346 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



names mark a great advance over the conditions of a quarter 

 century ago. The gratitude of all working zoologists, whether 

 systematists or not, is due in fullest measure for the immense 

 and otherwise unremunerated labors of the International Com- 

 mission and its indefatigable secretary, Dr. C. W. Stiles. 



MORPHOLOGY 



From old-fashioned systematic to old-fashioned morphology 

 is a simple transition. Both are out of style in certain quarters ; 

 but both continue to count their faithful devotees, and both con- 

 tinue a healthy, although little realized, growth, just as in our 

 families less note is given to the gradual increase in a child's 

 stature than to an occasional cutting of a tooth or attack of 

 measles. 



In our morphological studies the "type method" has reigned 

 supreme, at least in America, — a method whose danger can be 

 recognized by every teacher from his difficulty in convincing the 

 average student that the equation 



Amoeba -\- Paramecium = Protozoa' 



does not cover the whole prol^lem of protozoan structure, or 

 that other moUusks may differ from the fresh-water clam. In 

 research work a similar tendency has been shown in rash sur- 

 mises as to relationships based upon the study of the anatomy, 

 adult or embryonic, of single isolated forms. 



A wholesome reaction is seen in such work as that on the 

 embryology of the vertebrate skull, beginning with Gaupp's in- 

 augural thesis on the frog in 1891 and continued in a long series 

 of papers by this master and his pupils. From this detailed and 

 time-consuming comparison of an increasing series of closely 

 related forms it begins to be possible to eliminate the unessential 

 specific and individual features and to establish a broad general 

 foundation for the tracing of homologies and relationships. Here 

 a technical improvement underlies much of the progress, — the 

 wax plate method of Born and Strasser, brought to perfection 

 about 1887. The value of the method comes startingly to the 

 eye if one compares the earlier figures of the skull published by 



