280 OWEN'S POSITION IN 



Thus the idea of a scale of organised beings fore- 

 shadows the conception of a more or less widely 

 prevailing unity of organisation among them, and 

 we may regard the promulgation and wide accept- 

 ances of Bonnet's doctrine of the ' scale of beings ' 

 as the dawn of the higher morphology of modern 

 times. 



Though but an imperfect apprehension of a 

 great truth, this doctrine exerted a highly bene- 

 ficial influence upon the progress of comparative 

 anatomy. The gradations in structure of the 

 parts and organs of animals were carefully studied. 

 Immense pains were bestowed on the formation 

 of collections of preparations illustrative of grada- 

 tion ; and there is no more remarkable example 

 of such a collection than that formed by the skill 

 and industry of John Hunter, which was the 

 origin, and still constitutes the nucleus, of the 

 present admirably complete museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England. A full descrip- 

 tive catalogue of such a collection must needs be, 

 in itself, an encyclopaedia of comparative anatomy. 

 Daubenton, the collaborator of Buffon in France, 

 went to work upon a different, but quite as 

 important, principle. As Buffon opposed the ex- 

 treme systematizers, who seemed to think it the 

 end of science, not so much to know about an 

 object as to be able to name it and fit it into 

 their system, so Daubenton insisted on the 

 study of each animal as an individual whole. 



