ARISTOTLE'S BIOLOGY 



To return for a moment to some Aristo- 

 telian opinions bearing on the generation of 

 life and its transmission of attributes to off- 

 spring. He combated pangenesis, the theory 

 that the semen must come from the whole 

 body, in order to account for the inheritance 

 of S3 many diverse individual resemblances. 49 

 He was aware that bodily imperfections in- 

 cidentally acquired would not be inherited, like 

 congenital traits. Yet he realized the con- 

 stitutional effects arising from the alteration 

 of a small part or organ: that if animals " be 

 subjected to a modification in minute organs, 

 they are liable to immense modifications in 

 their general configuration," — a phenome- 

 non noticeable with gelded animals. 60 Hip- 

 pocrates had shown how often trouble with one 

 organ worked a general disturbance of the 

 system. Aristotle recognized also that the 

 habits of animals are connected with their main 

 functions of " breeding and the rearing of 

 young, or with procuring a due supply of food; 

 and these habits are modified so as to suit cold 

 and heat and the variations of the season." " 

 He has much to say of migration and hiber- 

 nation. 



In ancient natural science the manner of 



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