THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 287 



dissimilarities. The only peculiarity of the artistic 

 application of scientific method lies in the artist's 

 power of visualising the result of his mental pro- 

 cesses, of embodying the facts of resemblance 

 in a visible ' type,' and of showing the manner 

 in which the differences may be represented as 

 modifications of that type ; he does, in fact, in- 

 stinctively, what an architect, who desires to de- 

 monstrate the community of general plan in 

 certain ancient temples, does by the methodical 

 construction of plans, sections and elevations, the 

 comparison of which will furnish him with the 

 1 type ' of such temples. 



Thus, what I may term the artistic fashion of 

 dealing with anatomy is not only perfectly legiti- 

 mate, but has been of great utility. The harm 

 of it does not begin until the attempt is made to 

 get more out of this visual projection of thought 

 than it contains ; until the origin of the notion of 

 ' type ' is forgotten and the speculative philosopher 

 deludes himself with the supposition that the 

 generalisation suggested by fact is an 'Idea' of 

 the Pure Reason, with which fact must, somehow 

 or other, be made to agree. 



The old French naturalist Belon, who must 

 have been a good deal of an artist, and illustrated 

 his book, ' L'Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux,' 

 with many ' naifs portraicts,' initiated this way of 

 dealing with anatomy. The skeleton of a bird is set 

 beside that of a man, and the reader is left to draw 



