"This work attempts to give, in simple language, a critical survey of the historical development of biological problems. The bypaths and blind alleys of the subject are left unexplored. The immense extensions of detailed knowledge in many departments are discussed only in so far as they influence our general thinking about living things. Biographical detail is not included unless it is seen to have a direct influence upon the course of science. The mechanism of transmission of the biological tradition is but lightly touched upon. The exposition of the origin and development of the main problems of biology is the objective. The author has striven to write in such a way as to demand only a minimum scientific training for the comprehension of his matter. Technical terms have been used as seldom as possible, and never without explanation...The book is written by one who finds mechanist interpretations of life unsatisfying. His attitude is prompted largely by the 'relativity of functions,' that is by the conditioning of any one form of vital activity by innumerable concurrent forms, and this not only in the organism as a whole, but in each part susceptible of independent investigation. He recognizes, however, that the mechanist outlook has been responsible for countless far-reaching and important biological investigation, and he is aware that it remains indispensable for advances in many biological departments. He is, moreover, acutely conscious of the danger of confusing physical with metaphysical issues. He would, however, urge that there are many scientific propositions that are acceptable on one level of investigation but not on another. But the victories of the experimental method are too numerous, too complete, too general, for us to lose faith in its value because it fails to reveal a universe completely consistent with itself. We must accept with resignation the ineluctable fact that there are an increasing number of antitheses in the world of our experience which science exhibits no sign of resolving." --C. S., January 1931; Preface to the First Edition, pages vii-viii. "The text of this edition has been revised throughout and many changes introduced. I have, however, avoided any attempt to present the views of the active generation of biologists. It thus remains a history but ends with the nineteenth century, though there are a few incursions into the twentieth where sense seems to demand it." -- Charles Singer, 'Kilmarth,' Par, Cornwall, England, 1st January 1959; Preface to the Third Edition, page [x].

"New and completely revised Edition 1959" (title page verso).

Introduction -- PART I. THE OLDER BIOLOGY -- I. The Rise of Ancient Science -- Hippocrates (c. 460 - c. 370 B.C.) -- Doctrine of the Four Humours -- Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) -- Aristotle's biological works -- Aristotle on the habits of fish -- Handicaps of early naturalists -- Aristotle on octopuses and their allies -- Aristotle on whales, porpoises, and dolphins -- Aristotle on the placental dog-fish ('Galeos') -- The Aristotelian bee-master -- Aristotle on the nature of life -- Classification of animals derived from Aristotle -- Theophrastus (c. 380 - 287 B.C.) and his botanical works -- II. Decline and Fall of Ancient Science -- Foundation of the Alexandrian School (c. 300 B.C.) -- Beginnings of scientific plant illustration (c. 50 B.C.) -- Dioscorides and Pliny (1st century A.D.) -- Galen (A.D. 130 - 200) -- The Dark Ages (A.D. 200-1200) -- Thirteenth-century revival of learning and art -- Scholasticism -- Albertus Magnus (1206-80) -- Medieval anatomy -- III. Rebirth of Inquiry -- Naturalism in art -- Humanism -- The German Fathers of Botany -- The naturalist commentators -- The encyclopedic naturalists -- The revival of anatomy -- Renaissance art versus modern science -- Vesalius on the 'Fabric of the Human Body' -- Successors of Vesalius -- Harvey (1578-1657) and the Circulation of the Blood -- Influence of the discovery of the Circulation. PART II. THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN BIOLOGY -- IV. On the Inductive Philosophy and some of Its Instruments -- The change from medieval to modern thought -- Francis Bacon (1561-1639) -- René Descartes (1596-1650) -- Early collections of plants and animals -- Early patrons of science -- The first scientific societies -- The advent of scientific journals -- Early museums -- Introduction of the Microscope -- Malpighi (1628-94) -- Grew (1641-1712) -- Swammerdam (1637-80) -- Leewuenhoek (1632-1723) -- Hooke (1635-1703) -- Influence of the Classical Microscopists -- V. Rise of Classificatory Systems -- Absence of System in Early Naturalists -- First attempts at Formal Classification -- What is a Genus? What is a Species? -- The Binomial Nomenclature -- Jung (1587-1657) -- Ray (1627-1705) -- Tournefort (1656-1708) -- Linnaeus (1707-78) -- The 'Systema Naturae' (1735-58) -- The successors of Linnaeus -- Modern systems of Classification -- VI. Rise of Comparative Method -- Comparative studies in the seventeenth century -- Some eighteenth-century conceptions of Nature -- Hunter (1728-93) -- The Naturphilosophen: Kant (1724-1804), Goethe (1749-1832), and Oken (1779-1851) -- The eclipse of Naturphilosophie -- Cuvier (1769-1832) and the Principle of Correlation of Parts -- 'Le Règne Animal' (1817) -- The doctrine of Catastrophes -- Owen (1804-92) and Palaeontology -- VII. Distribution in Space and Time -- Early Biological exploration. Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and Robert Brown (1773-1858) -- Pre-evolutionary Geological Theory -- Darwin (1809-82), the 'Beagle' (1831-5), and Island Life -- Oceanic exploration from the 'Beagle' to the 'Challenger' -- The 'Challenger' Expedition (1872-6) and the rise of Oceanography -- Distribution of Life in the Sea -- Distribution of Life on Land -- Geological Succession -- Interrelations of Species -- Migration -- VIII. Evolution -- Buffon (1707-88) and Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) -- Lamarck (1744-1829) and his successors -- The 'Origin of Species' and the validity of its argument -- The reception of the Doctrine of Evolution -- Evolutionary history of Living Forms -- Application of the Doctrine of Descent to Man -- Coloration and mimicry -- Parisitism, Saprophytism, Symbiosis. PART III. EMERGENCE OF MAIN THEMES OF MODERN BIOLOGY -- IX. Cell and Organism -- Emergence of Cell Doctrine -- Schleiden (1804-81) and Plant Cells (1838) -- Schwann (1810-82) and Animal Cells (1839) -- Extension of Cell Doctrine in Plant Kingdom -- Protozoa in relation to Cell Doctrine -- Extension of Cell Doctrine in Animal Kingdom -- Nuclear phenomena of Cell Division -- Structure of Protoplasm -- Cellular aging, new growths, and tissue culture -- Criticism of the Cell Doctrine -- X. Essentials of Vital Activity -- Physiology of Descartes and the early Mechanist School -- Van Helmont (1577-1644) and the beginnings of Chemical Physiology -- Pland Physiology in the seventeenth century -- Stahl (1660-1734) and the contest between Mechanism and Vitalism -- Hales (1677-1761) on the Physiology of Plants and Animals -- Haller (1708-77) and the Doctrine of Irritability -- Hunter as Vitalist -- The Balance of Life -- T. A. Knight (1759-1838) and 'Tropisms' -- Liebig (1802-73) and the Chemistry of Vital Activity -- The Chlorophyll System -- The Nitrogen Cycle -- The Chemistry of Protoplasm -- XI. Relativity of Functions -- Johannes Müller (1801-58) and the Law of Specific Nerve Energies -- Karl Ludwig (1816-95) and Mechanism -- The Early French Experimental Physiologists. Claude Bernard (1813-78) -- Energetics -- Muscular action -- Respiration as combustion -- Respiration as relative to Physiological needs -- Vital activity of plants and animals approximated -- The Sensori-motor System -- Localization of Nervous Functions -- Nervous integration -- Beginnings of Comparative Psychology -- Conditioned reflexes -- Mind as Conditioning Life. PART III (Continued). XII. Biogenesis and Its Implications -- Early ideas of Infection and Spontaneous Generation -- Redi (1621-97), Needham (1713-81), and Spallanzani (1729-99) -- Pasteur (1822-95) on Fermentation -- Biogenesis versus Abiogenesis -- Early work on Microbic Origin of Infectious Disease -- Koch (1843-1910) on Anthrax -- Immunity -- Biology and Disease -- Viruses -- XIII. Development of the Individual -- Seventeenth-century Embryologists -- Wolff (1738-94) and his successors -- Von Baer (1792-1876) and the Mammalian Ovum -- The Germ-Layer Theory -- The Biogenetic Law -- The Earlier Morphological Embryologists -- First reaction of Evolutionary Theory on Embryology -- XIV. Sex -- First attempts to analyse the Nature of Generation -- Early writers on Pollination -- Nineteenth-century study of Pollination -- Sexual Dimorphism -- Alternation of Generations -- Early observations on Cellular Phenomena of Sexual Union -- Nuclear Phenomena of Sex -- Factors determining Sex and Sex Character -- Parthenogenesis -- XV. Mechanism of Heredity -- Earlier Conceptions of Heredity -- Galton (1822-1911) and the Statistical Study of the Phenomena of Heredity -- Weismann (1834-1914) and the Germ Plasm -- Discontinuous Variation, 1859-1900 -- De Vries (1848-1935) and the Doctrine of Mutations -- The Work of Mendel (1822-84) and its Rediscovery (1900) -- Epilogue.