108 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



be best illustrated by examples, (a) While the 

 general or fundamental science of Biology is not 

 concerned with the kinds of Plants or Animals, the 

 particulate or derivative sciences of Botany and 

 Zoology emphatically are. (6) Many of the de- 

 rivative sciences are complex or synthetic, Anthro- 

 pology being a good example. They combine 

 the methods and concepts of several of the funda- 

 mental sciences for their own particular purposes. 

 Thus, to take another case, Geology is a synthetic 

 science, the focussing of several sciences in the 

 study of the Earth. It inquires into the struc- 

 ture, activities, and history of the Earth, which 

 it conveniently divides into four shells each, if 

 we like, with its special science the atmosphere, 

 the hydrosphere or oceans, the lithosphere or 

 crust, and the centrosphere or nucleus. For the 

 most part, perhaps, geologists are concerned with 

 the earth's crust, but there are few of them who 

 would consent to be restricted to this territory. 

 As Prof. R. S. Woodward says: "Geology illus- 

 trates better than any other science, probably, 

 the wide ramifications and the close inter-relations 

 of physical phenomena. There is scarcely a 

 process, a product, or a principle in the whole 

 range of physical science, from physics and 

 chemistry up to astronomy and astrophysics, 

 which is not fully illustrated in its uniqueness 

 and in its diversity by actual operations still in 



