180 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VOL XXXII. 
lack of the most ordinary facilities for observation, has not rendered my 
task more easy. 
The incidents that befell him while prosecuting his researches; 
the friendships he formed with all the distinguished scientists 
of the day; the favorable impression he everywhere created, 
especially in Britain, where his fame had preceded him; the 
influence of Humboldt and Cuvier upon his career; his prodi- 
gious energy, enthusiasm, and devotion to his chosen purpose; 
the personal qualities drawn out by the struggles and hardships 
he endured; his gratification at the final acknowledgment of his 
success, — all these are topics which have been abundantly 
treated of by his biographers. It remains for us merely to call 
attention to some of the more general features of his work on 
paleichthyology. But here, too, it will be difficult at this day 
for one to offer anything novel, since during the last half- 
century it has been frequently and ably reviewed. 
We can only add our tribute, in a word, that the publication 
of the Poissons Fossiles laid the foundation of a new science, 
and reared at the same time a large portion of its superstructure. 
This work also marked an epoch in the history of paleontology 
and zoology in general, since one of its brilliant results was the 
discovery of certain comprehensive laws, which are now admitted 
to be of fundamental importance. Without doubt the most far- 
reaching of these in its consequences is the analogy which he 
pointed out between the embryological phases of recent fishes 
and the geological succession of the class; whereupon he 
deduced the generalization, “The history of the individual is 
but the epitomized history of the race.” Another notable 
result was ‘the recognition and characterization of his so-called 
prophetic or synthetic types, that is, such as embrace features 
in their organization which afterwards become distributed among 
a number of groups, and are never recombined. Incidentally, 
or rather as a corollary to the preceding, he introduced a new 
method of studying animal types; namely, that of testing 
zoological results by embryological investigations, and, similarly, 
embryological by paleontological. He insisted that the com- 
parative anatomy of a group, including its paleontological 
record, should be studied in connection with the comparative 
