A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



give it a human interest not hitherto suspected by the 

 novitiate. And when the entire series of Sunday- 

 morning " services" has been carried through, one order 

 after another of the animal kingdom being similarly 

 made tribute, the favored student has gone far tow- 

 ards the goal of a truly philosophical zoology, as differ- 

 ent from the old-time dry-bones anatomy as the living 

 crawfish is different from the dead shell which it casts 

 off in its annual moulting time. 



THE NEW ZOOLOGY 



What, then, is the essence of this " philosophical zool- 

 ogy," of which Haeckel is the greatest living exponent 

 and teacher and of which his pupils are among the 

 most active promoters? In other words, what is the 

 real status, and the import and meaning, the raison 

 d'etre, if you will, of the science of zoology to-day? 



To clear the ground for an answer to that question, 

 one must glance backward, say half a century, and note 

 the status of the zoology of that day, that one may see 

 how utterly the point of view has changed since then ; 

 what a different thing zoology has become in our gen- 

 eration from what it was, for example, when young 

 Haeckel was a student at Jena back in the fifties. At 

 that time the science of zoology was a conglomeration 

 of facts and observations about living things, grouped 

 about a set of specious and sadly mistaken principles. 

 It was held, following Cuvier, that the beings of the 

 animal kingdom had been created in accordance with 

 five preconceived types: the vertebrate, with a spinal 

 column ; the articulate, with jointed body and members, 

 as represented by the familiar crustaceans and insects ; 



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