ARTICLE XIII - EVOLUTIONARY TELEOLOGY

Summary

When Cuvier spoke of the “combination of organs in such order that they may be in consistence with the part which the animal has to play in Nature,” his opponent, Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, rejoined, “I know nothing of animals which have to play a part in Nature.” The discussion was a notable one in its day. From that time to this, the reaction of morphology against “final causes” has not rarely gone to the extent of denying the need and the propriety of assuming ends in the study of animal and vegetable organizations. Especially in our own day, when it became apparent that the actual use of an organ might not be the fundamental reason of its existence—that one and the same organ, morphologically considered, was modified in different cases to the most diverse uses, while intrinsically different organs subserved identical functions, and consequently that use was a fallacious and homology the surer guide to correct classification—it was not surprising that teleological ideas nearly disappeared from natural history. Probably it is still generally thought that the school of Cuvier and that of St.-Hilaire have neither common ground nor capability of reconcilement.

In a review of Darwin's volume on the “Fertilization of Orchids” (too technical and too detailed for reproduction here), and later in a brief sketch of the character of his scientific work (art. x., p. 284), we expressed our sense of the great gain to science from his having brought back teleology to natural history.