THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 303 



also, in defining the term, acknowledges its source : 

 " Les organes sont homologues comme s'expri- 

 merait la philosophic allemande ; c'est-a-dire, qu'ils 

 sont analogues dans leur mode de deVeloppement," 

 &c. (" Annales des Sciences," tome vi., 1825, 



P-34I-)' 8 



The last words of the citation from Geoffroy St. 



Hilaire have a curious significance. Goethe had 

 pointed out, and neither he, nor Geoffroy, nor 

 Oken, were blind to the fact, that the study of 

 development must have a good deal to say about 

 the problems of philosophical anatomy ; though, 

 as I have mentioned, that branch of morphology 

 had not advanced far enough to enable Geoffroy 

 to appreciate its full importance, before the pub- 

 lication of Von Baer's works, in the course of the 

 decade 1828 to 1838. But embryology began to 

 show its capacity for playing the part of a criterion 

 in morphology pretty early. It has already been 

 stated that Wolff demonstrated the homology 

 of leaves, stamens, and carpels, by tracing their 

 development. Later, it was readily shown that 

 Vicq d' Azyr's doctrine of the homology of the limbs 

 had its proof in the observation that they arise from 

 rudiments of similar character and relations. In 

 all the higher vertebrate animals, the fore and 

 hind limbs are, at first, very similar, and they 

 become differentiated by successive steps. So 



8 ' On the Structural Rela- {Philosophical Magazine, xxvii. 

 tions of Organised Beings ' p. 526). 



