80 WILDER ON MORPHOLOGY AND TELEOLOGY, ETC. 



Among students of Nature, the three latter states of mind are respectively those of the 

 mere collector or dissector ; of the votary of morphology and classification alone ; and 

 lastly, of the favored few who happily combine them both, and thus accomplish more than 

 with either one alone ; and can we not see that the industry which has succeeded in accu- 

 mulating such vast numbers of facts is already giving way to philosophical reasonings and 

 a clearer comprehension of the same ? The last stage of science is one to be striven for 

 with full belief in its existence in the future. 



Addendum. For an extended definition and illustration of Teleology, see the chapter on Teleology of the 

 Skeleton of Fishes, in Owen's Comparative Anatomy, Vol. ii. 



Note. The foregoing paper, in a much less extended form, but containing most of the principal ideas, was origi- 

 nally prepared and presented as a Thesis at my graduation in the Department of Comparative Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University in July, 1862. Since its revision I have received 

 from Professor James D. Dana copies of the following papers by him : — 



1. "On Cephalization." From the "New Englander" for July, 1863. 



2. '• On Parallel Relations of the Classes of Vertebrates, and on some Characteristics of the Reptilian Birds." 

 From the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. xxxvi. Nov. 1863. 



3. "The Classification of Animals, based on the Principles of Cephalization." Am. Journ. Science, etc., Vols. 

 xxxvi. Nov. 1863, and xxxvii. Jan. 1864. 



4. " On Fossil Insects from the Carboniferous Formation in Illinois." Am. Journ. Science, etc., Vol. xxxvii. 

 Jan. 1864. 



Also, from Norton Folsom, M. D., Surgeon of the 45th Regiment U. S. colored troops, the manuscript notes of 

 an Essay by him " on Anatomical Symmetry," read at the Commencement of the Massachusetts Medical College, in 

 July, 1863. 



All these papers I have read with great interest and pleasure, not only for their intrinsic scientific value, but also 

 because in some portions of them were contained confirmations of the ideas expressed in this paper, which confir- 

 mations are the more gratifying as coming from such masters in the science as Wyman and Dana, from the former 

 of whom, Dr. Folsom writes, many of the ideas in his essay were derived. 



I write this in order that the coincidences between the views in the papers above mentioned and my own may 

 not be held to lessen the originality of what was written some months before those papers were read by me. 



BURT G. WILDER, 



Surgeon 55th Mass. Vol. Infantry. 

 Charleston, S. C, August 11th, 1865. 



Published, November, 1865. 



