CHAPTER VIII 



VERTEBRATE ANATOMY 



The Theory of the Vertebrate Skull — Goethe, Okeu, Cuvier, 

 and Owen — Huxley Defends Goethe — His Owu Contri- 

 butions to the Theory — The Classification of Birds — Hux- 

 ley Treats them as "Extinct Animals " — Geographical 

 Distribution — Sclater's Regions — Huxley's Suggestions. 



WE have seen that sotue of the most important of 

 the contributions made by Huxley to zoologi- 

 cal knowledge were in the field of the lower animals, 

 especially of those marine forms for the study of which 

 he had so great opportunities on the Rattlesnake. A 

 great bulk of his zoological work, however, related to 

 the group of back-boned animals. These, by their 

 natural aflSnities and anatomical structure, are more 

 closely related to man, and, as Htixley began his scien- 

 tific work as a medical student, the groundwork of all 

 his knowledge was study of the anatomy and physiology 

 of man. Moreover, throughout the greater part of his 

 working life, he had more to do with the extinct forms 

 of life. The vertebrate animals, from the great facility 

 for preservation which their hard skeleton presents, as 

 well as from the extremely important anatomical char- 

 acters of the skeleton, bulk more largely in the study 

 of palaeontology than does any other group. In each of 



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