288 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



domestic and social relations, with its habits and 

 adaptations, with its struggle for existence and en- 

 deavour after well-being. Physiological analysis 

 thus completes and corrects itself in " Natural His- 

 tory." 



Tivo Lessons from the Old Natural History. — 

 The two chief lessons now to be learned from the old 

 books on natural history are lessons of warning. (1) 

 On the one hand we are warned against the extreme- 

 ly analytic method of modern biology, against the 

 necrology which is always destroying in the effort 

 to understand. Since our methods force us to ab- 

 stract certain aspects of the organism, there is an 

 undoubted risk lest we forget the unity of the organ- 

 ism which we take so carefully to bits; there is an 

 undoubted risk lest we forget that what we measure 

 and weigh and analyse belonged to a creature which 

 had something analogous to our personality. Wc 

 cannot dispense with our analysis, however, and the 

 corrective for its partiality is simply more study of 

 the real life of the creature in its natural environ- 

 ment, in other words more " Natural History," what 

 some indeed have called " the higher physiology." 



(2) On the other hand, the comparative failure 

 of much of the old natural history — so often vague, 

 inaccurate, and fallacious — warns us of the futility 

 of trying to dispense with the analytic methods and 

 their results. In proportion as our analysis is 

 thorough so will our realisation of the life around us 

 be vivid. To say that no one really knows a bird 

 who has not watched it build its nest may be true; 

 but it may be justly retorted that no one really 

 knows a bird who does not understand the peculiari- 

 ties of its respiration. 



Historical Note. — The " higher physiology " or 



