XXV. SOME GREAT NAMES IN BIOLOGY 



If we were to attempt to group the names associated with the 

 study of biology, we would find that in a general way they were 

 connected either with discoveries of a purely scientific nature or 

 with the benefiting of man's condition by the application of the 

 purely scientific discoveries. The first group are necessary in a 

 science in order that the second group may apply their work. It 

 was necessary for men like Charles Darwin or Gregor Mendel to 

 prove their theories before men like Luther Burbank or any of 

 the men now working in the Department of Agriculture could 

 benefit mankind by growing new varieties of plants. The dis- 

 covery of scientific truths must be achieved before the men of 

 modern medicine can apply these great truths to the cure or pre- 

 vention of disease. Since we are most interested in discoveries 

 which touch directly upon human life, the men of whom this chap- 

 ter treats will be those who, directly or indirectly, have benefited 

 mankind. 



The Discoverers of Living Matter. — The names of a number of 

 men living at different periods are associated with our first knowl- 

 edge of cells. About the middle of the seventeenth century micro- 

 scopes came into use. Through their use plant cells were first 

 described and pictured as hollow boxes or " cells." But it was 

 not until 1838 that two German friends, Schleiden and Schwann 

 by name, working on plants and animals, discovered that both of 

 these forms of life contained a jellylike substance that later came 

 to be called protoplasm. Another German named Max Schultz in 

 1861 gave the name protoplasm to all living matter, and a little later 

 still Professor Huxley, a famous Englishman, friend and champion 

 of Charles Darwin, called attention to the physical and chemical 

 qualities of protoplasm so that it came to be known as the chemical 

 and physical basis of life. 



398 



