The New International Encyclopædia/Promorphology

PRO′MORPHOL′OGY (from Gk. πρό, pro, before + μορφή, morphē, form + -λογία, -logia, account, from λέγειν, legein, to say). The study of the simplest of the fundamental forms of organisms. While the simplest plants and animals as well as eggs and seeds are, as the result of the action of gravity, more or less spherical, in other types we are reminded of the forms of crystals, though there is wanting the mathematical regularity and symmetry present in crystalline forms. In the most symmetrical animals certain internal organs are unsymmetrical in relation to the body. See Symmetry.