ON GOETHE'S SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES. 33 



matters of controversy, as, for instance, whether the bud is a 

 single leaf or a branch. 



In the animal kingdom, the composition of an individual 

 out of several similar parts is very striking in the great sub- 

 kingdom of the articulata for example, in insects and worms. The 

 larva of an insect, or the caterpillar of a butterfly, consists of a 

 number of perfectly similar segments ; only the first and last of 

 them differ, and that but slightly, from the others. After their 

 transformation into perfect insects, they furnish clear and simple 

 exemplifications of the view which Goethe had grasped in his 

 doctrine of the metamorphosis of plants, the development, 

 namely, of apparently very dissimilar forms from parts ' origin- 

 ally alike. The posterior segments retain their original simple 

 form ; those of the breastplate are drawn closely together, and 

 develop feet and wings, while those of the head develop jaws 

 and feelers ; so that in the perfect insect, the original segments 

 are recognised only in the posterior part of the body. In the 

 vertebrata, again, a repetition of similar parts is suggested by 

 the vertebral column, but has ceased to be observable in the ex- 

 ternal form. A fortunate glance at a broken sheep's skull, 

 which Goethe found by accident on the sand of the Lido at 

 Venice, suggested to him that the skull itself consisted of a series 

 of very much altered vertebrae. At first sight, no two things 

 can be more unlike than the broad uniform cranial cavity of the 

 mammalia, inclosed by smooth plates, and the narrow cylindrical 

 tube of the spinal marrow, composed of short, massy, jagged 

 bones. It was a bright idea to detect the transformation in 

 the skull of a mammal ; the similarity is more striking in the 

 amphibia and fishes. It should be added that Goethe left this 

 idea unpublished for a long time, apparently because he was not 

 quite sure how it would be received. Meantime, in 1806, the 

 same idea occurred to Oken, who introduced it to the scientific 

 world, and afterwards disputed with Goethe the priority of 

 discovery. In fact, Goethe had waited till 1817, when the 

 opinion had begun to find adherents, and then declared that he 

 had had it in his mind for thirty years. Up to the present day 

 the number and composition of the vertebrae of the skull are a 



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