FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>  
at present, the study of ancestral evolution introduces a new element of likeness and unlikeness which is not only eminently deserving of recognition, but must ultimately predominate over all others. A classification which shall represent the process of ancestral evolution is, in fact, the end which the labors of the philosophical taxonomist must keep in view. But it is an end which cannot be attained until the progress of palaeontology has given us far more insight than we yet possess, into the historical facts of the case. Much of the speculative 'phylogeny,' which abounds among my present contemporaries, reminds me very forcibly of the speculative morphology, unchecked by a knowledge of development, which was rife in my youth. As hypothesis, suggesting inquiry in this or that direction, it is often extremely useful; but, when the product of such speculation is placed on a level with those generalisations of morphological truths which are represented by the definitions of natural groups, it tends to confuse fancy with fact and to create mere confusion. We are in danger of drifting into a new 'Natur-Philosophie' worse than the old, because there is less excuse for it. Boyle did great service to science by his 'Sceptical Chemist,' and I am inclined to think that, at the present day, a 'Sceptical Biologist' might exert an equally beneficent influence. [Sidenote: Physiology.] Whoso wishes to gain a clear conception of the progress of physiology, since 1837, will do well to compare Mueller's 'Physiology,' which appeared in 1835, and Drapiez's edition of Richard's 'Nouveaux Elements de Botanique,' published in 1837, with any of the present handbooks of animals and vegetable physiology. Mueller's work was a masterpiece, unsurpassed since the time of Haller, and Richard's book enjoyed a great reputation at the time; but their successors transport one into a new world. That which characterises the new physiology is that it is permeated by, and indeed based upon, conceptions which, though not wholly absent, are but dawning on the minds of the older writers. Modern physiology sets forth as its chief ends: Firstly, the ascertainment of the facts and conditions of cell-life in general. Secondly, in composite organisms, the analysis of the functions of organs into those of the cells of which they are composed. Thirdly, the explication of the processes by which this local cell-life is directly, or indirectly, controlled and b
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>  



Top keywords:

physiology

 

present

 

evolution

 

speculative

 

Sceptical

 

Mueller

 

ancestral

 

progress

 

Richard

 

Physiology


animals
 

Drapiez

 

vegetable

 
Nouveaux
 

Elements

 

Botanique

 

published

 

handbooks

 
edition
 

beneficent


equally

 

influence

 
Sidenote
 

Biologist

 

wishes

 
inclined
 

compare

 

Chemist

 

appeared

 

conception


characterises
 

Secondly

 
general
 
composite
 

organisms

 

analysis

 

conditions

 

ascertainment

 

Firstly

 

functions


organs
 

directly

 

indirectly

 

controlled

 
processes
 

explication

 

composed

 

Thirdly

 

transport

 
successors