262 Genetic Interpretations in the Domain of Anatomy 



ments. It seems sometimes as if a deliberate effort were made by the 

 descriptive anatomist to exclude all liberal use of the understanding and 

 of the intelligence from the study of anatomy, and to reduce it ahnost to 

 mere memorization of shapes and proportions, exceedingly difficult to fix 

 in the mind by that method. 



Is one not justified in condemning with great severity the perpetuation 

 of this old type of anatomy ? Is it not a grave mistake to fail to take ad- 

 vantage of the progress of anatomical science, and to utilize the best 

 results of anatomical investigation to aid us in forming for ourselves, and 

 still more, perhaps, for our students, clear notions of the essential charac- 

 teristics of human organization? There has been within the last twenty- 

 five years a very great progress in our knowledge of the topographical 

 anatomy of the viscera, both thoracic and abdominal. When I plead 

 for the presentation of the subject from the genetic standpoint, I do not 

 mean to imply- that this superior topographical knowledge should be 

 slighted, but, on the contrary, I believe that if the student can first master 

 the essential morphological relations of the body, it will be easier for him 

 to master subsequently the finer, and often practically important, topo- 

 graphical details. Let our motto be, not " to memorize," but " to com- 

 prehend " the facts of anatomy. 



Embiyology illuminates anatomy. Its teachings give us the intel- 

 lectual mastery of anatomical science, because embryology analyzes de- 

 tails, discriminates the essential from the secondary facts, and establishes 

 the genetic interpretation, in the solvent light of which the obscurities 

 of ancient . anatomy vanish, and we see, where before was a dead sea of 

 innumerable facts, new vital laws arising and guiding principles. 



NOTES. 



1. P. 247. Cytom'orphosis was first used in the Middleton Goldsmith Lec- 

 ture for 1901, entitled " The Embryological Basis of Pathology," Science, 

 XIII, 481. 



2. P. 256. Perhaps all or some of the salivary glands are entodermal. The 

 submaxillary gland belongs among the organs, when it is a single large 

 compound gland with a Bartholini's duct. When the submaxillary is repre- 

 sented by a group of small glands, they belong with the other simple buccal 

 glands. 



The position of the mammary gland must remain uncertain, until we can 

 decide whether it is merely a group of glands, or morphologically a true 

 compound gland. The significance of its peculiar development is still un- 

 settled. 



The hypophysis will perhaps, with more accurate study, be found to be an 

 anastomosing gland with a sinusoidal circulation. 



