2d MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



in its first crudity he believed that the work was of service 

 in giving a scientific direction to the studies of others, just 

 as the preparation of it had consoHdated his own. In sub- 

 sequent editions it was entirely re-written, enlarged, and 

 modified. Two thoughts may here, however, be named, 

 for the sake of their bearing on his future views. Doctrines 

 of " progressive development " and evolution were already 

 vaguely in the air ; and he applied them to the evolution 

 of structure in the following passage : — 



In the early stages of formation in every animal or vegetable, 

 we may observe as great a dissimilarity to its ultimate condition 

 as exists between the lower and higher members of each kingdom. 

 And if we watch the progress of evolution, we may trace a cor- 

 respondence between that of the germ in its advance towards 

 maturity, and that exhibited by the permanent conditions of the 

 races occupying different parts of the ascending scale of creation. 

 This correspondence results from the operation of the same law 

 in both cases. If we compare the forms which the same organ 

 presents in different parts of the series, we shall always observe 

 that it exists in its most general or diffused form in the lowest 

 classes, and in its most special and restricted in the highest, and 

 that the transition from one form to the other is a gradual one. 



Secondly, he criticized the principle which Cuvier and 

 other writers had endeavoured to erect into a law, under 

 the name of the " harmony of forms." It implied that there 

 was a specific plan, not only for the formation, but for the 

 combination of organs ; that there was a constant harmony 

 between organs apparently the most remote, and that the 

 altered form of one was invariably attended with a corres- 

 ponding alteration in the others. But, argued William 

 Carpenter — 



A little consideration will show that the existence of this 

 adaptation of parts is nothing more than a result of other laws 

 of development. It is evident that if it were deficient, the race 

 must speedily become extinct, the conditions of its existence 



