Abstract
Only the passage of time will tell if the contri-bution made by a researcher will be considered a‘landmark’ in the development of his or her disci-pline. This should not be forgotten in an age inwhich specialists involved in a particular area ofresearch often claim for themselves the recognitionof originality, a ‘paradigm shift’, or a landmarkcontribution among other devaluated sociologicalterms. While the perception of contribution toscience is a complex subject, andrelated to financialsupport, only an appropriate perspective can deter-mine who deserves the merit for that contribution.It is easy for us, for instance, to point out to theLinnaeus Systema Naturae as a milestone in thedevelopment of the natural sciences, and as weargue below, a similar case can be made forRacovitza’s contribution to Biospeleology.The development of scientific knowledgeduring the seventeenth and eighteenth centuriesseparated what was ‘natural philosophy’ from allother thought disciplines and transformed it intowhat was called Natural History. As such, it inclu-ded the sciences of the earth and life, while otherphenomena were included in what was called‘recreational physics’ encompassing physics andchemistry, among other disciplines. Finally, asknowledge became more analytic and specialized,labels appeared for the basic disciplines as weknow them today –geology, anthropology, biology–and the concept of Natural History remained ageneral term that included a comprehensive (notholistic!) grouping of all of those specialties. Agood historical exercise on this concept isHutchinson’s (1977) essay on the influence of theNew World on Natural History, in which he selec-ted three earlier researchers that dealt with thedevelopment of animals, the study of organic varia-tion and the numerical progression of populations.A much deeper discussion still current is to befound in the first chapter of Crowson’s (1969)seminal work
Highlights
The development of scientific knowledge during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries separated what was ‘natural philosophy’ from all other thought disciplines and transformed it into what was called Natural History
By the end of the eighteenth century, the specific programs of the different disciplines in the natural sciences had been established and were ‘pursued at major scientific institutions and prosecuted with narrowing focus on detailed areas’ (Sloan, 2006). This trend deepened in the following century. This is the frame of reference that should be used to understand and evaluate the role played by Emil Racovitza, whose 100th anniversary we celebrated this year, in the foundation of modern Biospeleology
Born in Romania, he studied law in Paris but devoted his effort and attention to the study of natural sciences, especially zoology, producing a doctoral thesis on the Annelid nervous system in 1896. He participated in the Belgian International Expedition to the South Pole at the end of the century. He worked at the research station ‘Laboratoire Arago’ at Banyuls-surMer (France) and co-directed the publication Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale and Générale
Summary
The development of scientific knowledge during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries separated what was ‘natural philosophy’ from all other thought disciplines and transformed it into what was called Natural History. Isopod awakened his interest for the subterranean Racovitza was first to establish and define the milieu and its associated fauna and he decided to true conditions of the subterranean environment invest his time and efforts to the study of the subte- and their influences on cave dwellers, making an rranean environment. He continued working on subterranean life forms of cave dwellers as follows: until his death in 1947.
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