MODERN BIOLOGY 387 



and its African related types; taking that as a starting-point he makes a 

 detailed comparison of the skeleton, muscular and nervous systems of all 

 Vertebrata. It is not only the accuracy of this work that has made it a stand- 

 ard for the future; but the method itself — starting from special inquiry, 

 comparing the results with the conditions existing in the related types of 

 the subject and thus throwing light on the form-connexion in a wider or 

 narrower group of living types — was imitated during an entire period and 

 is to this very day by no means exhausted. It would take too long to examine 

 in detail the result recorded by Miiller in this work; certain it is that his 

 successors have had little to add to the material he investigated, while the 

 comparative section is also of immense value, although naturally some of its 

 conclusions have since been disproved. Thus, Miiller adopts the theory of 

 the cranium's being formed of vertebras; though he deals with the subject 

 more cautiously than either Oken or Goethe, his conclusions are at any rate 

 too far-fetched to be acceptable in modern times. 



His marine research work 

 The result of Miiller's occupying himself with these marine animals was 

 that he took up with increasing interest marine research work; through his 

 holiday trips to Heligoland, the coasts of Scandinavia, and the Mediterra- 

 nean he was irresistibly attracted to the study of the life of marine animals, 

 which had been so very little investigated before. In this field, as also in 

 that of anatomy, he became a pioneer. A long series of extremely important 

 discoveries in the sphere of marine biology is due to him; chief among these 

 should be mentioned a great number of the larval forms of worms, Echino- 

 dermata, and molluscs, the evolution of which was found out partly by him 

 and partly by others who followed his example later on; further, the dis- 

 covery of that curious parasitical mollusc, the Entoconcha, whose origin 

 in the host, a holothurian, he was nevertheless unable to discover, and fur- 

 thermore a number of interesting observations on the life and evolution of 

 fishes. He is thus not only a pioneer in marine zoology but also one of the 

 greatest in that field that the world has ever seen. The idea of special stations 

 for the study of this type of life was vigorously promoted by him, while at 

 the same time he originated a good deal of the methodology applied in work 

 on the subject. If we add that Miiller also followed in Cuvier's footsteps as 

 a palsozoologist with great credit, we shall have given a picture, however 

 incomplete, of one of the most prolific scientific achievements that the his- 

 tory of biology has to record. 



Miiller was also very distinguished as a teacher. Few biologists, if any, 

 have succeeded in gathering around them so many incipient scientists of the 

 highest rank. One of the most eminent of these has declared that the master 

 never taught dogmas, but only his own method. The pupils had themselves 

 to form their own ideas; only the method and the results achieved were 



