THE STORY OF 



LIFE'S MECHANISM. 



INTRODUCTION. 



BIOLOGY A NEW SCIENCE. 



IN recent years biology has been spoken of as 

 a new science. Thirty years ago departments 

 of biology were practically unknown in educa- 

 tional institutions. To-day none of our higher 

 institutions of learning considers itself equipped 

 without such a department. This seems to be 

 somewhat strange. Biology is simply the study 

 of living things; and living nature has been 

 studied as long as mankind has studied anything. 

 Even Aristotle, four hundred years before Christ, 

 classified living things. From this foundation 

 down through the centuries living phenomena 

 have received constant attention. Recent cen- 

 turies have paid more attention to living things 

 than to any other objects in nature. Linnaeus 

 erected his systems of classification before modern 

 chemistry came into existence; the systematic 

 study of zoology antedated that of physics ; and 

 long before geology had been conceived in its 

 modern form, the animal and vegetable kingdoms 



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