ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 233 



sively to plants and animals, and here the term was first 



applied. In order to bring some kind of method into 



the perplexing study of living forms, two ways presented 



themselves ; and they were consciously or unconsciously 



followed by morphologists with more or less success. As 



I mentioned above, one of the chief interests which 



led to zoological and also to botanical studies was the 



medical interest. Animals were dissected and observed, 



as affording by analogy an insight into the structure and 



processes of the human body. Physiology, the science 



which deals with the actions of the different parts 



of the animal or human frame, termed from an early 



.period the functions of the different organs, had made 



considerable progress during the eighteenth century. It 



was then found convenient to study the whole organism 



as an assemblage of different organs or machines, each of 



which performs a certain function. Thus we have the 



mechanism on which voluntary motion depends, the 



mechanism of respiration and of the circulation of the 



blood through the body, the mechanism of digestion, the 



mechanism of reproduction, and finally, the mechanism 



of the nervous system with its specified and localised 



optical, auditory, and other organs of sense. All these 28. 



parts or organs could to a great extent be separately separate 



studied and described in their mechanical, chemical, and 



electrical actions. These studies had, since the time 



of Harvey in England and Haller in Germany, made 



great progress. The application of chemistry to the 



processes of respiration and digestion, and finally, the 



discovery of the galvanic current by Galvani, had given 



a great impetus to the physiological study of the different 



