REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XIX. 
CERVICAL AND LUMBAR RIBS ARE THE PROPORTIONALS OF THE PLUS ARCHETYPE OF SERIES. 
eo ea of formation are created things produced as integral parts of existing quantities, and being 
AE 
so, we should ask ourselves the question, whether they may not be “anomalous” rather to our own 
creation of nomenclature, than to the law of form under which they appear as the creations of Nature ? 
When we limit inquiry to-certain prescribed bounds, we then blot out from the chart of experience all other 
creations lying without those boundaries. When, on the contrary, we widen the sphere of observation, and 
are determined to carry comparison as far as it will go, it is this broad survey of relationary facts which, 
- in an inverse ratio to itself, contracts the space where anomalies have once stood unaccountably created, 
by lending them the light of interpretation. The anomalies of form in special anatomy become the very 
bonds of connexion which render comparative anatomy a continued chain of extended reasoning carried 
out in discovery of a law, and this law appears to be that of a graduated chain of form. 
The plus quantity of series must be regarded as the 
archetype of series and also as the unity. For it is evi- 
dent that since variety is only the minus proportional of 
the plus, and as Nature can metamorphose, from plus, a 
graduated serial variety even to terminal atoms, such as 
will escape all physical vision, so must we rather mount 
up to archetype quantity for the character of unity than 
pass down with Nature and make search for it amongst 
her infinitesimal atoms. The archetype quantity we know 
can be metamorphosed to the smallest proportional 
quantity, and the knowledge of this fact is all sufficient. 
Fig. A’ is the seventh cervical vertebra, or the seventh 
spinal unit of series. -In one human cervix we meet with 
this condition of development where the autogenous ele- 
‘ment @ has not passed beyond its usual dimensions. 
Fig. A” is another condition of development presented 
by this seventh spinal cervical unit of series, and in it we 
discover that the autogenous element 4 is produced 
through some part of the circle towards the mid point d. 
On the opposite sides of this fig. A” we see that this 
autogenous element 6 is unequally produced. It is longer 
on one side than on the other, but still the longer side is 
seen to traverse the circle. 
Fig. A” is a third condition of development in which 
this seventh cervical spinal unit presents to us, and here 
we discover that the autogenous elements ¢ of both sides 
have still further traversed the circle towards the mid 
point d. The special or human anatomist names figs. A” 
and A” as the anomalies of fig. A’. 
Fig. B’ is the first lumbar vertebra, or the twentieth 
spinal unit of series, and presents this condition of form 
in one human loins. The autogenous element a has not 
exceeded its ordinary bounds. 
Fig. B” is another condition of form presented by this 
same twentieth spinal unit of series, and here we find 
that its autogenous pieces, marked 4, have traversed the 
circle with unequal degrees on either side towards the 
mid point d. 
Fig. B’ is a third condition of development presented 
by this same twentieth spinal unit of series, and it shows 
how the autogenous pieces c have still further progressed 
through the circle towards the point d. The human 
anatomist names figs. B” and B’” as the anomalies of 
fig. B’. . 
Figs. A’ A” and A” represent the seventh cervical spinal 
unit proportionally various to itself. Can any one there- 
fore doubt that fig. A’ is the minus proportional of 
fig. A’? 
Figs. B’ B” and B” represent the first lumbar or twen- 
tieth spinal unit proportionally various to itself, and 
who will doubt that fig. B’ is the minus proportional of 
fig. B’? 
If this interpretation cannot in reason be doubted, per- 
haps there will be as little reason to doubt the fact proved 
by general comparison carried through the animal king- 
dom, that. all these figures are but the minus propor- 
tionals of the thoracic archetype quantity, which is the 
archetype unity. 
It may be taken for granted that any interpretation of 
the forms of Nature which shall reconcile the anomaly 
