Biology / by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson.

  • Geddes, Patrick, Sir, 1854-1932.
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biology / by Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    us our paleontography, our thus-extended taxonomy, and has advanced phylogeny as well; as, for familiar example, the successively appearing five-, four- and three-toed horse tribe, which made our modern one-toed type “ the battle-horse of the evolutionist.” Con¬ versely too, our ecology aids the geologist in appreciating the changing climates of his past; and his results react in turn. Enough, however, of such illustrations from our nature-studies in the open to show how much inorganic nature-studies are needed for our understanding of plant, animal and human life : but when we come to physiology proper we have far more constantly to be applying all we can learn of mechanics, physics, chemistry; indeed we have to become as far as may be mechanicians, physicists and chemists ourselves, if we would really under¬ stand vital functionings at all. Thus verte¬ brate hearts are pumping-machines of increas¬ ing complexity, lungs are bellows : as for nerves, how better begin to explain them than by help of electric wires ? even our spinal cord, with its “ reflex actions,” is made plainer from our telephone systems, through which “ stimu¬ lus ” evokes “ response.” Such simple mechanical and physical explanations are ever being carried farther. So much so indeed that it is no wonder the physical physiologist should ask, even challenge—Who can say how far? And who dare say “ no farther ! ” ? The like for the chemist’s contributions to