SKELETON. 



653 



variable numbers of ribs ? all individual spe- 

 cies of fishes of variable numbers of ribs also ? 

 Is not numerical difference, as to costal, as to 

 vertebral, and as to sternal elements, infinite? 

 Where, then, shall we find a resting place in 

 this ever moving creativeness of the variety ? 

 There is no resting place for the understand- 

 ing, except in the idea of the skeletal arche- 

 typal uniformity, and there is no other mode 

 whereby to mount to the recognition of this 

 archetype, but by summing together all pro- 

 portional variety, and constructing plus uni- 

 formity from out of it. 



The number of osseous thoracic sternal 

 pieces varies even in the same species ; it 

 varies still more in the different species of a 

 class, and general comparison carried through 

 the four classes will prove incontestibly, that 

 the region which is ventral, or minus the 

 osseous ribs and sternum, in one animal (the 

 human), is furnished with the ribs and sternum 

 in another animal (the saurian), and hence 

 becomes thoracic for this latter animal. In 

 the mammal venter, the costo-sternal osseous 

 pieces do not exist, but in the saurian venter 

 they do. In the same way will general com- 

 parison prove that the region which is cervical, 

 or minus the ribs and sternum, in one animal, 

 is furnished with the ribs and sternum in ano- 

 ther animal, and hence becomes thoracic for 

 this latter animal. In the mammal cervix, 

 the costo-sternal osseous pieces do not exist 

 as such, but in the ophidian and the fish they 

 do ; for what else is the fish's hyoid apparatus 

 but a series of ribs joining a sternal series ? 



Now, the true interpretation of the indivi- 

 dual skeletal fabric is only to be had in the 

 abstract or compound idea which springs 

 from general comparison. The abstract or 

 archetypal skeleton is the exponent of the 

 special or individual skeletal fabric. The 

 former is plus quantity, the latter is a special 

 creation degraded from such a plus. 



The thoracic sternal series of the human 

 skeleton commences, as bone, at the junction 

 of the first pair of thoracic ribs, and continues 

 as bone as far as the junction of the seventh 

 pair of ribs ; after this latter point the human 

 sternum degenerates into cartilaginous or 

 primordial tissue of the second stage of ossific 

 process, and from thence it is continued over 

 the ventral region in fibrous or primordial 

 tissue of the first stage of ossification, and as 

 such is united to the pubic symphysis, thus 

 relating this point to the thoracic sternum, 

 and also the pubic and ischiadic hones to the 

 thoracic ribs, with which they are identical, 

 no doubt. Those fibrous bands, named " lineae 

 transversae " of the human venter, must be 

 taken as sketches drawn in primordial sub- 

 stance by the hand of nature, indicative of the 

 ribs which are wanting at this region of series. 

 Those ribs are proper to the lumbar vertebra?. 

 The linea alba is a sternal trace of archetypal 

 osseous quantity, and is proper to the ribs 

 which are now wanting at the mammal venter. 

 The saurian venter, furnished as it is with 

 both sternum and ribs, and lumbar vertebrae, 

 must therefore be regarded as a nearer ap- 



proach to archetypal or thoracic uniformity 

 than the mammal venter. In the former, the 

 ventral region is embraced with an osseous 

 costo-vertebral sternal apparatus, like the 

 thorax. In the latter, the ventral region pre- 

 sents this apparatus degenerated into pri- 

 mordial or fibrous bands. The original of 

 the mammal venter is thoracic, and, as such, I 

 affirm that this original, although now only in 

 idea, stands before the mental vision in as 

 vivid a character as if its actual presence pre- 

 sented to the corporal vision. That which is 

 wanting at the venter of the mammal is equal 

 to that which is persistent at the venter of 

 the saurian ; and thus, in idea, I draw the 

 sternal and costal osseous series over the ven- 

 tral region of the mammal body. In every 

 skeletal fabric where a venter is formed with- 

 out the sternum and the ribs, nature may be 

 said to have subtracted these for fitness and 

 functional ease. 



The law of species requires that the costo- 

 sternal series should not persist in the ventral 

 and cervical regions of all animals, the reasons 

 for which are obvious. It is by this law of 

 special or proportional variety, which creates 

 the cervix and the venter as fitting hiatuses in 

 series, that the law of archetypal uniformity 

 becomes eternally interrupted. The law of 

 species is acting in constant nisus opposed to 

 the law of plus quantitative uniformity. Both 

 laws are eternal, and their eternal acts yield 

 forms as they are. viz. a unity in variety ; that 

 is to say, a whole quantity undergoing a me- 

 tamorphosis of parts. It is this metamor- 

 phosis or subtraction of parts proper to the 

 whole archetypal quantity, which furnishes all 

 the endless sum of variety. 



The " xyphoid " cartilage and the " manu- 

 brium sterni " are the opposite extremities of 

 sternal series in the mammal skeleton. At 

 these extremities there is manifested, as it 

 were, a constant tension or endeavour to 

 extend the sternal line over the neck and 

 abdomen. In the mammal body and others, 

 this tendency to extend is held in constant 

 subjection ; but occasionally we find that this 

 nisus of the creative force advances a step, 

 and marks its progress by the development of 

 " episternal ossicles " at one end of the ster- 

 nal line, and by additional nuclei of osseous 

 substance at the other end. The character of 

 either extremity of the sternal series is un- 

 finished ; and even amongst the individuals of 

 the several species of mammalia and birds, it 

 cannot be said to be fixed. Sternal creation, 

 and the law of its infinite variety as to length, 

 can only be fully ascertained by extending the 

 observation through general comparison. In 

 general comparison, we readily discern the 

 ability of creative force exercising itself l>v the 

 simple addition and subtraction of certain 

 known elemental parts. By the addition of 

 parts, nature mounts to archetypal uniformity ; 

 by the subtraction of parts she degrades to 

 variety. Every variety is but a submultiple 

 of archetypal uniformity. 



When I limit my observation to the indi- 

 vidual mammal skeletal form, I find the 



