THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 25 



been previously amassed, into the splendid edifice of 

 the mechanical science of form. (See my " General 

 Morphology," vol. i. chap, iv.) 



The immeasurable step which Darwin thus made in 

 organic morphology can be adequately appreciated 

 only by those who, like myself, were brought up in tte 

 school of the old teleological morphology, and whose 

 eyes were suddenly opened by the theory of selection 

 to a comprehension of that greatest of all biological 

 riddles, the creation of specific forms. The dogma 

 of creation, the mystic and dualistic doctrine of 

 the isolated creation of each separate variety, was 

 annihilated at one blow ; the belief in transmutation 

 has now for ever taken its place the mechanistic and 

 monistic doctrine of the metamorphosis of organic 

 forms, of the descent of all the species of one natural 

 class from a common parent-form. How complete a 

 change the science of mechanical morphology has by 

 this means been compelled to undergo, I have endea- 

 voured to point out in my " General Morphology ; " 

 and any one who wishes to convince himself clearly of 

 what an enormous revolution has been brought about, 

 particularly in comparative anatomy, may compare the 

 " Outlines of Comparative Anatomy " (Grundziige der 

 vergleichenden Anatomic), by Carl Gegenbaur, 1870, 

 and the latest edition of his " Elements " (Grundrisses), 

 with the old text-books of that science. 



