ANATOMY, COMPARATIVE. The science that treats of • the structure of organisms with the aim of discovering their evolutionary history and of determining what parts are fundamental and primary and what have undergone modifications due to functional changes. This, at least. has been the aim of comparative anatomy since the doctrine of evolution has guided anatomical re search. In the early half of the nineteenth cen tury the aim of comparative anatomy was to assist taxonomy, or the natural classification of organisms. by giving a basis for separating the more essential parts (to he used as the basis of the larger groups) from the less essential parts (the basis of the smaller groups). In the latter half of the nineteenth century the aims of comparative anatomy were fostered by the newer science of comparative embryology, which added a new source of evidence for tracing evolutionary history. Together these sciences constitute com parative morphology. In this work the facts which might have been brought together into a general article under this title are distributed under more special headings. Thus, for the his tory and general scope of comparative anatomy, see ANATOMY ; for the comparative anatomy of the several parts of the body, see respectively SKELETON ALIMENTARY SYSTEM ; :MUSCULAR SYS TEM ; NERVOUS SYSTEM ; CIRCULATORY SYSTEM ; RESPIRATORY SYSTEM; REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM; EXCRETORY SYSTEM, and similar titles in eonnee tion with human anatomy and physiology, and in zoology and embryology. Consult: Cuvier. Lecons
d'anatotnic comparee (first edition, 5 volumes, Paris, 1800-05; second edition, S volumes, 1836-44) ; Neekel, System der vergleiehenden Anatomic (Halle, 1821-29) ; Owen, Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrate Animals (fourth edition, London, 1871) ; Huxley, Anatomy of Inverte brates (London, 1877) ; id., Anatomy of Verte brate Animals (London, 1871) ; Gegenbaur, Ele ments of Comparative Anatomy (translation, London, 1878) ; Wiedersheim, Comparative Anat onty of Vertebrates (translation, London. 1898) ; id., Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomic (Jena, 1866) ; Lang, A., Textbook of Comparative Anatomy (of Invertebrates) (translation, Lon don, 1S91-96).