MORPHOLOGY 



MORRIS 



319 



Morphology (Gr. morphe, 'form'), the study 

 of organic form and structure, the counterpart of 

 physiology, which is concerned with habit and 

 function. The term was first introduced hy 

 Goethe in 1817, and is now generally used to 

 include ' the whole statical aspects of ttie organic 

 world,' as expressed especially in anatomy, both 

 descriptive and comparative, in histology, which is 

 concerned with more minute structure, in pahcon- 

 tology or the study of extinct forms, and in so much 

 of embryology as consists of structural investiga- 

 tions at different stages of development. But 

 whether engaged with anatomical or histological, 

 paht-ontological or einbryological studies, the con- 

 -i-tent morphologist always considers animals and 

 plants at rest or dead, and analyses them into their 

 parts ; while the physiologist on the other hand 

 studies organisms in action or life, and seeks to 

 discover, at various levels of investigation, the 

 physical and chemical changes associated with 

 their activity. Thus, in short, morphology cor- 

 responds to the 'statics,' physiology to the 'dyna- 

 mics' of the organism (see ANATOMY, BIOLOGY, 

 EMBRYOLOGY, FUNCTION, PHYSIOLOGY). To the 

 purely geometrical study of organic forms, their 

 contour, axes, symmetry, &c. a highly technical 

 inquiry comparable to crystal lography Haeckel 

 applies the special term promorpkoloi/i/. 



The simplest task of the morphologist consists in 

 describing form and structure, and the fulfilment of 

 this with increasing thoroughness has placed tax- 

 onomy or classification on a sure basis. But this 

 necessarily involves analysing the organism into its 

 parts -organs, tissues, and cells a method which 

 led, for instance, to the establishment of the cell- 

 theory (see CELL), and has been associated with a 

 parallel dee|>ening of physiological inquiry (see 

 BIOLOGY). Then follows the work of comparing 

 part with part, in a series of organisms or in the 

 same organism, alike in living and extinct, in adult 

 and young forms. This has led to the detection of 

 fundamental similarities i if struct tire or 'liomoh ivies' 

 (see HoMnLoiiV (witness Goethe's reduction of the 

 flowering plant to an axis bearing numerous modi- 

 fied or ' metamorphosed ' appendages or leaves (see 

 BOTANY, FLOWER); the comparison of oral and 

 other appendages throughout the series of arthro- 

 pods (see CRU8T ACKA, UnBCn ) : the discovery of 



the segmented character of the vertebrate skull and 

 brain ; the recognition of the ovum as the common 

 starting-point in the life-history of all organisms, 

 or of the gastrula as a predominant stage in the 

 development of animals; the tracing of the em- 

 bryonic layers to their derivatives in tin- adult (see 

 EMBRYOLOGY); ami soon throughout the triumphs 

 of comparative anatomy and embryology. Finally, 

 the facts of evolution have given the morpholo- 

 gists warrant for yet wider generalising, in which 

 tin 1 results of anatomy ami histology, embryology 

 and palaeontology, legitimately alloyed with physi- 

 ological considerations, arc welded together into the 

 principles of differentiation. 



See the Introduction to Gegenbaur's Com;',-.//>r. 

 Anatomy (trans, by Jeffrey Bell, 1878); Haeckel, Gene- 

 -lie Morpho/iyie (1866); Hatachek, Lthrbvch der 

 X'l'i/'Hiie ; standard text-books of Zoology and Botany, 

 and the histories of these sciences by Carus and .Sachs 

 respectively ; W. His. Untere Korperform ( 1875 ). and 

 also 'On the Principles of Animal Morphology," Proc. 

 Rni. Sor. Eilin. xv. (1888); Herbert Spencer, Principles 

 of BMoyv ( 1864 ). 



Morphy, PAUL. See CHESS. 



Morris. KI.OIKJK PERKINS, author of 'Wood- 

 man, Spare that Tree,' was born in 1802 in Phila- 

 delphia, founded the New York Mirror and after- 

 wards the Home Journal, with lioth of which 

 N. P. Willis was associated, and died in New 

 York, 6th July 1864. 



