History of biology

The history of biology recalls the studies of the man on the world of alive since mists of time until our days. However, the concept of Biologie as not being that only one discipline was born only at the 19th century. Biological sciences emergent of the traditions of the Medicine and natural history coming directly from the Greek old and particularly from Galien and Aristote.

General sight

During the Rebirth and the century of the discoveries, an interest in the Empirisme reappeared as well as the growing number of known organizations led to meaning developments in the biological thought. Vesalius is at the origin of the development of the experimentation and the observation in physiology, and a series of naturalists like Linné and Buffon started to found a conceptual work of analysis of the diversity of living and the filing of the fossils, as well as the development and the behavior of the plants and the animals.

Etymology

The term biology is formed by the combination of the Greek βίος (bios) and the suffix " - logy" , which means " science de" , " connaissance" or " study de". This suffix is based on the Greek verb λεγειν (" legein"), meaning " sélectionner" and " rassembler" (cf λόγος (" logos"), meaning " monde". The modern direction of the " term; biologie" was introduced separately by:

The term itself appeared in the title of volume 3 of the book Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae dogmaticae: Geologia, biologia, phytologia generalis and dendrologia , written by Michael Christoph Hanov and published in 1766.

Before the creation of this word, a certain number of terms were used to describe the study of the animals and the plants. The term Natural history referred to the descriptive aspect of biology, even if it included/understood also the Minéralogie as well as other fields which do not relate to biology with the contemporary direction of the term. the Middle Ages with the Rebirth, all the fields of the natural history were confused and indicated by the term scala naturae or Large chain of the life. The Philosophy of nature and the natural Théologie included the conceptual bases of the animal life and vegetable while trying to answer the question of the existence of the organizations and while trying to explain their operation. This even if these matters included/understood also what is today called Géologie, Physique, Chimie and Astronomie. The pharmaceutical physiological (and botany) were preceded by the Médecine.

Ancient and medieval knowledge

Beginnings of biology mésopotamienne, Chinese and Indian

Since very old times, undoubtedly even before the appearance of the modern man, the human beings were transmitted their knowledge in connection with the animals and of the plants in order to increase their chances of survival. For example, they were to know how to avoid (or sometimes to use) the poisonous plants and animals and how to track, capture, and drive out various animal species. They were in the same way to control techniques making it possible to carry out good nets or baskets. In this direction, biology precedes the writing by the history of the Man.

Agriculture requires precise knowledge on the plants and the animals. The old populations Orient ales very early had knowledge in connection with the pollination of the Palmier-dattier S. In Mésopotamie, the population knew that pollen could be used in the fertilization of the plants. A commercial contract dating from the period Hammurabi (XVIII E) mentions the date date palm flowers like an article of trade.

In India of the texts certain aspects of the life of the birds describe. In the same way, the metamorphosis of certain insects and frog was described in Egypt. The Egyptians and the Babylonians controlled also the anatomy and physiology to a certain extent. Lastly, in Mésopotamie, of the animals were sometimes retained in what one could compare with the first zoological gardens.

At all events, the Superstition was often mixed with the actual facts. With Babylon and in Assyrie, the bodies of the animals were used for predictions, and in Egypt medicine included a big part of mysticism.

The biology of the ancient Greece

In ancient Greece and the world hellenistic, the scholars were interested more and more in the Empirisme. Aristote was one of the most prolific philosophers of the nature of the Antiquité. In spite of its first rather speculative work, Aristote undertook later research in biology while being based on the observation. Aristote did not carry out an experiment, but observed which was the natural reality of each thing in its own environment, although some are controlled artificially. Although in physics and chemistry this method was not regarded as effective, it was the opposite in zoology and ethology, and work of Aristote “brings a real interest”. It carried out innumerable observations of nature, and particularly on the level of the habitat and Abstraction of Plante S and animal which lived close to him, to take a considerable care of it to the to categorize. In all, Aristote classified 540 animal species, and around fifty dissected some approximately. Aristote believed in intellectual goals, the formal causes, which were to guide all the natural processes. This theological point of view gave to Aristote a reason to justify the facts that it observed like the expression of a formal model. By noting that “no animal has, at the same time, of the horns and defenses”, and “that it seen forever of single animal with two horns”, Aristote suggests that Nature, by not giving to the animals horns and defenses at the same time, avoided vanity, and gave to the creatures only faculties which were necessary. By noting that the ruminants have multiple stomachs and weak teeth, it supposes that the first thing was to compensate for the last, with a Nature which tries to balance the balance.

In the same way, Aristote thought that the animals could be classified according to a graduated scale of perfection going from the plants to the human being. Its system had eleven graduations representing “the degree to which they were reached by the potentiality”, expressed by their form with the birth. The animals best classified put at the world small heats and wet; contrary, those of the bottom of the scale gave rise to small cold the, dry ones, in eggs with the thick shell. Aristote also noted that if the shape of an living being reflected its level of perfection, it did not predetermine it. According to him, the quality of the heart of the animals was also important. It divided the hearts into three groups: the plants were equipped with a vegetative heart, which enabled them to reproduce and grow; animals, of one at the same time vegetative and sensitive heart, person in charge of mobility and the feelings; the man, finally, had a heart vegetative, sensitive, and rational, capable of thought and reflection. To the difference of the older philosophers, Aristote presented the heart like the seat of the rational heart, rather than the brain, and separated the feelings from the thought (only Alcméon of Crotona had operated this separation before).

