THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 293 



morphology (the very term ' morphology,' in its 

 technical sense, is his) were by no means so widely 

 known to anatomists, or valued by them, as they 

 •ought to have been ; and it was long before their 

 unquestionable merits were properly appreciated. 

 The most brilliant and, at the same time, the 

 soberest representative of the higher or 'philo- 

 sophical' anatomy, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, seems, at 

 first, to have known nothing of them. Like 

 Goethe, he had studied mineralogy and botany 

 before taking up anatomy and zoology ; an ex- 

 cellent and most industrious observer, he was, at the 

 same time, a man of high intellect and compre- 

 hensive views. Intimately associated with young 

 Geoffroy, and only a couple of years older, was 

 Cuvier, one of the most remarkable intelligences 

 of his own or any time. And when these energetic 

 allies turned their attention to vertebrate anatomy, 

 in 1 794-5, it was impossible that the facts which had 

 impressed Goethe should fail to lead minds such 

 as theirs towards ideas of the same order. But, 

 the minds of the two having a widely different 

 commixture of qualities, the way in which they 

 dealt with the same objective material presented 

 corresponding differences; and these differences 

 went on widening until, thirty-five years later, 

 these two bosom friends became the antagonists 

 in the most famous of all scientific duels. 



However, during the earlier part of his career, 

 I doubt if Cuvier would have categorically denied 



