MODERNBIOLOGY 3 69 



of small tasks, the results of which have not attracted the attention of pos- 

 terity. There was created, however, by the scientists described above, a new 

 branch of comparative morphology, which proved of the greatest impor- 

 tance for the development of biology in general, in that it made possible 

 a far more universal and extensive study of the organ in living creatures than 

 had been conceivable before, embracing not only the present characteristics 

 of the organs, but also their evolutional history, thus proving not only a 

 morphological, but also a morphogenetical subject of research. From this 

 period we can also consider that the advent of comparative anatomy in the 

 modern sense dates, and its development during the succeeding decades, es- 

 pecially in Germany, was splendid. It was this line of research that really 

 dominated biological science in that country during the greater part of the 

 nineteenth century. But it was certainly not merely the embryological dis- 

 coveries that produced this fresh impetus. In other spheres, too, there opened 

 up for biological research, as a result of new methods and new facts, vistas 

 of an extent hitherto unknown. In particular, there were two methods, al- 

 ready previously known, it is true, but not sufficiently appreciated by the 

 immediately preceding generation, which were adopted at this period with 

 renewed interest and considerable improvements, and which produced re- 

 sults that fundamentally reformed the views on life-phenomena — namely, 

 the experimental method and microscopy. 



