84. THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
finitely varied in the different species, and in the parts of 
individual species. 
But Goethe did not merely endeavour to search for such 
far-reaching laws, he also occupied himself most actively 
for a long time with numerous individual researches, 
especially in comparative anatomy. Among these, none is. 
perhaps more interesting than the discovery of the mid jaw- 
bone in man. As this is, in several respects, of importance 
to the theory of development, I shall briefly explain it 
here. There exist in all mammals two little bones in the 
upper jaw, which meet in the centre of the face, below the 
nose, and which lie between the two halves of the real upper 
jawbone. These two bones, which hold the four upper 
cutting teeth, are recognized without difficulty in most 
mammals ; in man, however, they were at that time un- 
known, and celebrated comparative anatomists even laid 
great stress upon this want of a mid jawbone, as they con- 
sidered it to constitute the principal difference between men 
and apes—the want of a mid jawbone was, curiously 
enough, looked upon as the most human of all human 
characteristics. But Goethe could not accept the notion 
that man, who in all other corporeal respects was clearly 
only a mammal of higher development, should lack this mid 
jawbone. 
By the general law of induction as to the mid jawbone 
he arrived at the special deductive conclusion that it must 
exist in man also, and Goethe did not rest until, after com- 
paring a great number of human skulls, he really found 
the mid jawbone. In some individuals it is preserved 
throughout a whole lifetime, but usually at an early age 
it coalesces with the neighbouring upper jawbone, and is 
