CHAPTER XXXIII 

 SOME GREAT NAMES IN BIOLOGY 



If we were to attempt to group the men associated with the 

 study of biology, we should find that in a general way they are 

 connected either with discoveries of a purely scientific nature or 

 with the improvement of man's condition by the application of the 

 purely scientific discoveries. The first group is necessary in order 

 that the second group may use the results. It was necessary for 

 men like Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to advance their 

 theories before Luther Burbank or any of the men now working in 

 the Department of Agriculture could benefit mankind by produc- 

 ing new varieties of plants. The discovery of scientific truths 

 must be made before the men of modern medicine can apply them 

 to the cure or prevention of disease. Since we are most interested 

 in discoveries which touch directly upon human life, the men of 

 whom this chapter treats will be those who, directly or indirectly, 

 have benefited mankind. 



The Discoverers of Living Matter. — The names of a number of 

 men living at different periods are associated with our first knowl- 

 edge of cells. About the middle of the seventeenth century micro- 

 scopes came into use. Through their use plant cells were first 

 described and pictured as hollow boxes or " cells." But it was 

 not until 1838 that two German friends, Schleiden (shlf den) and 

 Schwann (shvan), working on plants and animals, discovered that 

 both of these forms of life are built up of units called cells. 

 Other biologists gave the name protoplasm to all living matter, and 

 a little later Professor Huxley, a famous Englishman, friend and 

 champion of Charles Darwin, called attention to the physical 

 and chemical qualities of protoplasm so that it came to be known 

 as the chemical and physical basis of life. 

 d.. NEW crv. BIOL. — 27 405 



