40 THE SKULL THEORY 



phylogenetic interpretation of morphological affinity 

 which that conception involves, afford in fact the 

 only rational interpretation of that affinity in general, 

 my first genealogical attempts soon found many 

 imitators, and at the present time numerous industrious 

 labourers in the different departments of systematic 

 zoology are endeavouring to find in the construction of 

 such hypothetical genealogies the shortest and com- 

 pletest expression of the modern conception of struc- 

 tural affinity. If Virchow had not been as ignorant 

 of the true significance and method of systematic 

 morphology as he is of its progress and scientific 

 contents, he must certainly have known this, and then 

 he would surely have withheld his mockery of all 

 these grave phylogenetic studies as " personal crotchets " 

 and worthless dreams. 



What mighty strides towards a mechanical mor- 

 phology we have made by this phylogenetic work- 

 ing out of the system, and how much light and 

 life it has at once thrown into the system that 

 before was dead and cold, can only be known to 

 those who have long and deeply studied specific 

 systematisation and the grouping of species ; Virchow 

 has not the remotest suspicion of it. Moreover, 

 these attempts have now proceeded so far, that a 

 large proportion of the phylogenetic hypotheses are 

 regarded as very nearly certain, and can hardly 



