84 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



finitely varied in the different species, and in the parts of 

 individual species. 



But Goethe did not merely endeavour to search for such 

 far-reaching laws, he also occupied himself most actively 

 for a long time with numerous individual researches, 

 especially in comparative anatomy. Among these, none is 

 perhaps more interesting than the discovery of the onidjaiv- 

 hone in man. As this is, in several respects, of importance 

 to the theory of development, I shall briefly explain it 

 here. There exist in all mammals two little bones in the 

 upper jaw, which meet in the centre of the face, below the 

 nose, and which lie between the two halves of the real upper 

 jawbone. These two bones, which hold the four ujjper 

 cutting teeth, are recognized without difficulty in most 

 mammals ; in man, however, they were at that time un- 

 known, and celebrated comparative anatomists even laid 

 great stress upon this want of a mid jawbone, as they con- 

 sidered it to constitute the principal difference between men 

 and apes — the want of a mid jawbone was, curiously 

 enough, looked upon as the most human of all human 

 characteristics. But Goethe could not accept the notion 

 that man, who in all other corporeal respects was clearly 

 only a mammal of higher development, should lack this mid 

 jawbone. 



By the general law of induction as to the mid jawbone 

 he arrived at the special deductive conclusion that it must 

 exist in man also, and Goethe did not rest until, after com- 

 paring a gi'eat number of human skulls, he really found 

 the mid jawbone. In some individuals it is preserved 

 throughout a whole lifetime, but usually at an early age 

 it coalesces with the neighbouring upper jawbone, and is 



