788 CARL GEGENBAUR. 



method can be dispensed with in other scientific researches. In itself 

 comparative anatomy is only the development of methodical com- 

 parison. To this end anatomy olfers an experimental ba^is. Tliere- 

 fore the significance of the method goes hand in hand with the ability 

 to apply it as rigorously as possil)le. This is accomplished by taking 

 into consideration all characteristics and their logical value. If this 

 be not done, the method is uncritical and therefore unscientific."" 



Gegenbaur often discussed this matter, and stated in the intro- 

 duction to his most important treatise, " The Cranial Skeleton of 

 Selachians" (German), that in this critical examination and valua- 

 tion of anatomical facts there was little in harmony with many 

 other contemi)orary endeavors, which not only assumed the accept- 

 ance of isolated occurrences as scientific proofs, but also regarded 

 every synthetical process of reasoning as erroneous. 



At the time, this complaint may have had a certain waj-rant, for 

 during the last three decades the value of the comparative anatom- 

 ical method has not only been universally recognized, but it has 

 also been applied in many directions in anatomical and embryo- 

 logical researches. 



The series of comprehensive monographs ])ublished by Gegenbaur 

 from 18G4 to 1892 constitutes the foundation for a critical comparative 

 anatomical method based on an immense amount of material. The 

 most im])ortant of these, beyond (juestion. is the monograph on the 

 Cranial Skeleton of the Selachians, published in 1872, a treatise 

 on our knowledge of the relationships of the schools of the ver- 

 tebrates. The well-known vertebral theory advanced by Oken and 

 Goethe, which was no longer defensible in its earlier form, is here 

 revised and enlarged into a comprehensive segment theory concern- 

 ing the head of the vertebrate applicable to different organic 

 systems. 



In a similar manner Gegenbaur A^'orked out from the beginning 

 almost the entire morphology of the vertebrate skeleton, in his 

 Observations on the Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrate Col- 

 umns in Amphibians and Reptiles (1862), in his paper on Carpus 

 and Tarsus (18(y), on the Shoulder Girdle (1805), and on the 

 Occipital Region of Fishes (1887). He had mastered also, as no 

 other naturalist, the material i-elating to the subject of vertebrate 

 morphology, and he imparted this knowledge in many unsurpassed 

 text-books prepared and published by him; in his Elements of Com- 

 parative Anatomy, which first appeared in 18r)i), of Avhich a second 

 edition was issued in 1870, and which was later published in a con- 

 densed form, in 187-1, as the Fundamental Trinciples of Comparative 

 Anatomy (second edition, 1878) : and finally, in his most imi)ortant 

 text-book, which embraced his further studies for ten years and rep- 



