SKELETON. 



655 



hyoid forms, whether these be cartilaginous 

 or osseous, as being the continuation of the 

 sternal median line in the mammal neck. 



The history of the ossific process teaches 

 us that every part of the skeleton which 

 presents now in osseous structure, has passed 

 through the prior stages of cartilage and of 

 fibrous or cellular primordium. The general 

 median line in front of the mammal form 

 presents, in regional divisions, the one differ- 

 enced from the other only in respect to these 

 three stages of the ossific process. The 

 thoracic sternal median division presents in 

 the tertiary or osseous stage. The cervical 

 sternal median division of this same line pre- 

 sents in cartilaginous or secondary stage. 

 The ventral sternal median division of this 

 same continuous line presents in the fibrous 

 or primary stage. But whether the several 

 divisions of this one sternal median line be, in 

 the mammal body, of fibrous, or cartilaginous, 

 or osseous tissue, it must still be regarded as 

 the same unbroken sternal series from maxilla 

 to pubis. The only difference which marks 

 one class or species of skeletal form as dis- 

 tinct from another throughout the animal 

 kingdom, is simply the same as that which 

 marks one region of the sternal line in one 

 form diverse, or special, to another region of 

 the same line in the same form. What the 

 ventral or the cervical sternal median line is 

 to the thoracic of the same animal, namely 

 phasially different ; just so is the ventral and 

 the cervical median line of the several classes 

 and species of animals diverse to the thoracic 

 of all animals by a simple arrest of develop- 

 ment in one or other of the three phases of 

 the ossific process. The venter of a mammal 

 is intersected with fibrous traces of the ster- 

 num and ribs. This sternum and these ribs 

 are of osseous growth in the saurian venter 

 (, k, Jig. 480.). The cervix of a mammal is 

 intersected with the cartilaginous and osseous 

 traces of original sternum and ribs, and these 

 traces of the sternum and ribs are now called 

 hyoid apparatus. The homologue of this 

 hyoid apparatus, which is fashioned by the 

 metamorphosis of sternum and ribs, is pre- 

 sented in the osseous fish (g,fig. 480.) as a 

 sternum and ribs, to which we give the name 

 hyoid apparatus. 



When I compare the foregoing anatomical 

 facts together, I conclude that the abstract or 

 archetypal skeletal fabric (fig. 480.) to which 

 comparison gives creation in my mind, is a 

 form whose median sternal line is continuous 

 from maxilla to pubis, from g to /, and in this 

 archetype the ribs (it b) are holding continu- 

 ous series. The vertebrae (A B, c D, E F) 

 hold serial order in the same archetype also. 

 The ribs succeed the hyoid apparatus, the 

 pubic and ischiatic bones (c*c*) succeed the 

 ribs, and the chevron bones (6* b*) succeed 

 the pubic bones. This serial order demon- 

 strates the homological cast of all these parts, 

 and therefore 1 have numbered them alike. 

 When these serial parts are taken in connec- 

 tion with the vertebras behind, they constitute 

 the archetypal series of whole quantities. 



PROP. XXXVIII. Every fossil skeletal 

 species of extinct animals, as well as every recent 

 existing species of skeleton, are forms created of 

 the archetypal skeleton. While we under- 

 stand clearly, that it is the graduated meta- 

 morphosis of certain parts from one or many 

 of the serial sterno-costo vertebral archetypes 

 which yields all spinal axes, variable as to the 

 numerical lengths of a cervical, or a lumbar, 

 a sacral or a caudal region, and while we 

 know, even to a demonstration, that the tho- 

 racic region results simply by the persistence 

 of some of those archetypes, then we can 

 readily understand that the persistence of all 

 the archetypal quantities would leave the form 

 devoid of any such regional spinal variety as a 

 neck, a loins or a caudex. And when I add 

 to this remark this other, namely, that all the 

 archetypes undergoing cervical metamorphosis 

 would render all the spinal length in cervical 

 character, or, if undergoing lumber metamor- 

 phosis, would strike the whole spinal length 

 in lumbar character, or if submitted to sacral 

 or caudal metamorphosis would leave the 

 whole spinal length of sacral or caudal stamp, 

 then 1 see no reason why anatomical science 

 should marvel at the length of a plesiosaure 

 neck as an extraordinary fact " dugout of the 

 bowels of the harmless earth,'' however 

 bizarre a creation this skeletal form may seem 

 to the wonder-working geological speculator. 



Forms, as they are at present existing, and 

 congeneric, seem to me to manifest, under 

 contrast, no less a cause for wonder while I 

 view them comparatively, than these same 

 existing species of form can give rise to when 

 I regard them comparatively with those of 

 the lost or extinct species of a foregone time. 

 But I believe that the only hope which science 

 can ever entertain of solving the problem of 

 formation in the past, must depend upon the 

 demonstration of the process of the creative 

 force, which rules formation in the present 

 And when we shall have clearly demonstrated 

 the creative law which at present strikes out 

 the form of an ostrich in presence of the 

 form of a whale, then we will cease to regard 

 with doubtful interrogative the form of the 

 Plesiosaure laid side by side with the Ichthyo- 

 saure, or any other figure the vestige of fore- 

 gone creation. When science shall arm 

 herself cap-a-pie with the knowledge of a 

 law, then will she be enabled to contemplate 

 the past, the present, and the future, holding 

 her statuesque gravity still unmoved, how- 

 ever or by whatever show of seeming bizarre 

 facts short-sighted ignorance may strive to 

 startle h.er. 



Upon the proof of the truth of the reading 

 here advanced, viz. that the cervical the lum- 

 bar, sacral, and caudal spinal regions consist 

 of spinal segments metamorphosed or de- 

 graded from such archetypal segments as we 

 find standing for the thoracic spinal region of 

 all skeletons, depends the full and just inter- 

 pretation of all varieties of spinal axes of 

 animals, whether now existing or now extinct. 



PROP. XXXIX. The crania-facial appara- 

 tus consists, like the thoradc apparatus, of 



