I am very much obliged for your paper on the Mollusca (33/2. The paper
of Huxley's is "On the Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca, etc."
("Phil. Trans. R. Soc." Volume 143, Part I., 1853, page 29.)); I have
read it all with much interest: but it would be ridiculous in me to make
any remarks on a subject on which I am so utterly ignorant; but I can
see its high importance. The discovery of the type or "idea" (33/3.
Huxley defines his use of the word "archetype" at page 50: "All that I
mean is the conception of a form embodying the most general propositions
that can be affirmed respecting the Cephalous Mollusca, standing in the
same relation to them as the diagram to a geometrical theorem, and like
it, at once, imaginary and true.") (in your sense, for I detest the word
as used by Owen, Agassiz & Co.) of each great class, I cannot doubt,
is one of the very highest ends of Natural History; and certainly most
interesting to the worker-out. Several of your remarks have interested
me: I am, however, surprised at what you say versus "anamorphism" (33/4.
The passage referred to is at page 63: "If, however, all Cephalous
Mollusks...be only modifications by excess or defect of the parts of
a definite archetype, then, I think, it follows as a necessary
consequence, that no anamorphism takes place in this group. There is
no progression from a lower to a higher type, but merely a more or
less complete evolution of one type." Huxley seems to use the term
anamorphism in a sense differing from that of some writers. Thus in
Jourdan's "Dictionnaire des Termes Usites dans les Sciences Naturelles,"
1834, it is defined as the production of an atypical form either by
arrest or excess of development.), I should have thought that the
archetype in imagination was always in some degree embryonic, and
therefore capable [of] and generally undergoing further development.
Is it not an extraordinary fact, the great difference in position of the
heart in different species of Cleodora? (33/5. A genus of Pteropods.) I
am a believer that when any part, usually constant, differs considerably
in different allied species that it will be found in some degree
variable within the limits of the same species. Thus, I should expect
that if great numbers of specimens of some of the species of Cleodora
had been examined with this object in view, the position of the heart in
some of the species would have been found variable. Can you aid me with
any analogous facts?
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