William A. Locy

“ Weismann, as you all know one of its great representatives, expresses the opinion that "the theory of descent is the most progressive step that has been taken in the development of human knowledge "and he says further that this position "is justified, it seems to me, even by this fact alone: that the evolution idea is not merely a new light on the special region of the biological sciences, zoology and botany, but is of quite general importance. The conception of an evolution of life upon the earth reaches far beyond the bounds of any single science, and influences our whole realm of thought." ”

“ Vesalius, although an anatomist, is to be recognized in a broad sense as one of the founders of biology. When one is attempting to investigate animal and plant life, not only must he become acquainted with the external appearance of living organisms, but also must acquire early a knowledge of their structure, without which other facts relating to their lives can not be disclosed. Anatomy, which is the science of the structure of organized beings, is therefore so fundamental that we find ourselves involved in tracing the history of its rise as one part of the story of biology. ”

“ Species.—Since the question of the fixity of species is the central one in theories of evolution, it will be worth while to quote Lamarck's definition of species: "All those who have had much to do with the study of natural history know that naturalists at the present day are extremely embarrassed in defining what they mean by the word species.... We call species every collection of individuals which are alike or almost so, and we remark that the regeneration of these individuals conserves the species and propagates it in continuing successively to reproduce similar individuals." ”

“ Let us now ask: "What is the dominant note in intellectual life today?" Is it not a greater care to determine the truth? Is it not the investigating spirit? Is it not that spirit which we may designate generically as the scientific spirit? ”

“ It is an old, oft-repeated story, how with the overthrow of ancient civilization the torch of learning was nearly extinguished. Not only was there a complete political revolution; there was also a complete change in the mental interests of mankind. The situation was complex, and it is true that there were many influences at work, but the extinction of all scientific activity which occurred at this time was due to a complete arrest of inquiry into the phenomena of nature. The physicist no longer experimented, the naturalist no longer sought for relation and causes in living beings. ”

“ The doctrine that all tissues of animals and plants are composed of aggregations of these units, and the derivatives from the same, is known as the cell-theory. It is a generalization which unites all animals and plants on the broad plane of similitude of structure, and, when we consider it in the light of its consequences, it stands out as one of the great scientific achievements of the nineteenth century. There is little danger of overestimating the importance of this doctrine as tending to unify the knowledge of living organisms. ”

“ One of the most notable things of the last half century has been the mental evolution produced by the great extension of knowledge of organic nature. This more intimate acquaintance with natural phenomena, and of living nature in particular, has altered our way of looking at the world, and especially of our relation to it. The whole fabric of thinking has been so profoundly changed by the biological advances to which I refer that all educated people ought to make themselves acquainted with the generalizations of biology and with the foundations upon which they rest. ”

“ Embryology is one of the most important biological sciences in furnishing clues to the past history of animals. Every organism above the very lowest, no matter how complex, begins its existence as a single microscopic cell, and between that simple state and the fully formed condition every gradation of structure is exhibited. Every time an animal is developed these constructive changes are repeated in orderly sequence, and one who studies the series of steps in development is led to recognize that the process of building an animal's body is one of the most wonderful in all nature. ”

“ The activity of the university is a crusade not only against ignorance, but also against superstition.
It is this kind of service for which the progress of science is especially conspicuous, and this brings us naturally to the consideration of the service of one science in particular. I wish to maintain that for the past century the progress of zoology has exercised a strong and wholesome influence upon the intellectual development of the race. ”

“ Sweep of the Doctrine of Evolution.—The great sweep of the doctrine of evolution makes it "one of the greatest acquisitions of human knowledge." There has been no point of intellectual vantage reached which is more inspiring. ”

“ It is no longer merely a mass of knowledge that enables its devotees to name animals and to arrange systematically a cabinet. Zoology of to-day is vastly different; it has become one of the leading departments of science. While dealing with the structure, the development and the evolution of animal life, it at the same time brings one into contact with those changes in human opinion for which its own advances have been largely responsible. ”

“ The observers were not long in recognizing that some of the greatest beauties of organic architecture are displayed in the internal structure of insects. The delicate tracery of the organs, their minuteness and perfection are well calculated to awaken surprise. Well might those early anatomists be moved to enthusiasm over their researches. Every excursion into this domain gave only beautiful pictures of a mechanism of exquisite delicacy, and their wonder grew into amazement. ”

“ As illustrations there come to mind the horrors of the inquisition, the cruel and harmful ideas of witchcraft, the brutal and wicked persecution of men and women for holding saner views than the majority of mankind of the part played by the Almighty in his universe. It is one of the blessings of progress that mankind has been relatively freed from persecutions of this nature. These grotesque beliefs and superstitions were dispelled by advances in the knowledge of the organization of animals. ”

“ That the solution of the underlying question in evolution will still require a long time is evident; as Whitman said in his address before the Congress of Arts and Science in St. Louis in 1904: "The problem of problems in biology to-day, the problem which promises to sweep through the present century as it has the past one, with cumulative interest and correspondingly important results, is the one which became the life-work of Charles Darwin, and which can not be better or more simply expressed than in the title of his epoch-making book, The Origin of Species." ”

“ When inquiries come to the universities regarding one of their graduates seeking place in the world, the chief inquiry is, what is his promise of service? We do not always mean by this the narrow idea of direct utility—the faculty to make something that will sell—but more often that capacity for usefulness to the state and to society that depends on broad education, on discernment of essentials, that has been gained by freeing the mind from hereditary hindrances and from those grosser misunderstandings of natural phenomena that we class as superstitions. ”

“ The theory of organic evolution relates to the history of animal and plant life, while Darwin's theory of natural selection is only one of the various attempts to point out the causes for that history's being what it is. An attack upon Darwinism is not, in itself, an attack upon the general theory, but upon the adequacy of his explanation of the way in which nature has brought about the diversity of animal and plant life. ”

