INTRODUCTION. xv 



been made use of, as they would have necessitated 

 too many technicalities, and disputes on innum- 

 erable points of detail. Take for example, the 

 structure of the vertebrate skull. Nothing, to my 

 thinking, could illustrate morphological design more 

 beautifully. But painstaking workers have found 

 the subject exceedingly difficult, and the majority 

 of anatomists have at different times been contented 

 to accept the dicta of some authority on it, instead 

 of studying nature for themselves. The opinions 

 disseminated in that fashion among English stu- 

 dents during the last sixteen years, originating 

 in rather perfunctory observations, involve in my 

 opinion the grossest misinterpretations ; and unless 

 these are cleared away the morphological beauty of 

 the skull cannot be seen. I content, myself, there- 

 fore, with taking this opportunity of referring 

 students who may wish to know my views on 

 this subject to a memoir " On the relations of 

 the Vomer, Ethmoid and Inter-maxillary bones," 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions, 1862 ; 

 and to an address in the British Association 

 Reports, 1875 ; and await a more favourable occa- 

 sion to discuss its intricate details. 



The graduation address, which is the last of the 

 articles brought together in this volume, claims no 

 close relationship with the others ; yet the remarks 

 on truth which it contains may possibly be of ser- 

 vice to those engaged in the abstract questions to 



