An outline of the rise of biology and of the epochs in its history.--Vesalius and the overthrow of authority in science.--William Harvey and experimental observation.--The introduction of the microscope and the progress of independent observation.--The progress of minute anatomy.--Linnaeus and scientific natural history.--Cuvier and the rise of comparative anatomy.--Bichat and the birth of histology.--The rise of physiology. Harvey. Haller. Johannes Müller.--Von Baer and the rise of embryology.--The cell-theory. Schieiden. Schwann. Schultze.--Protoplasm the physical basis of life.--The work of Pasteur, Koch, and others.--Heredity and germinal continuity. Mendel. Galton. Weismann.--The science of fossil life.--What evolution is; the evidence upon which it rests, etc.--Theories of evolution. Lamarck. Darwin.--Theories continued. Wiesmann. De Vries.--The reise of evolutionary thought.--Retrospect and prospect. Present tendencies in biology.;