158 THE VERTEBRATE HEAD. 



instruments — e.g. lithe-tome ; otherwise Owen thought, 

 as others have clone, speaking with authority, Goodsir's 

 nomenclature unobj ectionable. 



His essay (vol. ii. art. vi.) " On the Morphological 

 Constitution of the Skeleton of the Vertebrate Head " 

 was read at the Cheltenham meeting of the British 

 Association in 1856, and occupied three hours in 

 delivery. It cannot be epitomised with advantage. 

 Historical in its survey, highly elaborate in construction 

 and detail, and exemplifying a fair criticism of the 

 labours of his predecessors, it is characteristic of the 

 man of great diligence, not without a German indoc- 

 trination. Whatever views may finally come to pre- 

 vail on this subject of inquiry, and be Goodsir's 

 hypothesis what it may, no anatomist of the future 

 can possibly overlook the workings of a mind of such 

 aptitude as the Edinburgh professor's for morphological 

 investigation. Here and there, in discussing the 

 alliances of morphology to the study of general 

 organisms, Goodsir expresses his opinions with firm- 

 ness ; thus he denied on philosophical grounds that 

 morphology and teleology are distinct in the sense 

 that the latter principle provides for what the former 

 is insufficient ; he viewed them as " merely opposite, 

 because, in the present phase of science, necessary 

 anthropomorphic aspects of the same divine principle 

 evinced in the laws of organisation." He could not 

 Gfive his assent to the haemal arch of Professor Owen's 

 osteological doctrine, and throughout this essay there 

 is evidence of his differing in opinion from his London 



