MORPHOLOGICAL TYPE. 13 



~b. Morphological Type. The first point in which one 

 animal may differ from another is the degree to which the 

 principle of the physiological division of labour is carried. 

 The second point in which one animal may differ from another 

 is in its ' morphological type,' that is to say, in the funda- 

 mental plan upon which it is constructed. By one not specially 

 acquainted with the subject it might be readily imagined that 

 each species or kind of animal was constructed upon a plan 

 peculiar to itself and not shared by any other. This, how- 

 ever, is far from being the case ; and it is now universally re- 

 cognised that all the varied species of animals however great 

 the apparent amount of diversity amongst them may be 

 arranged under no more than half-a-dozen primary morpho- 

 logical types or plans of structure. Upon one or other of 

 these five or six plans every known animal, whether living or 

 extinct, is constructed. It follows from the limited number of 

 primitive types or patterns, that great numbers of animals 

 must agree with one another in their morphological type. It 

 follows also that all so agreeing can differ from one another 

 only in the sole remaining element of the question, namely 

 by the amount of specialisation of function which they exhibit. 

 Every animal, therefore, as Professor Huxley has well ex- 

 pressed it, is the resultant of two tendencies, the one mor- 

 phological, the other physiological. 



The six types or plans of structure, upon one or other of 

 which all known animals have been constructed, are techni- 

 cally called ' sub-kingdoms,' and are known by the names 

 Protozoa, Ccalenterata, Annuloida, Annulosa, Mollusca, and 

 Vertebrata. We have, then, to remember that every member 

 of each of these primary divisions of the animal kingdom 

 agrees with every other member of the same division in being 

 formed upon a certain definite plan or type of structure, and 

 differs from every other simply in the grade of its organisa- 

 tion, or, in other words, in the degree to which it exhibits 

 specialisation of function. 



VON BAER'S LAW OF DEVELOPMENT. As the study of living 

 beings in their adult condition shows us that the differences 

 between those which are constructed upon the same morpho- 

 logical type depend upon the degree to which specialisation 

 of function is carried, so the study of development teaches 

 us that the changes undergone by any animal in passing from 

 the embryonic to the mature condition are due to the same 

 cause. All the members of any given sub-kingdom, when ex- 

 amined in their earliest embryonic condition, are found to pre- 

 sent the same fundamental characters. As development pro- 

 ceeds, however, they diverge from one another with greater 



