Leisure-time studies, chiefly biological : a series of essays and lectures / by Andrew Wilson.

  • Wilson, Andrew, 1852-1912.
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Leisure-time studies, chiefly biological : a series of essays and lectures / by Andrew Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    plant life, leads us to deal with problems which, for example, belong more or less completely to chemical science. The nature of foods, the reaction of animals and plants upon the atmosphere—nay, the very differentiation or separation of the one series of living organisms from the other, and the nature of life itself, are all so many questions in the dis- cussion of which a knowledge of chemical science is abso- lutely necessary. . The investigation of the products of plant or animal life, and of the functions whereby these products are produced, render the chemical aspects of both botany and zoology an essential study for the modern biologist. In a less important but still feasible manner may the studies of the natural philosopher or physicist be brought into the field of biological inquiry. The characters of the inorganic, as distinguished from the organic, world ; the investigation of phenomena of such importance in the life of plants and animals as endosmose and exosmose; the relations which nerve-action bears to electrical and magnetic forces; and even the comparatively simple study of how a fish rises or sinks in the water through the agency of its ‘* swimming-bladder ” or “sound,” are so many processes in the satisfactory elucidation of which, an acquaintance with at least the principles of natural philosophy will prove of great service to the biologist. The consideration of animal mechanics may similarly relate the domain of mathe- matical science to that of biology; and with geology and mineralogy the science of life possesses relations of a very intimate kind. One of the most fascinating departments of biological inquiry is unquestionably that of investigating the conditions under which life existed in the past. Without a knowledge of the distribution in time of living organisms, as already remarked, the biologist’s information would be very far from satisfactory or complete ; and an acquaintance with the facts and laws of geological thought is very neces- sary in the active practice and work of the student of life-science. Thus the study of life-science may be shown to relate