Morris. GOUVERNEUB, an American statesman, 

 was horn in Morrisania, New York, 31st January 

 1752, graduated at King's (now Columbia) College 

 in 1768, and was admitted to the bar in 1771. He 

 early showed a talent for finance, and took an 

 active share in the political affairs of the Revolution 

 period. In May 1780 he lost a leg through a fall 

 from his carriage in Philadelphia. From 1781 

 to 1784 he was assistant to Kobert Morris, super- 

 intendent of the national finance. In 1787 he 

 took his seat as a delegate in the convention that; 

 framed the United States constitution, and the 

 year after sailed for Paris, where for two years 

 he devoted himself to private business. The greater 

 part of the year 1701 he spent in England as a 

 confidential agent of Washington's, and next served 

 till August 1794 as United States minister to 

 France. Returning to America in 1798, he sat for 

 New York in the United States senate from 1800 

 to 1803, and was chairman of the New York 

 canal commissioners from 1810 till his death, 6th 

 November 1816. 



See Memoirs of Gouvtrneur Morris, with Selections 

 from hit Papers and Correspondence, by Jared Sparks 

 (:t vols. Boston, 1832), and Oourerneur Morris, by 

 Theodore Roosevelt, in the 'American Statesman' series 

 (1888), also The Diary and LeUrrs of Gom-emeur Morris, 

 edited by his granddaughter, Anne Gary Morris (2 vols. 

 1889). The last contains many interesting glimpses of 

 Paris in the fever of Revolution. 



Morris, SIR LEWIS, knighted in 1895, a writer 

 of verse which has attained an extraordinary 

 popularity, was born in Carmarthen in 1832, and 

 educated atSherborne School and at Jesus College, 

 Oxford, where in 1855 he graduated first-class in 

 classics, and won the Chancellor's prize. He was 

 called six years later to the English bar, and prac- 

 tised till 1881, when he accepted the postof honorary 

 secretary to the university of Wales. In 1877 he 

 was elected an honorary fellow of Jesus College. 

 Sir Lewis's first offerings of verse appeared in 

 1871, when under the pen-name of ' A New Writer' 

 he published Songs of Two Worlds, which at 

 once passed into numerous editions, and which 

 was followed in 1874 and 1875 by a second and 

 third volume. In 1876 appeared The Epic of 

 lliiile.i, the work with which the author's name 

 is usually associated ; it has run into several 

 series, and these series into many editions. He 

 has since published Gicen, a Drama ; The Ode of 

 Life; Songs Unsung; Gycia, a Tragedy; and A 

 IV of Snints (1890), &c., which have shown 

 no falling off in popularity. 



Morris. WILLIAM, the poet, was born in 1834, 

 and cdiieated at Marllioroiigh and at Exeter 

 College, Oxford, where he formed an important 

 and lasting friendship with Bume-Jones, the 

 famous painter. He himself studied to be a 

 painter, hut without success, his artistic tempera- 

 ment lieing destined to have play in another direc- 

 tion. In 1S58 he published n small volume entitled 

 Tin' l>i'/i 111-1 i if (i in nei'ere and other Poems, which 

 passed almost unnoticed at the time ; but in 1867 he 

 won the attention and admiration of every true lover 

 of poetry by a long narrative poem entitled The Life 

 inn! DtatkofJatm. '!'/" BttrtUyPanuliie(9vA. 

 1868-70) confirmed his high reputation. This work 

 is mad'- up of twenty-four legendary and romantic 

 poems of classic or of Gothic origin, recited by 

 Norwegian seamen who had sailed westward to 

 find the earthly paradise. Other works were 

 Love is Enough (1873), the sEneiii of Virgil 

 done into English verse ( 1876), Sigurd the Volminy 

 (1876 his own favourite amongst his poems), 

 and The Fall of the Niblungs, a Poem (1877). 

 His translation of the Odyssey (1887) is more 

 successful than his JEneid. In collaboration with 

 Mr Eirikr Magnusson he translated from the 



