804 The American Naturalist. [September, 
of existing organisms without the aid of their genealogy. 
Monumental failures of this kind might be cited on both 
sides; but it may be said that morphologists have almost 
universally abandoned this standpoint, while physiologists 
have quite generally adhered to it. It is the one-sided anthro- 
pocentric development of physiology that has retarded its 
progress, and that still waits to be corrected. Presumptuous 
as such statements may appear, coming from a morphologist, 
they are nevertheless true and must be declared so long as 
the malady of one of the twin branches of biology remains 
as the affliction of the other. Solong as such fundamental func- 
tions of organisms as heredity, variation, adaptation, are neglec- 
ted by physiologists, so long will physiology have to bear the 
reproach of having some of its more inviting fields pre-occu- 
pied and developed by morphologists. 
What processes of life are more universal or more funda- 
mental than those exhibited in and about the dividing 
nucleus? What function of living protoplasm has more to 
tell us about how the organism comes into existence and how 
the foundation is laid for the development of all the higher 
functions, than that of cleavage? What phenomenon of life 
stands more in need of a physiological explanation than that 
of sex differentiation? What question has a more direct prac- 
tical bearing on the education and development of the human 
race than that of the transmission of aequired characters ? 
What functions of more transcendent interest than those of 
the various sense organs? Where could a more beautiful 
example of the evolution of function be found than is fur- 
nished in our special senses? How intensely interesting the 
subject of the derivation of such functions! Will the physiol- 
ogist, or his protégé the psychologist, give a share of attention 
to these important matters, or must the morphologist not 
only find the problem but work it out whenever it falls within 
the range of evolution? That would mean working under 
all the disadvantages attending the separation of two co-ordi- 
nate branches which are complemental one to the other. 
Morphology would lose its natural helpmate, and physiology 
would forsake its best guide. Morphology analyses the 
