6 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



the idea of evolution permeates the whole. It will be neces- 

 sary to consider the advances in these fields separately, and 

 to indicate the union of the results into the main channel of 

 progress. Secondly, in attempting to trace the growth of ideas 

 in this department of learning one sees that there has been 

 a continuity of development. The growth of these notions 

 has not been that of a chaotic assemblage of ideas, but a 

 well-connected story in which the new is built upon the old 

 in orderly succession. The old ideas have not been com- 

 pletely superseded by the new, but they have been molded 

 into new forms to keep pace with the advance of investigation. 

 In its early phases, the growth of biology was slow and dis- 

 cursive, but from the time of Linnaeus to Darwin, although 

 the details were greatly multiplied, there has been a relatively 

 simple and orderly progress. 



Facts and Ideas. — There are many books about biology, 

 with directions for laboratory observation and experiment, 

 and also many of the leading facts of the science have been 

 given to the public, but an account of the growth of the ideas, 

 which are interpretations of the facts, has been rarely at- 

 tempted. From the books referred to, it is almost impossible 

 to get an idea of biology as a unit; this even the students in 

 our universities acquire only through a coherent presentation 

 of the subject in the classroom, on the basis of their work in 

 the laboratory. The critical training in the laboratory is 

 most important, but, after all, it is only a part, although an 

 essential part, of a knowledge of biology. In general, too 

 little attention is paid to interpretations and the drill is con- 

 fined to a few facts. Now, the facts are related to the ideas 

 of the science as statistics to history — meaningless without 

 interpretation. In the rise of biology the facts have accu- 

 mulated constantly, through observation and experiment, but 

 the general truths have emerged slowly and periodically, 

 whenever there has been granted to some mind an insight 



