VI 

 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY 



[1878] 



IN the former half of the eighteenth century, the 

 term &quot; evolution &quot; was introduced into biological 

 writings, in order to denote the mode in which 

 some of the most eminent physiologists of that time 

 conceived that the generations of living things took 

 place ; in opposition to the hypothesis advocated, 

 in the preceding century, by Harvey in that re 

 markable work * which would give him a claim to 

 rank among the founders of biological science, even 

 had he not been the discoverer of the circulation 

 of the blood. 



One of Harvey s prime objects is to defend and 

 establish, on the basis of direct observation, the 

 opinion already held by Aristotle ; that, in the 

 higher animals at any rate, the formation of the 



1 The Excrcitationcs de Gencrationc Animalium, which Dr 

 George Ent extracted from him and published in 1651. 



