1897.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 523 



of somatology or anthropologic anatomy. His contributions to this 

 latter branch it will be my effort to sketch. 



Its special aim is to set forth clearly and to estimate justly the 

 anatomical difference which we find, on the one hand, between races 

 or varieties of the human species, and on the other, between this 

 species itself and those below it in the scale of organized beings. 



It is, in the fullest sense of the word, morphology : the study of 

 forms and their fluctuations under the influences of environment, 

 nutrition, correlation, heredity and pathological processes, the en- 

 deavor always being to trace the given form to its etiological fac- 

 tors. Thus its methods are those of inductive science in the truest 

 sense. Yes, they go beyond this ; they lead up, in their highest ex- 

 pression, to laws and formulas which are cosmic in application, and 

 express the universals of knowledge. 



This was fully recognized by Dr. Allen, and he gave it expression 

 in the memorable phase, " Morphology embraces all animated 

 structures as parts in a scheme of Philosophy." 



I wish to emphasize this dictum, because all his work in the 

 somatic field of anthropology was dominated by, and must be read 

 in the light of, this wide conception of its meaning. 



No greater mistake could there be than to imagine that this rec- 

 ognition of the indefinite value of observations led him to seek pre- 

 mature generalization or to neglect minuteness of details. The op- 

 posite is true, and it were hard to find an example of a more pains- 

 taking, laborious student of the smallest features of individual and 

 racial anatomy. 



I could not bring to your knowledge a more striking example of 

 this than one of his earliest contributions to anthropologic anatomy, 

 one published more than thirty years ago in the Dental Cosmos for 

 November, 1867. 



Its subject is The Jaw of Moulin- Quignon, a title which will 

 probably not be very full of meaning to many of you, so I must 

 premise by explaining it. 



When the celebrated French antiquary, Boucher de Perthes, 

 made his discovery of hand-made stone implements in the pregla- 

 cial gravels of Abbeville, it was objected to him that no human 

 bones had been found among those of the elephants and hippopot- 

 ami in the strata. He saw the force of this objection and offered a 

 handsome sum to any of the quarrymen who should make such a 

 discovery. It is not surprising that in a short time such a human 



