Comparative Biochemistry: Volume I

The phenomena of life are so numerous and so diverse that no human mind, whatever its genius, has been able to arrange them entirely within the framework of a single classification. Nevertheless attempts to do so have been made since ancient times. The objective knowledge of life acquired by the world of antiquity was systematized by Aristotle. During the two thousand years which followed, dogmatism and verbalism replaced inquisitiveness in a society into which no fresh sources of objective knowledge were admitted; but from the beginning of the sixteenth century, new experience forced new kinds of comparisons. Chief among these were the objects (and ideas) brought back to Europe by explorers, and the fantastic new world which was revealed by the discovery of the microscope.