90 THE GERMAN TRANSCENDENTALISTS 



of the parallelism between the stages of individual develop- 

 ment and the stages of the scale of beings, and the theory 

 of the repetition or multiplication of parts within the 

 individual. The vertebral theory of the skull is a particular 

 application of the second of these generalisations. 



The law of parallelism 1 seems to have been expressed 

 first by Kielmeyer (i793),' 2 who gave to it a physiological 

 form, saying that the human embryo shows at first a purely 

 vegetative life, then becomes like the lower animals, which 

 move but have no sensation, and finally reaches the level of 

 the animals that both feel and move. 



The idea was next taught by Autenrieth in I797- 3 



Oken (1779-1851) in his early tract Die Zcugiing (1805), 

 and in his LehrbncJi dcr Naturphilosophie (1809-1 1) elaborated 

 the thought, and taught that every animal in its development 

 passes through the classes immediately below it. " During 

 its development the animal passes through all stages of the 

 animal kingdom. The foetus is a representation of all 

 animal classes in time." 4 The Insect, for example, is at first 

 Worm, next Crab, then a perfect volant animal with limbs, 

 a Fix- (ibid., p. 542). 



As Nature is "the representation of the individual 

 activities of the spirit," so the animal kingdom is the 

 representation of the activities or organs of man. The 

 animal kingdom is therefore " a dismemberment of the highest 

 animal, i.e., of Man " (p. 494). Now " animals are gradually 

 perfected, entirely like the single animal body, by adding 

 organ unto organ " the way of evolution is the way of 

 development. Hence "animals are only the persistent 

 festal stages or conditions- of Man," who is the microcosm, 

 and contains within himself all the animal kingdom. 



Oken was himself a careful student of embryology ; von 

 Huer : ' speaks of his work (published in Oken and Kieser, 

 AV//;v>j,v .::/(/- vergleichenden Zoo/o^ic, Anatomic and Pliysi- 



1 For a full account, sec Kohlbrugge, Zool. Anim/en, xxxviii., 191 1. 

 - Rcdc iiber das Verhaltnis der organischen Kriifie, Stuttgart u. 

 Tubingen, 1793 (1814). See Kadi, he. cit., i., p. 261 ; ii., p. 57. 

 ; Supplcm. nd historical emfayonis, Tubingen, 1797. 

 1 Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie^ En-, trans., p. 491, 1847. 

 ' Ueber Enhvickelungsgeschichte dcr Thiere, i., p. xvii., 1828. 



