388 GENERAL BIOLOGY 



Darwin's "Origin of Species," 1859, is, from our present outlook, 

 the greatest classic in biology. 



Pasteur's "Studies on Fermentation," 1876, is typical of the quality 

 of his work, though his later investigations on inoculations for the pre- 

 vention of hydrophobia and other maladies are of greater importance 

 to mankind. 



Mendel's "Versuche iiber Pflanzen-Hybriden" appeared in 1865 in a 

 little Journal in Briinn, Austria, where Mendel was Abbot of the 

 Augustinian Monastery. It remained entirely unknown to the scientific 

 world until 1900 when three workers in the natural sciences rediscovered 

 it. These men were De Vries, Torrens, and Tschermak. 



Mendel's work has become the foundation upon which all modern 

 research along genetic lines is based. Castle says, "Mendel had an ana- 

 lytical mind of the first order which enabled him to plan and carry 

 through successfully the most original and instructive series of studies 

 in heredity ever executed," and Bateson suggests that "had Mendel's 

 work come into the hands of Darwin, it is not too much to say that the 

 history of development of evolutionary philosophy would have been very 

 different from that which we have witnessed." 



Weismann's "The Germ-Plasm, A Theory of Heredity," appeared 

 in 1893. It demonstrated the "continuity of the germ-plasm," a valuable 

 starting point for theorizing upon Mendel's Laws. 



De Vries' "Die Mutationstheorie," published in 1901, caused much 

 of Darwin's theory, that evolution comes about gradually, to be set aside. 

 The sudden springing forth of new forms, rather than a slow change re- 

 quiring thousands of years, won many scientific men to it. In fact, all 

 modern evolutionary theories follow either the Darwinian or the De 

 Vriesian type, or build new ones on modifications of these. 



It is somewhat puzzling to select a man to represent the study of 

 fossil life. One is tempted to- name E. D. Cope (1840-1897), whose re- 

 searches were conceived on the highest plane. Zittel (1839-1904), how- 

 ever, covered the entire field of fossil life, and his "Handbook of Paleon- 

 tology" (1876-1893) is designated as a mile-post in the development of 

 that science. 



Before the Christian era, the works of Aristotle and Galen should 

 be included. 



From the viewpoint suggested, the most notable figures in the de- 

 velopment of biology are : Aristotle, Galen, Vesalius, Harvey, Malpighi, 

 Linnaeus, Wolff, Cuvier, Bichat, Lamarck, von Baer, J. Miiller, Schwann, 

 Schultze, Darwin, Pasteur, Zittel, and Mendel. 



Such a list is, as a matter of course, arbitrary, and can serve no use- 

 ful purpose except that of bringing together into a single group the 

 names of the most illustrious founders of biological science. The indi- 

 viduals mentioned are not all of the same relative rank, and the list should 

 be extended rather than contracted. Schwann, when the entire output 



