302 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



design in this process of change (the teleological view). 

 Though his own researches did so much to give promi- 

 nence to the genetic view, to the conception of develop- 

 ment, he retained and elaborated the doctrine of types ; 

 and though he effectually handled the modern methods 

 of the mechanical or exact sciences, he realised the full 

 importance of studying the things and processes of 

 nature in their actual and living connection,^ and not 

 merely in the artificial isolation of the laboratory or 

 the dissecting-room. And he never became an adherent 

 of the doctrine so prevalent with many of the followers 

 of Darwin, that the apparent purpose of forms and 

 processes in organic nature could be mechanically ex- 

 plained. During the period of his greatest scientific 

 activity he was little known outside of Kussia and 

 Germany ; in England, Carpenter and Huxley alone 

 drew attention to his embryological and genetic studies; 

 but since the tide of Darwinism has somewhat subsided, 

 or has ceased to be all-absorbing, it is to the writings 

 of Baer that many naturalists revert. In fact they 

 belong to the few books of this class written during 

 the pre-Darwinian age that bear to be read and re-read 

 with profit by those who take a philosophical and not 

 merely a historical interest in the development of 

 16. natural science. Perhaps the fact that von Baer was 



Von Baer's 



comprehen- as great in relation to the morphological as he was 



sive views. " jr o 



in relation to the genetic and the teleological con- 

 ceptions of natural phenomena prevented him from 

 producing that revolutionary impression on the minds 



^ See the introduction to the geschichte der Thiere' (Konigsbej-g 

 second part of his ' Entwickelungs- I 1837). 



