i86 The Science of Life. 



though logical, would provoke misunderstanding; the 

 Germans often use the word biology in the sense of 

 Bionomics, but this is confusing; some suggest "the 

 study of external relations ", but all vital functions 

 have external relations. So far as we know, the only 

 other expressive term is that of (Ecology, which Haeckel 

 proposed in 1869, defining it as comprising "the rela- 

 tions of the animal to its organic as well as to its 

 inorganic environment, particularly its friendly or hostile 

 relations to those animals or plants with which it comes 

 into direct contact . . . those complicated mutual 

 relations which Darwin designates as conditions of the 

 struggle for existence". 



It is not possible to say much in regard to the 



historical development of this line of biological research, 



History of f r it rarely acquired either dignity or 



Bionomics, definiteness until Darwin demonstrated its 



importance. In fact, one of the greatest debts which 



biology owes to Darwin is, that he gave new meaning 



to Bionomics. 



It is true that since animate nature first claimed the 

 intelligent interest of the observer, there have been 

 those who were more strongly attracted to the study 

 of habits, behaviour, and inter-relations than to any 

 other aspect of life, yet their interest was oftener 

 emotional than intellectual, and the real import of their 

 study was unperceived. Thus, though Gilbert White, 

 author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Sel- 

 borne, was prototype of the better class of modern 

 amateurs, and in such observations as those on earth- 

 worms (1777) was a worthy predecessor of Darwin, he 

 can hardly be said to have been aware of the wider 

 import of his studies on habit. 



Buffon may perhaps be called the greatest of the 

 pre-Darwinian students of Bionomics. He had all the 

 attributes of a philosophic naturalist, and deliberately 

 set himself to a study of the habits of animals and their 

 adaptations to their environment. This gives a par- 

 ticular interest to his Histoire Naturelle, which may be 

 described as an eighteenth-century analogue of Brehm's 

 Thierleben. 



