On the study of zoology and its place in medical and scientific education : being the introductory lecture delivered to the Natural History Class, School of Medicine, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, Tuesday, November 2, 1875 / by Andrew Wilson, Ph.D.

  • Wilson, Andrew, Ph.D.
Date:
1875
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the study of zoology and its place in medical and scientific education : being the introductory lecture delivered to the Natural History Class, School of Medicine, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, Tuesday, November 2, 1875 / by Andrew Wilson, Ph.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    descent and so far we may agree with him, although we might come to the point of agreement by diverse routes. And, again, we can only give his statement our assent so far as its result goes, when he says, Embryology rises greatly in interest, when we look at the embryo as a picture, more or less obscured, of the progenitor, either in its adult or larval state, of all the members of the same great class.f Thus, these statements are the expression of an undoubted law in organic life, that the ontogenesis, as Hseckel terms it, or development of the individual, repeats in itself the part or whole development (or phylogenesis), of the group to which the individual belongs. How far the theory of the evolutionist may fit into and explain these likenesses is quite another matter. The opponent of evolution may be as ready with his ideas of the influence and bearings of fixed type as the evo- lutionist is with his doctrine of descent. The controversial aspects of the law or bearings of etiology do not, in my opinion, interfere with its acceptation by the unbiassed student of natural history, as tending to show him relations, at least of logical and feasible kind, between the many and diverse forms that meet his scientific gaze. And through its aid we are now able to relieve ourselves from the embarrassing difficulties of many classifications, by taking Embryology as our guide, and relating those forms whose developments are most nearly akin. In his Natural History of Creation^ Heeckel has worked out the Phylogeny or Etiology of existing organisms as fully as the knowledge of his day and generation would allow; and we all must admire the aim and work of this Teutonic Darwin, if we cannot agree on the whole with the special position or watch-tower from which he directs his generalised gaze. * Origin of Species, 6th ed., p. 396. f Ibid. I Natiirliche Schdpfungs-Geschichte, von Dr. Ernst Hseckel Pro- fessor an der Universitat Jena. Berlin, 1868.