AND THE APE THEORY. 35 



transpired which contradicts that theory ; on the con- 

 trary, they all lead up to it. Thus it will receive back 

 from science that which it has given to scientific method: 

 clearness and certainty." In point of fact we can adduce 

 no morphological investigations which better support 

 this declaration than those very phylogenetic researches 

 " as to the cranium of the Selachians, as a basis for the 

 critical examination of the genesis of the cranium of 

 the vertebrata," 1872. As Virchow had formerly 

 thoroughly studied the old skull-hypothesis, and in his 

 admirable discourse on " Goethe as a Naturalist," 1 86 1, 

 had given an excellent exposition of it ; as moreover 

 he had produced most valuable contributions to the 

 normal and pathological anatomy of the human skull, 

 we might have expected that he would have received 

 Gegenbaur's grand reform of the theory of the skull, 

 and historical solution of the skull-problem, with the 

 greatest interest, and have made it the clue to his own 

 further researches. But we seek in vain through 

 Virchow's latest contributions to the study of the 

 human skull, for any indication of his knowing or 

 appreciating Gegenbaur's investigations. On the con- 

 trary, we see him persistently moving, without any 

 clear goal in view, on that trodden and devious path 

 of investigation which finds the highest aim of cranio- 

 logical science in the measuring of skulls, or cranio- 

 metry. 



