XXXIX 

 ON THE METHOD OF PALEONTOLOGY. 



Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii., 1856, //. 43-54. 



There are two perfectly distinct aspects under which Living 

 Beings may be studied — the Physiological and the Morphological. 

 On the one hand, every living being exerts certain forces and 

 performs certain acts or functions. It is the object of the physiologist 

 to ascertain the precise mode in which these acts are performed, to 

 refer them as far as possible to the ordinary laws of physics and 

 chemistry, and when, as in many cases, the functions are highly 

 complex, to analyse them into their elementary acts, and to deter- 

 mine by what part of the frame, by what special organs these are 

 performed. With the form of these parts, with their connexion other 

 than that which is involved in their coadjustment towards a common 

 effect, the pure physiologist has no concern. 



On the other hand, every living being has a definite form, and in 

 all the higher living beings this form is complex ; it is made up of a 

 greater or smaller number of lesser parts, each of which has its own 

 definite and appropriate figure. Now it is with these forms, with 

 their mutual relations, with the laws which govern their association, 

 that morphology is alone concerned. Although in practice the two 

 branches of biological science are commonly more or less united, yet 

 it would be quite possible to write a complete system of pure 

 physiology without reference to morphology, and of morphology 

 without reference to physiology. They are as distinct as in the 

 mineral world are crystallography and chemistry. To put the case in 

 another way. The different parts of every living being are all 

 mutually related, they are subject to definite laws of correlation, but 

 these laws of correlation are of two kinds essentially independent of 



