98 THE GERMAN TRANSCENDENTALISM 



clinoicl apophyscs." 1 He denied the resemblance of the 

 frontal and nasal " vertebnu " to true vertebrae, pointing out 

 that both parietals and frontals are bones specially developed 

 for the purpose of roofing over and protecting the cerebrum. 



A very curious development was given to the vertebral 

 theory by K. G. Carus, who seems to have taken as his 

 text a saying of Oken's, that the whole skeleton is only a 

 repeated vertebra. 2 His system is worthy of some considera- 

 tion, for he tries to work out a geometry of the skeleton/ 5 



His method of deduction is a good example of pure 

 Naturphilosophie. Life, he says, is the development of 

 something determinate from something indeterminate. A 

 finite indeterminate thing, that is, a liquid, must take a 

 spherical form if it is to exist as an individual. Hence the 

 sphere is the prototype of every organic body. Development 

 takes place by antagonism, by polarity, typically by the 

 division and multiplication of the sphere. In the course of 

 development the sphere may change, by expansion into an 

 egg-shaped body, or by contraction into a crystalline form, 

 the changes due to expansion being typical of living things, 

 those due to contraction being typical of dead. At the surface 

 of the primitive living sphere is developed the protective 

 dermatoskeleton^ which naturally takes the shape of a hollow 

 sphere ; round the digestive cavity which is formed in the 

 living sphere is developed the splanchnoskeleton ; round the 

 nervous system (which is, as it were, the animal within the 

 animal) is developed the nenroskclctoii. All skeletal forma- 

 tions belong to one or other of these systems. 



Carus defines his aim to be the discovery of the inner la\v 

 which presides over the formation of the skeleton throughout 

 the animal kingdom; he desires to know "how such and 

 such a formation is realised in virtue of the eternal laws of 

 reason" (iii., p. 93). Here we touch the kernel of Xatnr- 

 pJiilosopliic the search for rational laws which are active in 

 Nature, the discontent with merely empirical laws. 



1 Lemons tf anatomic compare, 3rd cd., Brussels reprint, i., p. 414, 1836. 



-' In his I'ro^ramm, U. ii. Hcdcut. </. Schddelknochen^ 1807. 



:; Trait:' ,'1,'incntairc d'unaioinie coin/xurc (French trans.), vol. iii., 

 Paris, 1835. First developed in his volume Von den Ur-Thcilen dcs 

 Knochenund Schalen-GerusteS) Lcip/iy, 1828. 



