390 Burnett on Organic Relations of Infusoria, ete. 
unsettled state than ever, is probably fast getting into a bet- 
ter scientific condition. 
Our views of the relations which the labors of Ehrenberg 
in this connection hold to science, are quite different from 
what they were a few years since. In the department which 
he has really made his own, we have been accustomed to 
regard his results as scientifically complete as far as they go, 
and as forming a foundation on which future experience was 
to erect the structure. But now the case stands differently, 
and his vast and constant labors must be looked upon in 
the light of opening to our view a vast field of inquiry, the 
details of which are to be definitely understood by the more 
recent advantages of observation. Had Ehrenberg merely 
described the various forms he saw, without attempting any 
of those broad generalizations of their organic relations, there 
can be no doubt that our knowledge in this department 
would have been much farther advanced than it now is ; for, 
his authority on this subject, has, until lately, been so great, 
as to preclude any thing but an acquiescence in his views, 
whatever might be the phenomena observed. 
I am well aware that these remarks embrace the opinions 
of others as well as of myself, and this is one reason why I 
do not hesitate to express them. But I, have been led to 
note them here, from a review to some extent, which I have 
been recently making, of these matters, by the aid of the best 
means afforded at the present day. 
Those who have been laboring in this direction, either 
taking it up directly, or who have been led into it by kindred 
studies, such as those of Embryology, &c. have concluded 
that the class Infusoria, as it now stands, contains the most 
heterogeneous elements; and that, before it can assume 4 
true scientific aspect, it must be completely worked over. In 
organic science the highest scientific end cannot be attained 
by the mere recognition of a form, and giving it a name, but, 
by the perception also of the relations which that form sus- 
tains to allied forms, and those quite different. - Bs 
