89 “Elemente der Wissenschaftlichen Botanik. Biologie der Pflanzen.” 1889.
90 “Lehrbuch der Biologie der Pflanzen.” Stuttgart, 1895.
_ 91 Cf._ Cohn, “Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen,” vii. 407, See especially the concluding chapter, “Einiges über Functionen der einzelnen Zellorgane.” From Zoology we may cite E. Teichmann’s investigation, “Ueber die Beziehung zwischen Astrosphären und Furchen.” “Experimentelle Untersuchungen am Seeigelei” (“Archiv. f. Entw. Mech.” xvi. 2, 1903). This paper contains no references to “psychical phenomena,” “power,” or “will,” and we cannot but approve of this in technical research. But it is pointed out that the mechanistic interpretation of the detailed processes of development has definite limitations, and we are referred to “fundamental characters of living matter which we must take for granted.”
This is even more decidedly the case in Tad. Garbowski’s beautiful “Morphogenetische Studien, als Beitrag zur Methodologie zoologischer Forschung.” These belong to the line of thought followed by Driesch and Wolff, who are both frequently and approvingly quoted, and they afford an excellent instance of that mood of dissatisfaction with and protest against the “dogmas” of descent, selection and phylogeny, which is observable in many quarters among the younger generation of investigators. Garbowski vigorously combats Haeckel’s theories of development, especially “the fundamental biogenetic law, and the Gastræa theory.” He criticises “mechanistic” interpretations of the development of the embryo, which “treat the living being morphologically, as if the matter were one of vesicles, cylinders and plates, and not of vital units”: and he does not look with favour on “artificial amoebæ,” which can move, creep, and do everything except live. The ideal of biology is of course always a science with laws and equations, but the key to these will not be found in mechanics. Garbowski’s studies may be highly recommended as giving a sharp and vivid impression of the modern anti-mechanistic tendencies observable even in technical research.
92 Trans. by Levinsohn. “Beilage zur Allgemeinen Zeitung,” Munich, 1898, No. 166.
_ 95 Cf._ “Entwicklung der Biologie in 19. Jahrhundert” (“Naturforscher Versammlung,” 1900), and “Zeit- und Streit-fragen der Biologie,” 1894-7, especially Part II., “Mechanik und Zoologie.”