td 
2 REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE VI. 
“vertebra, and yet assent to name a dorsal, or lumbar, or 
sacral structure, as being things of separate orders, when 
in fact they are no more dissimilar to each other than 
forms which appear in one and the same order? But it is 
plain that if ever we are to interpret the law of species, it 
must be by first understanding the law of form, and so it 
would appear, for even though we wearied patience in 
comparing figs. A, B, C, and D, as distinct species, we can 
never penetrate deeper than the word “ species” * or dis- 
tinctiveness. But, on the other hand, when we at once 
acknowledge to the structural uniformity of figs. A, B, C, D, 
in so far as their elements are the same, then it is that we 
recognise the essential meaning of special variety which 
adapts A for one part of series, B for another, C and D 
for other localities, whereas at the same time all four 
make up the continuity of the spinal series. 
When we compare variety to standard uniformity, we 
then can best appreciate variety or species, and so arrive 
at some goal or terminus. But the comparison of species 
to species is an interminable labour, and after all leaves 
no result but species or variety. In this respect a serial 
skeleton axis constituted of vertebral homologues which 
still manifest characters of special modification, may be 
regarded as a subject comparable to that of a serial 
animal kingdom, where uniformity is veiled by the ties 
finitude of special metamorphoses. It is impossible to 
draw the differential line between the analogies and 
varieties of figs. A, B,C, D, and for this reason, viz., that 
analogy is plus, positive, and created quantity; whereas 
variety is minus, negative, and subtracted quantity. It is 
creation and non-creation, or presence and absence. It is 
fig. A’ compared with fig. D’”, the greater compared to 
the lesser. ; 
* “Rien de plus fautif, que la distinction des espéces, fondée sur des caractéres aussi inconstantes qu’ accidentels.”—Buffon—Oiseaua, 
tome 1, page 70. 
