Geoffroy could not but recognise the correlation of structure to function, for this is a fact which imposes itself upon every observer. He recognised also correlation between functions, as when he pointed out the connection between increased respiration and enhanced muscular activity in birds.[125] He interpreted structure at times in terms of function, the short, strong clavicle of the mole as an adaptation to digging, the keeled sternum of birds as an adaptation to flying, and so on. But we may say that his whole tendency was to disregard function, to look upon it as subsidiary. He protests against arguing from function and habits to structure, as an "abuse of final causes."[126] He was not so convinced as Cuvier was of the all-importance of functional correlation; in this view he was probably confirmed by his work on teratology. It did not surprise him that Insects, in which lungs, heart and circulation have disappeared(!), should yet have a skeleton built upon the same plan as the skeleton of Vertebrates, which possess these organs; the correlation of organ-systems is not so close as to prevent this.[127] So too, although the other organs of the insect are all inside the body of the vertebræ, they are yet comparable with the organs of Vertebrates.[128] The existence of rudimentary organs also seemed to him an argument against too strict a correlation of parts.
The contrast between the teleological attitude, with its insistence upon the priority of function to structure, and the morphological attitude, with its conviction of the priority of structure to function, is one of the most fundamental in biology.
Cuvier and Geoffroy are the greatest representatives of these opposing views. Which of them is right? Is there nothing more in the unity and diversity of organic forms than the results of functional adaptation, or is Geoffroy right in insisting upon an element of unity which cannot be explained in terms of adaptation? If there be an irreducible element of unity, is there any truth in Geoffroy's suggestion that this unity results from a power which is exercised in the world of atoms where are elements of inalterable character?[129]
The problem as Geoffroy and Cuvier understood it was not an evolutionary one. But the problem exists unchanged for the evolutionist, and evolution-theory is essentially an attempt to solve it in the one direction or the other. Theories such as Darwin's, which assume a random variation which is not primarily a response to environmental changes, answer the problem in Geoffroy's sense. Theories such as Lamarck's, which postulate an active responsive self-adaptation of the organism, are essentially a continuation and completing of Cuvier's thought.
[86] "Mémoire sur les rapports naturels des makis," Magasin Encyclopèdique, vii.
[87] Discours préliminaire, pp. xv.-xxiv.
[88] Études progressives d'un Naturaliste, p. 50, Paris, 1835.
[89] Philosophie Anatomique., i., Introduction, p. 1.
[90] "Sur une colonne vertébrale et ses côtes dans les insectes apiropodes," (Acad. Sci., Feb. 12, 1820). Printed in Isis, pp. 527-52, 1820 (2).
[91] "Sur l'organisation des insectes," p. 458. Isis, pp. 452-62, 1820 (2).