638 



SKELETON. 



thoracic costo-vertebral figure, have I not a 

 proof of the truth of this reading in the fact, 

 that this twentieth spinal vertebra in one 

 spine presents in lumbar form, and in another 

 spine in thoracic costo-vertebral form. How 

 much closer can we urge the science of com- 

 parison to yield to us the secret of nature's 

 law of formation than by comparing the same 

 numerical vertebra with itself, and discovering 

 that it is proportionally diverse in several 

 individuals of one and the same species ? If, 

 therefore, the same vertebra be in many indi- 

 viduals in all those same conditions of pro- 

 portional variety in which we find all vertebras 

 throughout the serial order of the one spinal 

 axis from atlas to the last coccygeal no- 

 dule, if this same vertebra (seventh) shall 

 prove, upon a comparison of it in many ani- 

 mal skeletons, of the same variable propor- 

 tions as we find to exist between a cervical, 

 a thoracic, a lumbar, a sacral, and a coccy- 

 geal vertebra in the same spine, it must be 

 evident that the law which governs the pro- 

 portional variety of the same vertebra in 

 many animals is the same as the law which 

 governs the proportional variety of all ver- 

 tebra:; in the one animal. So true is this that 

 I hold it to be possible to take the same 

 spinal vertebra? of normal and abnormal con- 

 dition from a plurality of skeletons, and 

 construct with them a spine of the same 

 quantitative variety as it exhibits in the serial 

 line of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and 

 caudal vertebral regions. 



PROP. XXX. The anomaly is a link in the 

 chain of form. False interpretation of the law 

 of form is the source of all those conditions 

 which are spoken of as being anomalous to the 

 law. When anatomists name cervical or lumbar 

 ribs as being anomalous to the human neck or 

 loins, it is a proof that they do not under- 

 stand the law of development which governs 

 the human and all the general connected 

 chain of special variety. The anomaly (6 a 

 of Jig. 458.) is to the normal form of the same 

 cervical vertebra of Jig. 455. just what one 

 normal form (19 b,Jig. 458.) is to the other 

 before or behind it in series. The cervical 

 and lumbar ribs are to the cervical and lum- 

 bar vertebrae just what the thoracic ribs are to 

 the thoracic vertebras. And the seventh cer- 

 vical and first lumbar vertebrae, whether these 

 produce the rib in plus or in rudimental form, 

 are to each other just what ordinary cervical 

 and lumbar vertebrae are to thoracic costo- 

 vertebral archetypes, namely lesser quantities 

 metamorphosed from greater quantities. 

 Hence does it plainly appear that normal as 

 well as abnormal cervical and lumbar vertebrae 

 are alike only proportionally various to tho- 

 racic costo-vertebral archetypes, and hence 

 may it be understood that all variety, whether 

 normal or abnormal, springs by the simple 

 metamorphosis of the archetypes, indicated in 

 dotted lines at the neck and loins of Jig. 455. 

 While human anatomists falsely interpret the 

 ordinary cervical and lumbar vertebra; as 

 being whole quantities, then every elemental 

 structure which occurs plus upon a cervical 



or lumbar vertebra, will by them be named 

 " anomalous."* Cervical and lumbar ribs 

 are thus accounted anomalies. But when we 

 shall regard cervical and lumbar vertebras 

 through the medium of the idea here enter- 

 tained of them, viz. that they are lesser things 

 degraded, proportioned, or metamorphosed 

 from greater whole quantities, such as costo- 

 vertebral archetypes, then may we reasonably 

 know the origin of cervical and lumbar ribs, 

 and interpret these as being larger propor- 

 tionals of the costo-vertebral archetypes than 

 what we ordinarily find in cervical or lumbar 

 regions. f 



PROP. XXXI. All the spinal segments of 

 all classes and species ofvertebrated animals are 

 only as the variable proportionals of sterno- 

 costo-vertebral archetypes. A comparison of 

 those several regions of the spinal axes re- 

 presented in fig. 459. will prove the truth of 

 the assertion, that the law of formation by 

 which all skeletal species are produced, and 

 the law which produces the regional variety 

 of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and caudal 

 in the one skeletal axis, are one and the same 

 in operation. When I take the cervical 

 spine of a bird (A B) (the ostrich), and com- 

 pare it with the lumbar spine (CD) of the 

 same animal, I find that both regions of the 

 same spine present the like proportional cha- 

 racter. The segment (B, a,b,c, d), which is the 

 thoracic sterno-costo-vertebral archetype or 

 whole quantity, is preceded by a series of pro- 

 portional quantities gently graduated and de- 

 clining into the cervical minus figure marked 

 A, a. In like manner (c, a, b, c) the arche- 

 typal sterno-costo vertebral quantity, the last 

 of the thoracic region, is succeeded by a series 

 of proportional quantities, graduated in the 

 same way, anddeclining into the lumbar minus 

 figure marked D, a. Again, when I compare 

 the human cervical spinal region (E F) which 

 " anomalously " produces cervical ribs, with 

 A B of the bird's cervix, which normally de- 

 velopes the cervical ribs, I only find a mani- 

 festation of the same law. And the bird's lum- 

 bar spine (G H) is only in the same way pro- 

 portionally characterised as the bird's neck 

 (A B), or the mammal neck (EF), or the 



* " La loi de la continuite porte que la nature 

 ne laisse point de vide (anomalie) dans Pordre 

 qu'elle suite." Leibnitz, CEuv. Philos. Nouv. Essais, 

 liv. iii. p. 267. 



t The continuity of the chain, not only of an 

 animal kingdom, but even of the serial spinal axis, 

 is so evident a truth, and so sound a generalisation, 

 that when any form shall appear abruptly inter- 

 rupting this continuity, and, as it were separating 

 members of the chain apart and isolated from each 

 other, it may be taken for granted that we are 

 ignorant of its true nature, and its general and 

 special relations to all other units of the series. 

 The true object of science is the discovery of such 

 points of analogy as will relate the anomalous form 

 to the general chain of which it is a unit. The 

 differential character of the thing or things is that 

 which strikes the uninitiated at first sight always. 

 " Itaque convertenda plane est opera ad inquirendus 

 et uotandas rerum similitudines et analoga, tarn in- 

 tegralibus quam partibus : ilia? enim sunt, qua? 

 natiira.m nniunt, et constituere scientias incipiunt." 

 Bacon, Novum Organ um, aph. xxvi. 



