48 WILDER ON MORPHOLOGY AND TELEOLOGY 



while homology and analogy are the corresponding relative terms, and necessarily refer to 

 two or more parts or organs which are morphologically or teleologically similar. 



Morphology is not exactly synonymous with anatomy, for the latter term embraces 

 all the characters of a part, external as well as internal ; so that, strictly speaking, parts 

 which are anatomically similar, are likewise physiologically so. But morphology refers 

 rather to the general plan of structure of a part, without altering which, great modifica- 

 tions may be wrought in its outward aspect, with reference to the various functions it is to 

 perform. 



In like manner teleology is not exactly synonymous with physiology, for the latter 

 term embraces all the functions which can be performed by the part, the less as well as the 

 more essential, otherwise the converse of the previous proposition would be true, and parts 

 which were teleologically similar would be also morphologically similar, which is not the 

 case ; every form or morph has a certain general use or function proper to it, and which 

 may remain under many of its modifications. 



It is thus of the utmost importance to discriminate between essential structure or 

 morphology, and general structure or anatomy ; so also between special function or tele- 

 ology, and general function or physiology. 



Most objects, whether animal or vegetable, and their various oi'gans, possess more than 

 one attribute ; their anatomy is compound ; their morphology is that simple essential struc- 

 ture which, as a foundation, underlies the more external attributes, one of which is specially 

 developed for the performance of the function from which it has its name ; by an easy 

 transfer, the name is finally associated in our mind with the morphology ; and then, if this 

 primary attribute be overshadowed by an excessive development of one of the secondary 

 attributes, although the function of the part may be entirely changed, yet, as the essential 

 structure is still recognizable through the external mask, the name is unchanged. Morpho- 

 logically it is the same, though teleologically it may be quite another thing. For examples, 

 and, if I remember rightly, a clearer explanation of this transfer of the name of a part, see 

 the opening paragraphs in Owen's Report on the " Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton," 

 to the British Association for the Advancement of Science for the year 1846. 



With things inanimate the teleology is the use which is made of them. As a familiar 

 illustration, the round Dutch cheeses, used as missiles by one of the parties in a sea-fight 

 years ago, were none the less cheeses, and perhaps excellent ones, because on this occasion 

 put in the place of round shot, thus making the use for which they were intended and 

 named subservient to one rendered possible by a secondary attribute, their extreme hard- 

 ness. As a second example, far too familiar in these days, a shell may strike a victim 

 before it explodes, and thus be teleologically a solid shot, while yet its structure, as 

 adapted to its intended use, remains unaltered. 



It is needless to multiply illustrations. Whenever anything, without alteration in its 

 essential structure, even though its external form be somewhat modified, fulfils a function 

 other than that for which it was originally intended, then its morphology and its teleology, 

 previously coinciding, are at variance. 



It thus appears that the teleology may differ from the morphology, as the spirit of the 

 law from the letter thereof, as the expression of a face from the features composing it, as the 

 practical from the technical or theoretical, as the actual or virtual from the nominal or ostensible ; 

 in short, as the thing may differ from its name, the de facto from the de jure. 



Morphology is substantive ; teleology is adjective. Morphology is the noun ; teleology is its 

 modifier. And as the noun with its modifier may be regarded as a compound substantive, 



