relative to Natural History, 317 



ganic composition can no longer be denied within certain 

 limits : the labours of those even Mho have opposed it when 

 it was put forth in all its generality, are grounded upon this 

 principle in a more confined view. All discussion at the pre- 

 sent day can have for its object only the fixing these limits, 

 and we do not think that the state of the science will admit of 

 this being done with any security. 



Setting out from these principles, the illustrious author, of 

 whose works we are giving an analysis, published some me- 

 moirs which may be referred to two classes. The first relates 

 to the method w hich should serve as a guide in the researches 

 of comparative anatomy. The second is the discovery of some 

 particular facts having a relation to the demonstration of the 

 principle. In the first class we shall principally quote the 

 memoir entitled. On the necessity of the establishment of a 

 Type in order to facilitate the study of Comparative Anatomy, 

 The ancient method, which consists in comparing man with 

 animals and these with one another, is lengthy, destitute of 

 fixed principles, and has only led to incomplete results. It 

 is necessary Avith regard to each species to note the differences 

 and resemblances to others; and although the natural methods 

 have greatly facilitated these comparisons by diminishing the 

 number of beings to compare, still one may say with Goethe, 

 that comparative anatomy, viewed in this manner, is " a work 

 impossible, infinite, which, if by a miracle it should one day 

 be accomphshed, would be without results as without limits." 



The notion of an ideal type, created, by abstraction, from 

 the assemblage of the parts common to all animals, supposes 

 a philosophical survey of organization as a whole, puts in evi- 

 dence, at the outset, the prominent points, allows all descrip- 

 tions to be reduced to the comparison of the species to the 

 type, by this very means makes it possible to compare all these 

 descriptions with one another, and thus the labour becomes 

 easier and more philosophical. The possibility of creating this 

 type flows from the law of unity of organic composition ; and 

 the idea of the type is nothing else than the perfect conception 

 of this law ; for if we suppose the organs analogous and si- 

 milarly arranged, this state and this arrangement in com- 

 mon, considered as an abstraction made from individual forms 



