relations of the Human Hand. 45 
organs which are central or proximal, simple, rudimentary, and 
constant ; while teleology displays itself in fie which are per- 
tpheral or distal, complicated and subject to 
10. Man is the most perfect animal in a "tandecbal point of 
view, and the hand is peripheral in its position, complicated in 
hae and subject to variation both in the zoological series and 
by arrest or excess of development: and forasmuch as it has, 
during all ages and by all classes of minds, been regarded as a 
typical ee of perfection of detail and harmonious ar- 
rangement of parts in strict conformity to the elevated offices 
which it ark therefore to the same extent must we pedigree) 
it in our endeavor to determine questions of morpho 
1]. Hands and gfe but especially the former, are as unsafe 
guides to the homology of the limbs, as the cranial and caudal 
regions would be to the characters of a typical vertebra.* 
12. In discussing the relation between the fore and hind limbs, 
we must free our re Some cal comparison from all considera- 
tion of special func 
13. The fore ‘bi hind limbs are appendages of the anterior 
~ osterior regions of the body; an ee ponere! laws 
erved in the Ses are, on @ priori grounds, to ed 
for ir in the limbs. 
4. Pol 
tees science, is a pri ree law in the formation, the struc- 
J 
and ot regions of the body are, as it 
were, the two poles of a ti seo oa axis, and their constit- 
uent parts are more or less completely homologous, repeatin 
each other in Se or Paloma like the corresponding organs 
aaa the right and | 
16. This polar or antagonist —— of similar parts ma 
easily be traced in the proximal segments of tho limb in teahy 
manna beat front of the capes and the convexity of the knee 
ack of the upper arm and 
convex vexty 0 vot f the albowe 
e two pair of limbs, the anterior is the more subject 
to vine pay is therefore less reliable for morphological p ur- : Me 
poses. eS 
ni cers hae Proceedings Bost, Soc. of Nat. Hist, May a 
of Oken: also descri “ phelink. ble foetus, by Prof. ies 
Wyman, Bost ot and and Surg. Ji jana Mec 99, double ft, by Prof. Jefon 
oi wis mig praagatge James D. Dana, this Joursal; Yok seek: BS 
vo ee 
a bathe Seni Pubes. 5 larity, Bost. Med. and Joi 
A 5 16, antey Mo especialy inthe Kindy of Ma 
anal Soe Nat sty val ii het ee a 
