XXV 



ON THE COMMON PLAN OF ANIMAL FORMS 



Abstract of a Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, May 12, 1854, 

 Hoy al Institute Proceeditigs, vol. /,, 1S51-4, //. 444-446.] 



The Lecturer commenced by referring to a short essay by Gothe 

 • — the last which proceeded from his pen — containing a critical account 

 of a discussion bearing upon the doctrine of the Unity of Organization 

 of Animals, which had then (1830) just taken place in the French 

 Academy. Gothe said that, for him, this controversy was of more 

 importance than the Revolution of July which immediately followed 

 it — a declaration which might almost be regarded as a prophecy ; for 

 while the Charte and those who established it have vanished as though 

 they had never been, the Doctrine of Unity of Organization retains a 

 profound interest and importance for those who stud)' the science of 

 life. 



It would be the object of the Lecturer to explain how the con- 

 troversy in question arose, and to show what ground of truth was 

 common to the combatants. 



The variety of Forms of Animals is best realised, perhaps, by 

 reflecting that there are certainly 200,000 species, and that each 

 species is, in its zoological dignity, not the equivalent of a family or a 

 nation of men merely, but of the whole Human Race. It would be 

 hopeless to attempt to gain a knowledge of these forms, therefore, if 

 it were not possible to discover points of similarity among large 

 numbers of them, and to classify them into groups, — one member of 

 which might be taken to represent the whole. A rough practical 

 classification, based on obvious resemblances, is as old as language 

 itself ; and the whole purpose of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy 

 has consisted chiefly in giving greater exactness to the definition and 

 expression of these intuitive perceptions of resemblance. 



