and on the Geological Position of their Fossil Reiuains. i*^ 



of the labours and more uniformly prosecuted publications of 

 several able anatomists, particularly of MM. Oken, Spix^ 

 Bojanus, Ulrich, Rosenthal, &c. 



These writers have not only endeavoured to assign to each 

 bone in the Oviparous Vertebrata its correspondence with a 

 bone or a determinate part of a bone in the mammiferous 

 classes ; but, conforming themselves to the ideal metaphysics 

 and pantheism called the philosophy of nature, which has for 

 some time enjoyed a considerable rejiutation in Germany, — ■ 

 and the language of which, as is usual in that country, the 

 positive sciences have found themselves constrained at the mo- 

 ment to adopt, — they have endeavoured to discover in the head 

 a representation of the whole body, because, in general, the 

 principles of this philosophy require that each part, and each- 

 part of a part, should represent the whole. 



It is thus that M. Oken (in his Programme on iheSignifica- 

 tion of the Head, Jena 1807) has quitted hold of the analogy 

 which exists in several respects between tiie species of rings 

 which form the bones of the ci'anium and those of the verte- 

 bras, in order to view the cranium itself as a compound of three 

 vertebrae * : and carrying his researches through the several 

 portions of the head, for the purpose of ascertaining the re- 

 presentations offered by them of the several parts of the whole 

 body, — he has viewed in the cranium, considered separately, 

 the head of the head; in the nose, the thorax of the headf ; 

 in the maxillaries, the superior and inferior extremities, or the 

 arms and legs J. 



It will be readily comprehended that, with a little imagina- 

 tion, there could be no great difficulty in extracting through 

 the medium of a principle so elevated, and moreover separated 



. from 



• The body of the anterior spheroid represents the body of the first, its 

 orbital wings the lateral portions of the ring, and the frontal parts the spi- 

 nous apophysis: this is the oculccr vertebra : — the second or vmxillary ver- 

 tebra is similarly represented by the posterior spheroid, by its temporal 

 wings, and by the parietals; and the third, or auricular vertebra, by the os. 

 basilarc, the lateral occipital, and superior occipital. 



t The thorax of the head is composed of the vomer, the palate, the 

 ethmoid and n:isal bones. The cornets of the nose are the lungs ; never- 

 theless, the nasal cavity is a sort of prolongation of the cerebral cavity; 

 and the nos6 a brain subject to the vascular system. 'I'he smell, which is 

 exercised through the medium of the air, is, in the author's view, n tho- 

 racic sense ; and this is the reason why no vertebra is appropriated to )Xa 

 use, as in the case of the hearing, the taste, and the sight. 



J The two halves of the superior maxilla represent the two arms; the 

 0« (juadratum (0.1 earre) is the onioplate, the os ptcrygoides, the clavicle; 

 the OS jugalc, the arm ; the os maxillare, the hand ; the intermaxillary, the 

 thumb ; and the teeth, the other finf^cTn. The inferior maxilla, which in the 

 Ovipara is coinpov«(l o( seven Ivme*, will easily furnish similar indications; 

 Vol. 6.7. No. 326. Jiuir 182.5. ' 3 h but 



