GOETHE. 185 



amphibious animals, birds, mammals, and man at the head of the 

 list, were all formed upon one original type, which varies only 

 more or less in parts which are none the less permanent, and 

 which still daily changes and modifies its form by propagation." 



With him, this unity of type was broadly based 

 upon his own observations, and was partly a gener- 

 alization. This led him to a correct explanation of 

 half-developed, or vestigial, structures, which are 

 among the strongest evidences of the law of Evolu- 

 tion. He thoroughly understood the relations of 

 the anatomy of man to that of lower forms, and 

 speaks of vestigial structures in man as follows : 

 " These structures, which in lower organisms are 

 developed in stronger measure, and in man, in spite 

 of his higher organism, are not wholly lost." It was 

 this interpretation as a working hypothesis, which 

 led to one of Goethe's most brilliant achievements 

 in Comparative Anatom}', — his prediction of the dis- 

 covery of premaxillary bones in man. This raised 

 a storm of opposition which now seems hardly 

 credible, in spite of which Goethe succeeded in 

 verifying his prediction. 



Thus, Goethe stepped from observation to gener- 

 alization, from generalization to the working hypoth- 

 esis, which he turned into use as the guide to fresh 

 research. He advanced upon the truly modern scien- 

 tific method ; yet, he always preserved the proper 

 balance between observation and generalization. 

 He says of Kant, that, if he had once held Kant's 

 conception of derivation and of filiation, as deduced 