The successor of Aristote to the College, Théophraste, wrote a series of works of botany, the Histoire of the Plants , which was regarded as the most important contribution during antiquity in botany, and even during the Moyen-âge. Many denominations brought by Théophraste perdurent still nowadays, like carpos for the fruits, and pericarpion for the conducting vessels. Instead of focusing itself on the formal causes as Aristote did it, Théophraste suggested an approach mechanist, by creating analogies between the natural and artificial processes, and by connecting the concept aristotelician of “effective cause”. Théophraste also recognized the role of the sex in the reproduction of many evolved/moved plants, thing which was lost in the following ages.

Hellenistic biology

August 1st

Alexandria under the Ptolemies that advances in biology edge Be again found. Medical The first teacher At Alexandria was Herophilus off Chalcedon, who corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and feeling. Herophilus also distinguished between Vein S and arteries, noting that to lath Pulsates while to form C not. In the same vein, He developed has diagnosis off technical which relied upon distinguishing different types pulsates. He, and his contemporary, Erasistratus off Tap-holes, researched the role off veins and Nerve S, mapping to their races across the body.

Erasistratus connected the increased complexity off the surface off the human brain compared to other animals to its superior Intelligence. He sometimes employed Experiment S to further his research, At one time repeatedly weighing has caged bird, and noting its weight loss between feeding times. Following his teacher' S researches into Pneumatics, He claimed that the human system off Blood vessel S was controlled by Vacuum S, drawing blood across the body. In Erisistratus' physiology, air enters the body, is then drawn by the lungs into the heart, where it is transformed into vital spirit, and is then pumped by the arteries throughout the body. Summon this off vital spirit reaches the animal Brain, where it is transformed into spirit, which is then distributed by the nerves. Herophilus and Erasistratus performed their experiments upon criminals given them by their Ptolemaic kings. They dissected alive thesis criminals, and " while they were still breathing they observed shares which natural had formerly concealed, and examined to their position, color, shape, size, arrangement, hardness, softness, smoothness, connection."

In ancient Rome, natural Pliny the Elder was known for his knowledge off seedlings and. Later, Claudius Galen became has pioneer in medicine and anatomy. -->

Medieval period

The decline of the Roman Empire led to the disparation or the destruction of an important sum of knowledge. This period is often named the black Period. However, certain people always worked in medicine or studied the plants and the animals. In Byzance and in the world Islamique the natural Philosophie was maintained. Several work of Greeks was represented into Arab, and several of those of Aristote were preserved. The work of the Arab biologist, Al-Jahiz, died into 868, is particularly notable. He wrote Kitab Al Hayawan ( Livre of the animals ). In the years 1200, the German Albertus Magnus wrote vast treaties: Of vegetabilibus , 7 books, and Of animalibus , 26 pounds. It was particularly interested by the propagation and the reproduction of the plants, it described in detail the sexuality of the plants and the animals. It was also one of the professors of Thomas d' Aquin.

Persian and Arab biology

The Persian Gulf and other Arab areas played a big role in the development of the Science. Based on the sciences Greek and Indian and connected with Europe, these areas were well located to take part in the development of science. The most important scientists were Persians but one finds also Arabs and Turks. Avicenne (commemorated by the kind Avicenniaceae ) played a very important part in biology and made many discoveries. He is often regarded as the father of the modern Médecine. Rhazes played also a big role and was a large biologist.

Rebirth

Same manner that many artists were interested in the aspects of the animal and human bodies, the scientists of the time started to study physiology in detail. A certain number of comparisons were made between the lower extremities of human and those of the équidés (horses mainly). Otto Brunfels, Jerome Glass of bier and Leonhart Fuchs was three great authors in connection with the wild plants. They are recognized today like the fathers of German botany. In the same way, of the works were written in connection with the animals like those of Conrad Gesner, illustrated inter alia by Albrecht Dürer.

Summary bibliography

  • Denis Buican, 1989: the Revolution of the evolution , Paris, PUF.
  • Denis Buican, 1994: History of biology. Heredity-evolution , Paris, Nathan.
  • Cédric Grimoult, 2003: History of the history of sciences. Historiography of the evolutionism in the French-speaking world , Geneva, Droz.
  • Axel Kahn & Dominique Lecourt, 2004: Bioethics and freedom , Paris, PUF/Quadrige.
  • Dominique Lecourt (to dir.), 1999: Dictionary of history and philosophy of sciences , Paris, 4th réed. “Quadriga” /PUF, 2006.
  • Dominique Lecourt (to dir.), 2004: Dictionary of the medical thought , Paris, réed. PUF/Quadrige, 2004.
  • Ernst Mayr, 1982: History of biology. Diversity, evolution and heredity , Paris, Beech, 1989.
  • Andre Pichot, History of the concept of life , ED. Gallimard, coll SUCH, 1993.
  • Jacques Roger, 1963: Life sciences in the French thought of the 18th century , Paris, A. Colin.
  • Jacques Roger, 1995: For a history of sciences with whole share , Paris, Albin Michel.
  • Christophe Ronsin, 2005: History of molecular biology. Pioneers and hero , Brussels, De Boeck University.
  • Jean Rostand, 1945: Draft of a history of biology , Paris, Gallimard.
  • Jean Théodoridès, 2000: " What do I know? History of the biologie" , Paris, PUF.
  • Pierre Vignais, 2001: the Biology of the origins at our days. A history of the ideas and men , Grenoble, coll Grenoble Sciences, EDP Sciences.

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