306 THE HISTOEY AND SCOPE OF ZOOLOGY IX 



benefit of the creature to which it belongs, or else for 

 the benefit, amusement, or instruction of his highest 

 creature — man. Teleology in this form of the 

 doctrine of design was never very deeply rooted 

 amongst scientific anatomists and systematists. It 

 was considered permissible to speculate somewhat 

 vaguely on the subject of the utility of this or that 

 startling variety of structure ; but few attempts, 

 though some of great importance, were made to 

 systematically explain by observation and experiment 

 the adaptation of organic structures to particular pur- 

 poses in the case of the lower animals and plants. 

 Teleology had, however, an important part in the 

 evelopment of what is called Physiology, viz. the 

 knowledge of the mechanism, the physical and 

 chemical properties, of the j^arts of the body of man 

 and the higher animals allied to him. The doctrine 

 of organs and functions — the organ designed so as to 

 execute the function, and the whole system of organs 

 and functions building up a complex mechanism, the 

 complete animal or plant — was teleological in origin, 

 and led to brilliant discoveries in the hands of the 

 physiologists of the last and the preceding century. 

 As applied to lower and more obscure forms of life, 

 Teleology presented almost insurmountable difiiculties ; 

 and consequently, in place of exact experiment and 

 demonstration, the most reckless though ingenious 

 assumptions were made as to the utility of the parts 

 and organs of lower animals, which tended to bring 

 so-called Comparative Physiology and Teleology gener- 

 ally into disrepute. Darwin's theory had as one of 



