68 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



Anatomy and physiology^ in the modern sense 

 had not advanced very far in the third century 

 B. c, although this was the period of the greatest 

 sculptural attainment of Greece. While the sci- 

 entific inquiry into anatomy may not have been 

 of great service to the sculptor in the long period 

 which we are considering, it was repeatedly re- 

 ferred to by the natural philosophers of Greece 

 in their attempts to explain the natural origin of 

 many of the most striking adaptations observable 

 in man; for example, the marvelous adaptive 

 structure of the backbone with its many vertebral 

 segments, the perfect adaptation of the four dif- 

 ferent kinds of teeth which serve for distinct pur- 

 poses, the perfect adaptation of the human hand 

 to the manifold purposes of industry and art, 

 finally, the intimate relation of the activity of the 

 hand to the activity of the mind. 



Aristotle (384-322 b. c.) 



With Aristotle we enter a new world. He tow- 

 ered above his predecessors and by the force of 

 his own genius created natural history, as his 

 predecessors had created anatomy and physiol- 

 ogy. In his own words, quoted by Romanes,^ we 



iCompare Thompson: Natural Science, and Singer: Biology, 

 Medicine, in The Legacy of Greece. 



2Aristotle as a Naturalist. The Contemporary Review, 1891. 



