TRANSCENDENTAL ANATOMY. 363 



doctrine based on a superficial and a somewhat incorrect 

 application of facts, curious and important in themselves ; to 

 this at last were added the Teratologie of Etienne Geoffroy 

 (St. Hilaire) and the serial unity of De Blainville. 



" Believing the transcendental in Anatomy to be the only 

 instrument of research at present known by which a correct 

 basis can be laid for the philosophy of Zoology, I have 

 never ceased to study and teach it since the period (1811) 

 when it first became known to me. To the writings of 

 Vicq. d'Azyr I am indebted for the first hints of its existence. 

 Biassed in favour of descriptive anatomy, I have ever objected 

 to the too hasty adoption of extreme transcendental views, 

 holding it to be a true maxim in science, as well as in social 

 life, that the change or step in advance, in order to be certain 

 and trustworthy, must ever be made with caution, and, if 

 possible, supported by the demonstration of physical materials ; 

 or, in other words, the thought which genius submits to the 

 world as an idea must become a physical demonstration before 

 the world can fairly be called on to admit its truth. This is 

 the view I take in the following Memoirs,* in some of which 

 it is my intention to apply the transcendental to Natural 

 History, as a preliminary to my inquiry into the natural 

 history of man. The time relation of species or race to genus 

 or natural family seemed to me to present a favourable mode 

 of testing the value of the transcendental, not with any idea 

 of testing its truth, that has been settled long ago, but of 

 ascertaining its practical value as an instrument of research. 

 The true relation of race to natural family being first dis- 

 covered, it will then be time enough to apply the transcen- 

 dental to the relation presumed to subsist between natural 

 families, and, lastly, between these and the universal pri- 

 maeval life of the organic world of this globe. 



" In selecting the natural family of the Salmonidae as a sub- 

 ject of research, I have been guided by several considerations : 

 I had already made them the subject of extended research, and 

 their external characters offered favourable points of view for 

 such an inquiry. It is chiefly to the exterior that I give my 

 attention in the present Memoirs ; the interior will follow. I 

 commenced with the dentition, that natural-history character 

 to which all, whether naturalists or anatomists, ascribe such 

 importance ; next followed a brief inquiry into the systems of 

 coloration and proportion. To all these the transcendental 



* Published in the Zoologist. Van Voorst. London. 



