210 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



VI. Structural Characters, and the Determination of 

 THEIR Relative Values for Phylogenetic Classification. 



The coufliction of the judgments of different morphologists in regard 

 to lines of evolution is due to the differences in their opinions as to 

 what structural cliaracters should be used as the basis of compari- 

 son. If there were some well-founded principle in determining the 

 relative values for phylogeny of such characters, the number of 

 ]ioiuts of view would be lessened and greater agreement therel^y 

 attained. But, as the case stands to-day, with each new point of 

 view ideas of phylogenetic relationships are changed ; and since in 

 those whose standpoints have become fixed there is no adoption of 

 the new points of view, the latter simply bring in additional 

 schemes of classification, and will continue to do so until all possible 

 points of \dew are exhausted. This oncoming of new interpreta- 

 tions is of the highest value in the study of morphology, and he sees 

 best who can, unbiassed, consider facts under many standpoints. 

 A new interpretation is a light strong in proportion as it is main- 

 tained by the facts. Yet too often the conclusion is reached before 

 the thinker has taken time to consider the objections — before he has 

 sought to prove his conclusion by first trying to disprove it. There 

 is in every worker more or less of a tendency to defend his point of 

 view and to be slow in relinquishing it; and this is good for the 

 clear expression of the point of view, but bad for the thinker and 

 his science when he continues to abide by it after it has been dis- 

 proved. Each new point of view is to be welcomed, since we 

 cannot say which one is right until all have been examined, pro- 

 vided that it has not been hastily conceived. 



In the following we shall endeavor to express certain principles in 

 the search for homologies, and to determine the general method in 

 the search for them ; bearing in mind that it is simply an attempt 

 to reduce the confliction of opinion, rather than an essay of a new 

 point of vieAV. 



(a) The Organization and its Components. 



In Section III it has been shown that the organism is not a colony 

 of relatively independent units, but is one whole containing parts; 

 and that the whole gives its impress to the parts, rather than the 

 paits to the whole. And then it was shown that an " organism " 

 and an "organization," both terms being employed in the broad 

 sense, are svnonvmous. 



