THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 



derstand the inner historic connection between these 

 various branches of anthropology, and to combine them 

 in a comprehensive science of man. The immense ex- 

 tent and the great importance of this science have 

 justified the creation of late years of special chairs of 

 anthropology. It seems desirable to do the same for the 

 science of the protists, or unicellular organisms. The 

 cell theory, or cytology, as an elementary part of anat- 

 omy, has to be dealt with in both botany and zoology; 

 but the lowest unicellular representatives of both 

 kingdoms, the primitive plants (protophyta) and the 

 primitive animals (protozoa), are so intimately con- 

 nected, and throw so great a light, as independent rudi- 

 mentary organisms, on the tissue cells in the histon, or 

 multicellular organism, that we must regard as a sign 

 of progress the recent proposal of Schaudinn to found 

 a special institute and journal for the science of protists. 

 One very important section of it is bacteriology. 



The practical division of biology, according to the 

 extent of the organic kingdom, leads us to mark out four 

 chief provinces of research: protistology (the science of 

 the unicellulars) , botany (the science of plants), zoology 

 (the science of animals), and anthropology (the science 

 of man). In each of these four fields we may then 

 distinguish morphology (the science of forms) and 

 physiology (the science of functions) as the two chief 

 divisions of scientific work. The special methods and 

 means of observation differ entirely in the two sections. 

 In morphology the work of description and comparison 

 is the most important as regards both outer form and 

 inner structure. In physiology the exact methods of 

 physics and chemistry are especially demanded — the 

 observation of vital activities and the attempt to dis- 

 cover the physical laws that govern them. As a correct 

 knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is indis- 

 pensable for scientific medicine, and the work requires a 



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