THE STORY 

 OF THE LIVING MACHINE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Biology a New Science. In recent years biol- 

 ogy has been spoken of as a new science. Thirty 

 years ago departments of biology were practically, 

 unknown in educational 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 sim- 

 ply the study of living things; and living nature 

 has been studied as long as mankind has studied 

 anything. Even Aristotle, four hundred years be- 

 fore Christ, classified living things. From this 

 foundation down through the centuries living phe- 

 nomena have received constant attention. Recent 

 centuries 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 

 had been comprehended in a scientific system. 

 How, then, can biology be called a new science 

 when it is older than all the others? 



There must be some reason why this, the oldest 

 of all, has been recently called a new science, and 

 some explanation of the fact that it has only re- 



