6 The Unity of the Organism 



tion of organs and "characters," are what stand out most 

 prominently in the writings of these men, so far as general 

 conceptions are concerned. Cuvier, as above indicated, is 

 regarded as the central figure of the group, but this comes 

 more from the vast extent of his achievements and from 

 his general masterfulness than from his originality and 

 depth of insight. The leading idea was not due to him, as 

 he fully recognized, but to the Jussieus, uncle and nephew. 

 Concerning their Geriera Plantariiim, Cuvier said in his 

 History of the Natural Sciences: "This work produced a 

 veritable revolution in botany, for only since its publication 

 have plants been studied according to the relations which 

 they exhibit and according to the totality of their organiza- 

 tion." These botanists, we are told, conceived the organs 

 and parts to be correlated with one another, i.e., dependent 

 on each other and united to form the totality of their or- 

 ganization. Cuvier made this principle his own by adoption, 

 and applied it with great vigor and success in all his zo- 

 ological and anatomical studies. His statements of it are 

 numerous and varied in form, one of the fullest and clearest 

 being in the "Discourse" with which the Researches on Fos- 

 sil Fishes is introduced : "Every organized being forms a 

 whole, a system unique and closed, of which the parts mu- 

 tually correspond and concur in the same definitive action 

 through a reciprocal reaction. No part may change with- 

 out the others changing also ; and consequently each of 

 them, taken separately, serves as an index and an exposition 

 of the others." ^ 



While Cuvier made much of this principle, his shortcom- 

 ings in understanding and applying it are obvious and far- 

 reaching. He used it primarily in the interest of classifica- 

 tion, and classification seems to have been the first goal of 

 liis scientific endeavor. But it being as little possible for a 

 Cuvier as for any other thoughtful biologist really to go 

 no further than to glean and marshall facts, it was exactly 



