THEORY OF THE SKULL. 85 



therefore only to be found as an independent bone in very 

 youthful skulls. In human embryos it can now be pointed 

 out at any moment. In man, therefore, the mid jawbone 

 actually exists, and to Goethe the honour is due of having 

 first firmly established this fact, so important in many 

 respects; and this he did while opposed by the celebrated 

 anatomist, Peter Camper, one of the most important pro- 

 fessional authorities. The way by which Goethe succeeded 

 in establishing this fact is especially interesting ; it is the 

 way by which we continually advance in biological science, 

 namely, by way of induction and deduction. Induction 

 is the inference of a general law from the observation of 

 numerous individual cases ; deduction, on the other hand, 

 is an inference from this general law applied to a single case 

 which has not yet been actually observed. From the col- 

 lected empirical knowledge of those days, the inductive 

 conclusion was arrived at that all mammals had mid jaw- 

 bones. Goethe drew from this the deductive conclusion, 

 that man, whose organization was in all other respects not 

 essentially different from mammals, must also possess this 

 mid jawbone ; and on close examination it was actually 

 found. The deductive conclusion was confirmed and verified 

 by experience. 



Even these few remarks ma}^ serve to show the great 

 value which we must ascribe to Goethe's biological re- 

 searches. Unfortunately most of his labours devoted to 

 this subject are so hidden in his collected works, and his 

 most important observations and remarks so scattered in 

 numerous individual treatises — devoted to other subjects — 

 that it is difficult to find them out. It also sometimes 

 happens that an excellent, truly scientific remark is so 



