the development is caused by a special "formative force," 

 which is displayed not only in the development of the embryo, but also 

 in all kinds of growth, regeneration, and reproduction in animate beings. 

 This formative force — nisus jormativus — must not, however, be confused 

 with other "life-forces," such as irritability and sensibility, but it operates 

 with those forces in order to maintain life. Blumenbach specially points out 



