INTRODUCTION. XV 
been made use of, as they would have necessitated 
too many technicalities, and disputes on innum- 
erable points ot detail. Take for example, the 
structure of the vertebrate skull. Nothing, to my 
thinking, could illustrate morphological design more 
beautifully. But painstaking workers have found 
the subject exceedingly difficult, and the majority 
of anatomists have at different times been contented 
to accept the dicta of some authority on it, instead 
of studying nature for themselves. The opinions 
disseminated in that fashion among English stu- 
dents during the last sixteen years, originating 
in rather perfunctory observations, involve in my 
opinion the grossest misinterpretations ; and unless 
these are cleared away the morphological beauty of 
the skull cannot be seen. I content, myself, there- 
fore, with taking this opportunity of referring 
students who may wish to know my views on 
this subject to a memoir “On the relations of 
the Vomer, Ethmoid and Inter-maxillary bones,” 
published in the Philosophical Transactions, 1862 ; 
and to an address in the British Association 
Reports, 1875 ; and await a more favourable occa- 
sion to discuss its intricate details. 
The graduation address, which is the last of the 
articles brought together in this volume, claims no 
close relationship with the others ; yet the remarks 
on truth which it contains may possibly be of ser- 
vice to those engaged in the abstract questions to 
