52 SPECIALIZATION IN NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Archimedes as physicist. In the immense single depart- 

 ment of natural history we find bnt two prominent per- 

 sons who had really done anything to the advancement 

 of this science up to as late a period as the -close of the 

 middle ages ; these were the originial investigator, Aris- 

 totle, and the compiler, Pliny. Both of these last illus- 

 trious names, however, illustrate the fact above men- 

 tioned that there was in those days so little expansion in 

 a dejjartment of science that it could be mastered as a 

 concomitant with other great studies. For the great 

 Aristotle, who is called the father of zoology, since he 

 first elaborated its classification, can as truly be called, 

 as indeed he has been, the father of logic and father of 

 psychology ; and Pliny only included science as one of 

 the departments of his historical treatises. 



Pythagoras also combined with the astronomical stud- 

 ies which made him a leader in that branch, the meta- 

 physical studies of a great j)hilosopher. 



In seeking to trace the history of scientific specializa- 

 tion, it is not possible to find any epochs bounded by 

 sharp lines. But the close of the so-called middle ages, 

 or the beginning of the sixteenth century, may fairly be 

 considered as opening a new era of progress, marked dis- 

 tinctly by the development of interest in special minor 

 subdivisions of science. The telescope, and, later, the 

 microscope, were discovered, and concentrated efforts 

 carried them through great strides towards their present 

 career of usefulness. During the two centuries succeed- 

 ing the middle ages, the astronomers and j)hysicists, 

 Galileo, Kepler, Huygens, Newton, and others, were 

 laying the foundations for the various subdivisions of 

 work in those depatments, while in natural history, Ron- 

 delet, Belon and Salviani, applied themselves specially 

 to fishes, Redi and Swammerdam to insects, and Leeu- 

 wenhoek to microscopic research ; while Ray did illus- 

 trious work in classification. 



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