“ When we reflect on the part played in the body by the blood, we readily see that a correct idea of how it carries nourishment to the tissues, and how it brings away from them the products of disintegrated protoplasm is of prime importance in physiology. It is the point from which spring all other ideas of the action of tissues, and until this was known the fine analysis of vital processes could not be made. The true idea of respiration, of the secretion by glands, the chemical changes in the tissues, in fact, of all the general activities of the body, hinge upon this conception. ”

“ This science is not a remote branch of learning; it touches every-day life at many points, and affects our well-being more closely than is generally realized.
The study of nature and the explanation of natural phenomena possess an inherent interest to which most minds respond. The physicist and chemist have for their territory the field of inorganic nature, but the biologist has the advantage of dealing with the living world. There is, in reality, nothing in the sphere of knowledge more fascinating than the study of life. ”

“ Huxley, when he felt the call, at a great personal sacrifice, to lay aside the more rigorous pursuits of scientific research, and to devote himself to molding science into the lives of the people, said of Balfour: "He is the only man who can carry out my work." ”

“ He insisted upon observation and experiment, and upon the necessity of studying the development of plants in order to understand their anatomy and physiology. He speaks scornfully of the botany of mere species-making as follows:
"Most people of the world, even the most enlightened, are still in the habit of regarding the botanist as a dealer in barbarous Latin names, as a man who gathers flowers, names them, dries them, and wraps them in paper, and all of whose wisdom consists in determining and classifying this hay which he has collected with such great pains." ”

“ The work founded on selfish motives and vanity has sooner or later fallen by the wayside. We can recognize now that the work of scientific investigation, subjected to so much hostile criticism as it appeared from time to time, was undertaken in a reverent spirit, and was not iconoclastic, but remodelling in its influence. Some of the glories of our race are exhibited in the lives of the pioneers in scientific progress, in their struggles to establish some great truth and to maintain intellectual integrity. ”

“ Evolution as used in biology is merely a history of the steps by which animals and plants came to be what they are. It is, therefore, a historical question, and must be investigated by historical methods. Fragments of the story of creation are found in the strata of the earth's crust and in the stages of embryonic development. These clues must be brought together; and the reconstruction of the story is mainly a matter of getting at the records. Drummond says that evolution is "the story of creation as told by those who know it best." ”

“ The evidence is clear that untold generations of living forms, now preserved as fossils, inhabited the earth, disported themselves, and passed away long before the advent of man. The knowledge of this fossil life, on account of its great diversity, is an essential part of biology, and all the more so from the circumstance that many forms of life, remains of which are exhibited in the rocks, have long since become extinct. No history of biology would be complete without an account of the rise and progress of that department of biology which deals with fossil life. ”

“ Just as a knowledge of the construction of a machine is necessary to understand its action, so the anatomical analysis of an organ must precede a knowledge of its office. The term "physiological anatomy of an organ," so commonly used in text-books on physiology, illustrates the point. We can not appreciate the work of such an organ as the liver without a knowledge of the arrangement of its working units. The work of the anatomist concerns the statics of the body, that of the physiologist the dynamics; properly combined, they give a complete picture of the living organism. ”

“ The Fabrica of Vesalius was a piece of careful, honest work, the moral influence of which must not be overlooked. At any moment in the world's history, work marked by sincerity exercises a wholesome influence, but at this particular stage of intellectual development such work was an innovation, and its significance for progress was wider and deeper than it might have been under different circumstances. ”

“ It was in that century that the use of the microscope made known the similarity in cellular construction of all organized beings; that the substance, protoplasm, began to be recognized as the physical basis of life and the seat of all vital activities; then, most contagious diseases were traced to microscopic organisms, and as a consequence, medicine and surgery were reformed; then the belief in the spontaneous origin of life under present conditions was given up; and it was in that century that the doctrine of organic evolution gained general acceptance. ”

“ Owen's distinction between germ-cells and body-cells, made in 1849, was not of much importance, but in the theory of Weismann it is of vital significance. The germ-cells are the particular ones which carry forward from generation to generation the life of the individual. The body-cells are not inherited directly, but in the transmission of life the germ-cells pass to the succeeding generation, and they in turn have been inherited from the previous generation, and, therefore, we have the phenomenon of an unbroken connection with all previous generations. ”

“ He supposed that these cataclysms of nature resulted in the extinction of all life, and that after each catastrophe the salubrious condition of the earth was restored, and that it was re-peopled by a new creation of living beings. This conception, known as the theory of catastrophism, was an obstacle to the progress of science. It is to be regretted that Cuvier was not able to accept the views of his illustrious contemporary Lamarck, who believed that the variations in fossil life, as well as those of living forms, were owing to gradual transformations. ”

“ When, in the Middle Ages, the boundaries of interest began to be extended, it came like an entirely new discovery, to find in the writings of the ancients a storehouse of philosophic thought and a higher grade of learning than that of the period. ”

“ Working biologists will be the first to admit that it is not demonstrated by indubitable evidence, but the weight of evidence is so compelling that scientific men as a body regard the doctrine of organic evolution as merely expressing a fact of nature, and we can not in truth speak of any considerable opposition to it. ”

“ If, therefore, we wish to understand an organ or an animal, we must follow its development, and see it in simpler conditions, before the great modifications have been added.
The tracing of the stages whereby cells merge into tissues, tissues into organs, and determining how the organs by combinations build up the body, is embryology. On account of the extended applications of this subject in biology, and the light which it throws on all structural studies, we shall be justified in giving its history at somewhat greater length than that adopted in treating of other topics. ”