278 OWEN'S POSITION IN 



go by them. Aristotle, with his immediate pre- 

 decessors and successors, took the broadest 

 possible view of the subject ; the structure of 

 cuttlefishes and crayfishes interested them as 

 much as that of the higher animals. And inas- 

 much as the taint of impurity which, in ancient 

 times, attached to contact with the dead human 

 body, hindered them from obtaining a knowledge 

 of the structure of man directly, they were com- 

 pelled to divine it, by way of analogy, from their 

 observations on apes. In fact, their over-con- 

 fidence in the extent to which the likeness ex- 

 tended led them into serious errors. At the revival 

 of learning, things took another turn. Anatomy 

 sank to the level of a mere handmaid to practical 

 and theoretical medicine. It was only very much 

 later, as the anatomical, like other pure sciences, 

 progressed backwards to their original dignity 

 and independence, that the position of Democritus 

 and of Aristotle was once more reached ; and, 

 the study of the living world being taken up for 

 the sake of knowledge alone, man assumed his 

 place as neither more nor less scientifically in- 

 teresting than his fellows. In the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries, however, the great anato- 

 mists of the Low Countries and of Italy had pushed 

 their investigations so far, that more was known 

 of the structure of man than of that of any other 

 animal. It was therefore natural, and indeed 

 unavoidable, that the structure of man should 



