i.e. he discussed all phenomena without considering 

 reality. Now such Naturphilosophie seems so amusing 

 that it can be humorous or entertaining as after- 

 dinner talk . But at that time Vellanskii benefited 

 from popularity among the public, and many people 

 crowded into his room. ^9 



The principle of analogy, which had frequently interested 

 Vellanskii as well as other nature-philosophers, is an 

 unfounded fantasy, but at the same time represents the basis 

 of the comparative anatomical imagination. This principle of 

 analogy was beloved in a strange way. 



The basic idea of comparative anatomy has been expressed 

 by Vellanskii in the following words: 



The animal kingdom is one common organism, whose 

 special members are in essence all animals, and man 

 constitutes the general unity .... The origin of 

 land animals in the organic world and the formation 

 of external sensations in the human organism is in 

 essence of one significance, and the six external 

 sensations of man correspond to the six classes of 

 lower animals, where each sensation is expressed 

 separately in its specific significance. In worms the 

 sensation of feeling is represented; in molluscs, 

 touch; in fish, vision; in insects, smell; in amphibia, 

 taste; and in birds, hearing. Thus the worm is 

 equivalent to the lips of the human, the mollusc to 

 the fingers, the fish to the eye, the insect to the 

 nose, amphibia to the tongue, and birds to the ear. 

 Mammals constitute a seventh class, which corresponds 

 to the general unity of external sensations. 



These extracts of Vellanskii ! s thoughts concerning 

 general questions of the structure and life activities of 

 animals and men he adopted from Oken's anatomical analogies 

 and, in particular, his vertebral theory of the skull and 



19. I (van) P(etrovich) Pavlov, LECTURES ON PHYSIOLOGY 

 (1912 - 1913), issued by Academy of Medical Sciences 

 (1949) , p. 269. 



152 



