344 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



digit, number three. He supposes, therefore, that the ancestors have 

 undergone this progressive reduction. Paleontology when consulted 

 shows effectively that such has been the case, and finally we con- 

 clude that the hoof of the horse corresponds to the inner hoof of the 

 ox because they both correspond to digit number three of a five-toed 

 ancestor. 



In this order of things, the difference in the method of procedure 

 between those who take observation for their guide and those who, 

 confining themselves only to the powers of the mind, seek to think 

 again the thought of God in order to divine the secrets of nature, is 

 not without analogy to that which is manifested in the science of 

 etymology. During a certain epoch the attempt was made to divine 

 etymologies according to phonetic resemblances and the meaning of 

 roots freely interpreted. What is the etymology of savage? We look 

 and find soli vagus, one who wanders alone, the savage living more 

 solitary than civilized man. Any other resemblance equally happy 

 could furnish a different etymology of the same value. But when we 

 set ourselves to study the embryology of words, that is to say, the 

 real history of their successive modifications, we find that savage 

 comes from sauve ; la sauve, in the ancient tongue, is a forest, and the 

 name comes from sylva, so that sauvage comes from sylvaticus. This 

 is perhaps less pretty than soli vagus, but it has the advantage of 

 being true. 



To be just, we must remark that the search for homologies by 

 means of observation is not the exclusive advantage of the partisans 

 of descent. 



If the transformists more often call to their aid paleontology and 

 embryology, there is there only a difference in the habitual orienta- 

 tion of thought, and not at all an inherent necessity for a difference 

 in the point of view. The deist could equally well seek in paleonto- 

 logy and embryology indications of the thought of the Creator, and 

 the philosopher of nature could as well look there for the appli- 

 cations of the laws of nature by which he hopes to remount to the 

 archetype. For the former, at least, there are examples. And it is 

 probable that if the transformist idea had never been born, deists and 

 natural philosophers would have come nevertheless to look to paleon- 

 tology and embryology for the facts capable of demonstrating their 

 opinions. 



This extension of the field of comparative anatomy, which borders 

 on morphology, or the science of homologies between similar organs 

 of different beings, is not the last. 



Anatomists have dreamed of comparing among themselves not 

 only the organs of different beings, but also the organs of the same 

 being which present a certain similarity, and to seek among them for 

 homologies. To these last have been given the name of general 



