CHAPTER IX 

 THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN BIOLOGY 



I 



THEORIES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



WHEN Coleridge said of Humphry Davy that lie might 

 have been the greatest poet of his time had he not 

 chosen rather to be the greatest chemist, it is possible 

 that the enthusiasm of the friend outweighed the cau- 

 tion of the critic. But however that may be, it is be- 

 yond dispute that the man who actually was the great- 

 est poet of that time might easily have taken the very 

 highest rank as a scientist had not the Muse distracted 

 his attention. Indeed, despite these distractions, Johann 

 Wolfgang von Goethe achieved successes in the field of 

 pure science that would insure permanent recognition 

 for his name had he never written a stanza of poetry. 

 Such is the versatility that marks the highest genius. 



It was in 1790 that Goethe published the work that 

 laid the foundations of his scientific reputation the 

 work on the Metamorphoses of Plants, in which he ad- 

 vanced the novel doctrine that all parts of the flower are 

 modified or metamorphosed leaves. This was followed 

 presently by an extension of the doctrine of metamor- 



