CONVERGENCE IN EVOLUTION 

 CHAPTER I 



THE ART OF MORPHOLOGY, BEING A DISCOURSE 

 UPON ORGANIC FORM 



MORPHOLOGY, in the modern sense, usually con- 

 veys a genetic meaning, implying morphogeny 

 or the origin of forms. Its purpose is to follow 

 the clue of affinity which connects related but 

 divergent classes of animals and systems of 

 organs, and to recognise primary forms when 

 disguised beneath secondary facies. It is the 

 handmaiden of comparative anatomy which is 

 a much older discipline, the offspring of human 

 anatomy and physiology, born in the schools 

 of Vesalius, Fabricius ab Aquapedente, William 

 Harvey and Malpighi. Morphology, on the 

 other hand, is the child of evolution, reared 

 under the tutelage of Cuvier and Lamarck, 

 Von Baer and Haeckel, Darwin and Huxley, 

 and taken into the service of comparative 

 anatomy and embryology. It is a branch of 

 philosophy dealing partly with positive data, 



