scopeofzoology

adiations have occurred on a more massive scale with far-reaching importance to the history
of life in general. Not least of these followed the exit of the vertebrates from water. It is
important to understand that it was not necessary to know the inner working of animals, nor
was it necessary to conduct any experiment, in order to deduce the principle of adaptive
radiation.
This example demonstrates that the working levels of the naturalist and the chemist are
different; they each produce a picture of the living world which could not be produced in any
other way. At this point, it is worth stressing, once again, that there is no difference in the
methodology of the physical scientist and the biologist. Both must first obtain facts, either by
observations of natural phenomena, or obtain artificial facts, through experimentation. These
facts are next grouped together according to similarities by the procedure known as
"comparison" or "classification". Results of this process are termed 'general propositions'. A
general proposition is used to predict the facts about an unknown situation - a form of
reasoning known as deduction. Finally, there is the process of verification which gives
information as to the validity of a particular deduction. A mathematician deals with two
properties of objects only number and extension; all the inductive reasoning to provide
general propositions was carried out long ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction
and verification. A biologist is still concerned with assembling a vast number of facts relating
to the properties of living objects which will eventually give rise to general propositions. Only
when this phase has been completed will biology be as deductive and as exact as
mathematics.
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