X ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY 267 



which it did make at the latter end of the last 

 aru the beginning of the present century, think- 

 ing men began to discern that under this title 

 of " Natural History " there were included very 

 heterogeneous constituents that, for example, 

 geology and mineralogy were, in many respects, 

 widely different from botany and zoology ; that a 

 man might obtain an extensive knowledge of the 

 structure and functions of plants and animals, 

 without having need to enter upon the study of 

 geology or mineralogy, and vice versa ; and, further 

 as knowledge advanced, it became clear that there 

 was a great analogy, a very close alliance, between 

 those two sciences, of botany and zoology which 

 deal with human beings, while they are much 

 more widely separated from all other studies. It 

 is due to Buffon to remark that he clearly recog- 

 nised this great fact. He says : " Ces deux genres 

 d'etres organises [les animaux et les ve'getaux] ont 

 beaucoup plus de proprietes communes que de 

 differences re'elles." Therefore, it is not wonder- 

 ful that, at the beginning of the present century, 

 in two different countries, and so far as I know, 

 without any intercommunication, two famous men 

 clearly conceived the notion of uniting the sciences 

 which deal with living matter into one wLole, and 

 of dealing with them as one discipline. In fact, 

 I may say there were three men to whom this idea 

 occurred contemporaneously, although there were 

 but two who carried it into effect, and only ono 



