AMONG THE GREEKS 65 



which we now call ^mutation,' still contested with 

 the idea of the gradual and purposive develop- 

 ment of useful organs. There arose numerous me- 

 chanical exj)lanations of bodily structures, com- 

 parisons between the anatomy of man and of re- 

 lated animals, theories of human heredity similar 

 to that termed 'pangenesis' by Charles Darwin, 

 namely, the assemblage in the germ in each gen- 

 eration of the hereditary forces and influences of 

 the parental body. Related to this rudiment of 

 Darwin's pangenetic theory was the wide-spread 

 Lamarckian notion that adaptive characters ac- 

 quired in the body of one generation are trans- 

 mitted to the germ and thus may reappear in 

 the body of the next generation. From the earliest 

 times, in the comparison of lower animals with 

 man, there arose discussions of the survival of 

 the stronger over the weaker — ^the rudiment of 

 the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fit- 

 test. 



Even within the fifth century B. C. Greek 

 thought was becoming biological, with the prob- 

 lems of anatomy and the adaptations in structure 

 and function of the human body as centers of 

 speculation and research. The Greek word Bios 

 itself, from which the word 'biology'^ is derived, 



l"The word Biology was introduced by Gottfried Reinhold 

 Treviranus (1776-1837) in his Biologie oder die Philosophie der 

 lebenden Natur, 6 vols., Gottingen, 1802-22, and was adopted by 

 J.-B. de Lamarck (1744-1829) in his Hydrog^ologie, Paris, 1802. 



