PALJilONTOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 10/ 



appear, and among the latest and youngest forms of the 

 latter is Man. Both the perfection of forms and their 

 variety originate, therefore, only gradually, and in a period 

 extending from the oldest tune to the present day. This 

 fact is of great importance, and can be explained only by 

 the Doctrine of Descent, with which it perfectly agrees. If 

 the various groups of plants and animals really descended 

 one from another, then such an increase in number and 

 degree of perfection, as the series of fossils actually exhibits, 

 must necessarily have occurred. 



A second series of phenomena of great importance for 

 the inductive law with which we are dealing, is contributed 

 by Comparative Anatomy. This latter is that part of 

 Morphology, or the Science of Forms, which compares the 

 developed organic forms, and seeks, in their great variety, 

 to find the one common law of their organization, or, as 

 it was formerly called, the "general plan of structure." Since 

 Cuvier first formed this science, at the beginning of 

 this century, it has always been a favourite study of the 

 most eminent naturalists. Goethe, even before him, had 

 been greatly attracted by the charm of the mysteries which 

 it solved, and had been drawn into the study of Morphology. 

 It was especially Comparative Osteology, the philosophical 

 observation and comparison of the bony skeletons of Verte- 

 brates, which is really one of the most interesting branches 

 of the science, that riveted his attention and led him to form 

 his Theory of the Skull, which has «,lready been mentioned. 

 Comparative Anatomy teaches that in each line of descent 

 in the animal kingdom, and in each class in the vegetable 

 kingdom, the inner structures of all the animals belonging 



to the one, and of the plants belonging to the other, are in 



10 



