MODERN BIOLOGY 6ll 



wrongly fixed. The formal points of agreement in the nervous system, upon 

 which ideal morphology is based, must, on the whole, seem rather unin- 

 teresting to a morphologist of the old school, for they prove nothing new; 

 but Radl imagines that his method has achieved extraordinary results. The 

 theory of organic structure is to prove capable of building up a magnificent 

 philosophy of its own, "such as speaks to us out of the Pythagoreans' theory 

 of harmony, out of Plato's doctrine of ideas, and out of the romantic rev- 

 eries of the obscure German natural philosophy." Radl's conception of the 

 world as a " Schopjung des sie betrachtenden Geistes" is undeniably reminiscent 

 of the latter; in fact, his expressed intention, underlying the entire work, 

 is to excite surprise, "for it is through being surprised that man has now and 

 always begun to philosophize." And the work certainly does evoke surprise, 

 though not perhaps of the kind the author intended. It has manifestly not 

 exercised any influence whatever upon the development of neurology, and 

 would not have been worth while referring to had not the author's above- 

 mentioned historical work acquired such widespread fame. 



KddTs history of biological theories 

 This fame is based partly on Radl's undeniable merits as a historian: a wide 

 knowledge of literature, a lively style, and shrewd, often striking discern- 

 ment (his account of the development of Darwinism in Germany in Part II 

 is particularly animated and instructive); partly on his opposition to the 

 original Darwinism, an opposition which came into force at a date when 

 the old doctrine was certainly undermined, but nevertheless still officially 

 accepted; and partly again on the numerous philosophical digressions, some- 

 times witty, but more often merely odd, which are found scattered through- 

 out his history and which proved attractive to a generation that had wearied 

 of the old phylogenetical speculations without having on that account ac- 

 quired any other speculative foundation on which to build. Of the various 

 parts of the book, the first edition of Part I is the one that contains most 

 of the old biological ideas; in the foreword of Part II the author regrets 

 the far too confident belief that he had earlier entertained in an objective 

 science; and in the second edition of Part II, which was published last, Radl 

 declares that he intends to promulgate a "realistic cosmic view, such as 

 finds its deepest expression in Dostoievsky's novels." The work expresses 

 throughout, each part more extravagantly than the last, a purely panegyri- 

 cal enthusiasm for Aristotle, who is declared to be the unattainable ideal 

 as a natural philosopher, but at the same time a warm admiration for his 

 opponent and very antithesis, Paracelsus; and, further, the book extols 

 Stahl's vitalism and romantic and idealistic speculation in general, while it 

 disparages exact research, particularly cytology (whose methods the author 

 nevertheless himself employed, though not very skilfully), Darwinism, and 

 exact heredity-research, all of which is described as materialism. The 



