394 FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 



function involves a change in structure and, therefore, given 

 extensive knowledge of function and of the interdependence 

 of function and structure, it is possible to infer from the 

 form of one organ that of most of the other organs of an 

 animal. But Cuvier undoubtedly allowed himself to exagger- 

 ate his guiding principle until it exceeded the bounds of facts. 

 Among Cuvier 's immediate successors, OWEN (1804-1892) 

 of London perhaps demands special mention. Owen spent a 

 long life dissecting with untiring patience and skill a remark- 

 able series of animal types, as well as reconstructing extinct 

 forms from fossil remains. Aside from the facts accumu- 

 lated, probably his greatest contribution was making con- 

 crete the distinction between homologous and analogous 

 structures, which has been of the first importance in working 

 out the pedigrees of plants as well as of animals; though Owen 

 himself took an enigmatical position in regard to organic 

 evolution quite different from that of his great English 

 contemporary comparative anatomist, HUXLEY (1825-1895). 



3. Physiology 



The functions of organisms were discussed by Aristotle 

 with his usual insight, though, as might be expected since 

 physiology is more dependent than anatomy upon progress 

 in other branches of science, with less happy results. Simi- 

 larly Galen was hampered in his attempt to make physiology 

 a distinct department of learning, based on a thorough study 

 of anatomy, and the corner stone of medicine; though fate 

 foisted upon uncritical generations through fifteen centuries 

 his system of human physiology. The worst of it was not 

 that it was nearly all wrong, but that to question Galen's 

 physiology or anatomy became little less than sacrilege until 

 the studies of Vesalius and Harvey brought a realization that 

 Galen had not quite finished the work. 



