THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 379 



while his opponents (the ovists) insisted that it was the egg which de- 

 veloped into new offspring. 



Swammerdam (1637-1680), in his Biblia Naturae, compiled long and 

 painstaking researches on the anatomy of insects which, up to his time, 

 were considered unorganized physical masses. 



Malpighi (1628-1694) of Bologna worked on plants and animals. He 

 made elaborate studies and illustrated them, on the development of the 

 plant-embryo, as well as on the embryology of the chick, the anatomy of 

 the silk-worm, and the structure of glands. 



Chronologically, the systematists should be mentioned at this point, 

 but logically, it is better to introduce the student to the whole subject 

 of Classification and the men who did the classifying at the same time, 

 so this subject will be given in the next chapter. 



However, as soon as there is any considerable classification and de- 

 scription of a subject, men begin to divide that subject into individual 

 parts or units, so that workers may narrow their field and confine their 

 work to such limited group or unit. 



Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, Embryology, Genet- 

 ics, and Organic Evolution, are the main divisions into which Biology is 

 thus divided. 



The work done by first-year students of biology, as set forth in this 

 book, consists of studying a type-form of the principal phyla of plants 

 and animals, and then attempting to develop biological principles from 

 the knowledge thus gained. This first-year work therefore includes the 

 fundamentals of Botany and Zoology. The Third Semester's work is 

 confined to the specialized study of Embryology, and the Fourth Semes- 

 ter's work is Comparative Anatomy and Physiology. In this last Semes- 

 ter's work the student studies in detail each organ or organ-system of 

 the great divisions of Zoology and then compares these, system by sys- 

 tem. 



Probably the first man to attempt this latter method was Severinus 

 (1580-1656) of Naples. In 1645 he published a volume suggesting that 

 all vertebrates and man had much in common, structurally. However, 

 over a century before this time Belon had made drawings of the skeletons 

 of birds and man and placed them side by side so that differences and 

 similarities could be noted. Then came Tyson (1650-1708) of Cam- 

 bridge, who is the father of our modern meth'od of treating comparative 

 findings in monograph form. His work was a comparison of man and 

 monkeys. 



Cuvier (1769-1832) of Paris is, however, the first of the great men 

 in this field of work. He was the first to embrace both living and extinct 

 forms in his comparisons, and he also obtained a wider grasp of the 

 problem confronting him than any of his predecessors. A good illustra- 

 tion of the synthesis sought for, and the breadth of knowledge desired 



