the evolution of the more perfect organic
creatures according to a general scheme, is it altogether impossible
to represent this original plan if not to the senses at least to the
mind...?"[85]

Such an interpretation of the unity of plan reaches perhaps beyond the
bounds of science.

[70] _See_ Kohlbrugge, "Hist. krit. Studien ueber Goethe
als Naturforscher," _Zool. Annalen._ v., 1913, pp.
83-231.

[71] Or re-discovered, according to Kohlbrugge.

[72] Cotta ed., vol. ix., p. 448.

[73] "First Draft of a General Introduction to
Comparative Anatomy."

[74] Cotta ed., ix., p. 463.

[75] Cotta ed., p. 478.

[76] _Loc. cit._, p. 491.

[77] _Entwurf_, Cotta ed., ix., p. 465.

[78] _Geschichte der biologischen Theorien_, i., p. 266.

[79] "So the form determines the manner of life of the
animal, and the manner of life in its turn reacts
powerfully upon all forms."

[80] _Bildung und Umbildung organischer Naturen_, 1807.

[81] Cotta ed., ix., p. 466.

[82] _Loc. cit._, pp. 474-5.

[83] Then he has all the parts within his hand, excepting
only, sad to say, the living bond.

[84] Goethe was the inventor of the word.

[85] Cotta ed., ix., p. 490.

CHAPTER V

ETIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE

E. Geoffrey made an experiment, unsuccessful but instructive. He tried
to found a science of pure morphology; he failed: his failure showed,
once and for all, that a pure morphology of organic forms is
impracticable.

Already, in 1796, in one of his earliest memoirs,[86] Geoffroy was
guided by the idea that Nature has formed all living things upon one
plan. Organs which seem anomalous are merely modifications of the
normal; the trunk of an elephant is formed by the excessively
prolonged nostrils, the horn of a rhinoceros is simply a mass of
adhering hairs. In general, however varied their form, all organs are
simply variations of a common scheme; Nature employs no new organs.
Organs which are rudimentary, such as the clavicles in the ostrich and
the nictitating membrane in man, bear witness to the unity of plan. In
this Geoffroy goes no further than his predecessors. They too had
recognised homologies of organs; they too had interpreted rudimentary
organs as vestiges of an original plan.

In a series of papers published in 1807, Geoffroy took a further step,
and sought to establish homologies which were not obvious--ho