16 CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



tended thereafter to separate the sciences into the sciences of mathe- 

 matics and experiment (such as chemistry, astronomy, and physics), 

 whilst the sciences of observation (geology, mineralogy, zoology, 

 and botany) remained to represent the wider " Natural History " of 

 olden days. Buffon and Linnaeus wrote their " Natural Histories " 

 under this latter idea, namely, that they professed the study of rocks, 

 fossils, plants, and animals. Further limitation of scientific aims and 

 names was, however, soon necessitated by the increase of knowledge. 

 It was clearly perceived that, as living things, the animals and plants 

 remained more closely connected than did the geological and other 

 branches of natural history. Hence, in due course, a new name 

 crept into use to indicate the sciences which specially select life and 

 living beings as subjects of stud)'. In 1801 Lamarck, the French 

 naturalist, first used the name " Biologic " to indicate the collection 

 of sciences dealing with the manifold relations of animals and plants. 

 There seems to be a faculty in the human mind for acquiring a 

 liking for a name or method which exhibits a special appropriateness 

 in its description of the objects it is destined to describe. And we 

 find that, despite the firm hold which the name " Natural History " 

 had obtained as descriptive of the study of life, it is being gradually 

 superseded by the name " Biology " in every sense a most appro- 

 priate term. Although chiefly in the northern parts of these islands 

 we still cling with a striking proclivity, favoured by a reverence for 

 antiquity, to the name "Natural History," the term "Biology" has 

 already gained a secure hold as a scientific expression. To-day, when 

 we study " Natural History," we should be understood to take the 

 widest possible view of natural things ; and we may include in our 

 studies subjects as diverse as the origin of chalk-flints, the anatomy 

 of the brain, the liquefaction of gases, and the fertilisation of flowers. 

 But when we assert that we study "Biology," we thus limit, with 

 some degree of exactness, the objects of research. Then, we take for 

 granted that our studies limit us to the fields of life to the history 

 of animals and plants a history which, be it remarked, however, 

 stretches its interests far afield, and relates itself in many and diverse 

 ways to other and even widely separated branches of knowledge. 



Thus much may be said by way of introduction to the nature of 

 biological study. In the field before us lie the manifold concerns 

 of the world of life ; and it is straining no analogy to assert, with 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer, that "preparation in biology" may after all be 

 the best preliminary for the successful study of the human race, and for 

 the understanding and regulation of its interests, whether regarded as 

 . pertaining to the individual, the family, the race, or the nation at large. 

 It is no startling thought that the laws of human life and society can 

 be demonstrated to be founded upon wider laws which prevail in 

 animal life at large, and that the analogies and resemblances betwixt 



