OUTLINE OF BIOLOGICAL PROGRESS 5 



tance in the world of science, and it is coming more and more 

 to be recognized that it occupies a field of compelling in- 

 terest not only for medical men and scholars, but for all 

 intelligent people. The discoveries and conquests of biology 

 have wrought such a revolution in thought that they should 

 be known to all persons of liberal culture. In addition to 

 making acquaintance with the discoveries, one ought to learn 

 something about the history of biology; for it is essential 

 to know how it took its rise, in order to understand its 

 present position and the nature of its influence upon expand- 

 ing ideas regarding the world in which we live. 



In its modern sense, biology did not arise until about 

 i860, when the nature of protoplasm was first clearly pointed 

 out by Max Schultze, but the currents that united to form it 

 had long been flowing, and we can never understand the 

 subject without going back to its iatric condition, when what 

 is now biology was in the germ and united with medicine. 

 Its separation from medicine, and its rise as an independent 

 subject, was owing to the steady growth of that zest for ex- 

 ploration into unknown fields which began with the new 

 birth of science in the sixteenth century, and has continued 

 in fuller measure to the present. It was the outcome of 

 applying observation and experiment to the winning of new- 

 truths. 



Difficulties. — But biology is so comprehensive a field, 

 and involves so many details, that it is fair to inquire: can 

 its progress be made clear to the reader who is unacquainted 

 with it as a laboratory study? The matter will be simplified 

 by two general observations — first, that the growth of biology 

 is owing to concurrent progress in three fields of research, 

 concerned, respectively, with the structure or architecture of 

 living beings, their development, and their physiology. We 

 recognize also a parallel advance in the systematic classifica- 

 tion of animals and plants, and we note, furthermore, that 



