Sinnott • Morphology as a Dynamic Science 



85 



QUESTIONS 



1. How does your definition of the bark ing what species one is discussing? Ex- 

 differ from that of Grew? plain. 



2. Do you think it wise to talk about the 3. If Grew were living today do you 

 structure of the root without mention- think he would be a foremost anato- 

 mist or not? Explain, 



N. B. Grew was born in 1641 and died in 1712. He was a contemporary 

 of Malpighi and Hooke and could be considered the father of plant anatomy. 



Edmund W. Sinnott 



Morphology as a Dynamic Science 



Reprinted with the permission of the author 

 and publisher from Science 85(2194) :61-65, 

 1937. 



When a science has developed to 

 the level where it can recognize the 

 fundamental problems which confront 

 it, it may be said to have passed from 

 )'Outh to maturity. Long ago the phys- 

 ical sciences were able thus to formu- 

 late their objectives, and they have 

 made enviable progress in attaining 

 them. Biology, on the other hand, 

 throughout its histor\/ has moved from 

 one major interest to another and has 

 never seemed able to distingMish it"^ 

 fundamental problems from n 1 

 minor ones, or indeed to determme 

 whether or not there exist any strictly 

 biological problems at all. Not many 



generations ago the naming and classi- 

 fication of the host of plant and animal 

 species was regarded as the chief task 

 of the biologist. This naive attitude was 

 altered by an acceptance of the tre- 

 mendous fact of evolution, which 

 seemed to make obvious that the cen- 

 tral problem of both botany and zool- 

 ogy was to write the entire phyloge- 

 netic histor\' of the organic world, a 

 task which commanded the allegiance 

 of the mnioritv of biologists for half a 



As time went on, however, it came 

 to be realized that the ultimate secret 

 of a living organism will never emerge 



