CHAPTER I. 



ARRANGEMENT OF EVIDENCE. 



The cases of Meristic Variation, here given, illustrate only a 

 small part of the subject. The principles upon which these have 

 been chosen may be briefly explained. It was originally intended 

 to give samples of the evidence relating to as many different 

 parts of the subject as possible, so that the ground to be eventually 

 covered might be mapped out, leaving the separate sections of 

 evidence to be amplified as observations accumulate. This plan 

 would be the most logical and perhaps in the end the most useful, 

 but for several reasons it has been abandoned. I have chosen a 

 different course, first, because during the progress of the work 

 opportunities occurred for developing special parts of the evidence; 

 secondly, since isolated observations have no interest for most 

 persons, it is more likely that the importance of the subject will 

 be appreciated in a fuller treatment of special sections, than in a 

 general view of the whole ; and lastly, because as yet the attempt 

 to make an orderly or logical classification of the phenomena of 

 Merism, however attractive, must be so imperfect as to be almost 

 worthless. For these reasons I have decided to treat more fully a 

 few sections of the facts, hoping that in the course of time similar 

 treatment may be applied to other sections also. The sections 

 have been chosen either because there is a fairly large body of 

 evidence relating to them, or on account of the importance or 

 novelty of the principles illustrated. 



As far as possible I have described each case separately, in 

 terms applicable specially to it, deductions or criticism being kept 

 apart. The descriptions are written as if for an imaginary cata- 

 logue of a Museum in which the objects might be displayed 1 . This 

 system, though it entails repetition, has, I believe, advantages 

 which cannot be attained when the descriptions are given in a 

 comprehensive and continuous form. In speaking of subjects, such 

 as supernumerary mammas, or cervical fistulse, where the evidence 

 has been exhaustively treated by others, and upon which I can 

 add nothing, it has not seemed necessary to follow this system, and 

 in such cases connected abstracts are given. 



1 Cases of special importance are marked by an asterisk. 



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