342 BULLETIN OF THE 



a still higher level by the descent of another portion to a lower, 

 ultimately lets down the whole of what the plant had raised."* 

 So little was Henry's earlier paper known abroad, that his name 

 does not occur in Dr. Carpenter's dissertation. 



With regard to the great biologic question of the past fifteen 

 years — the affiliation of specific forms, it was impossible that 

 Henry should remain an unconcerned observer. Brought up (as 

 it may be said) in the school of Cuvier, but slightly impressed 

 with the brilliant previsions of his competitor, Geoffroy Saint 

 Hilaire, accustomed to look upon the recurrent hypotheses of 

 automatic development as barren speculations, and beside all 

 this, ever the warmly attached personal friend of Agassiz, 

 he approached the consideration of this controverted subject, 

 certainly with no antecedent affirmative pre-possessions. His 

 general acquaintance with the ascertained facts of the metamor- 

 phic development of the individual organism from its origin, as 

 well as with the remarkable analogies and homologies disclosed 

 by the sciences of comparative physiology and embryology, served 

 however in some measure to prepare his mind to apprehend the 

 significance of the indications which had been so industriously 

 collected, and so intelligently collated : and from the very first, 

 he accepted the problem as a purely philosophical one ; employ- 

 ing that much abused terra in no restricted sense. With no 

 more reserve in the expression of his views, than the avoidance 

 of unprofitable controversies, (though no one more than he — 

 enjoyed the calm and purely intellectual discussion of an unset- 

 tled question by its real experts,) he yet found no occasion to 

 write upon the subject. The unpublished opinions however, of 

 one so wise and eminent, cannot be a matter of indifference to 

 the student of nature ; and their exposition cannot but assist to 

 enlighten our estimate of the mental stature of the man, and of 

 his breadth of apprehension and toleration. 



Whatever may be the ultimate fate of the theory of natural 

 selection, (he remarked in the freedom of oral intercourse with 

 several naturalists,) it at least marks an epoch, the first eleva- 

 tion of natural history (so-called) to the really scientific stage : 

 it is based on induction, and correlates a large range of ap- 

 parently disconnected observations, gathered from the regions 

 of palseontology or geological successions of organisms, their 

 geographical distribution, climatic adaptations and remarkable 

 re-adjustments, their comparative anatomy, and even the occur- 

 rence of abnormal variations, and of rudimentary structures — 

 seemingly so uselessly displayed as mere simulations of a 

 "type." It forms a good "working hypothesis" for directing 



* Quart. Jour. Sci. 1864, vol. i. pp. 86 and 267. 

 116 



