Carl Gegenbaur. 311 



comprise every organic system (about eighty papers and separate 

 publications), the egg, the processes of ossification, etc. Only some of 

 his epoch-making works can here be dealt with. Such are, for instance, 

 his " Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Anatomic der Wirbelthiere," 

 Carpus and Tarsus, 1864; "Shoulder-girdle and pectoral fins," 1865; 

 and " Cranial skeleton," 1872. The entirely new and evolutionary 

 treatment of these problems at once attracted universal attention. 



His " Grundzuge " were written in pre-Darwinian times. A second 

 edition, practically re-written and considerably enlarged, was based 

 upon the theory of descent, and inaugurated a new era, 1870. Further 

 editions, much condensed and amended, appeared under the title of 

 "Grundriss " in 1874 and 1878. Like its predecessors, this work dealt 

 with the whole animal kingdom. Officially, be it remembered, Gegen- 

 baur filled the Chair of Human Anatomy, which, as usual, implied the 

 direction of the much-frequented dissecting classes. " Picture books " 

 and topographical anatomy were not in his line, but in 1883 he surprised 

 the world with a text-book of human anatomy, which likewise marked 

 a new epoch, because, for the first time, the nomenclature and the 

 general treatment of human anatomy were put upon a firm comparative 

 anatomical basis. That such a book was wanted is proved by the 

 unparalleled fact that by the year 1898 it had reached its seventh 

 edition, which comprises more than 1,100 pages, with some 700 text 

 illustrations. Although this book is a priceless boon to those who 

 want to infuse scientific life into the study of anthropotomy, it is, 

 perhaps, to be regretted that the great amount of time implied in its 

 production, with its ever-improved and enlarged editions, was not 

 instead devoted to the crowning work or coping-stone of Gegenbaur's 

 genius, the " Vergleichende Anatomic der Wirbelthiere, mit Beriick- 

 sichtigung der Wirbellosen," the first volume of which appeared in 

 1898, the second, and last, in 1901. 



In broadness of plan, depth of conception, critical execution, and as 

 a mine of wealth in most suggestive ideas, it cannot be surpassed. 

 But what was the method by which Gegenbaur attained his highest 

 standard 1 The truly comparative method, based upon the knowledge 

 that it is the function which makes and modifies organs, that such 

 acquisitions are inherited, and that no deductive reconstructions of an 

 ancestral stage are acceptable unless they stand the test of physiological 

 continuity. The axiom, "Ex nihilo nihil fit," and the search for 

 sufficient "causal moments," must be the leading principles, lest our 

 evolutionary disquisitions become nothing but more or less veiled 

 teleological paraphrases. Of the latter fault, he, often with ironical 

 vehemence, accused the " embryographers," the champions of the 

 purely ontogenetic method. 



Lastly, a few remarks about the man. Tall, robust, with upright 



H 



