GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



approach, and more assuredly the phraseology, 

 may be strange to us, and at first sight seem 

 to represent exceedingly fantastic views. But 

 on deeper consideration, remembering our own 

 actual confusion of thought as to the nature 

 of life and the powers or qualities through 

 which living organisms are alive, sometimes we 

 see that, if we will but change the ancient 

 phrases a little, we shall not find the under- 

 lying thought as alien as it seemed. State the 

 ancient hypotheses a little differently, give 

 them a slight push, see them from another 

 angle, and they will often parallel modern 

 conceptions, themselves admittedly unattached 

 to basic considerations, and therefore, perhaps, 

 insecurely founded. This reflection applies to 

 many of the Hippocratic concepts, to many a 

 view of Aristotle and, as we may hereafter 

 see, to the genially eclectic system of Galen. 



One must not make an evolutionist of Aris- 

 totle. But if the world of plants and animals 

 was not for him an evolution of species in the 

 modern sense, he recognized most pregnantly 

 its graded continuity. This unbroken grada- 

 tion pervaded the process of embryonic growth, 

 as well as the completed structure of mature 

 organs. Still more subtly it followed the in- 



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