ON THE FIGURES 
REMARKS OF PLATE XXIII. 
THE VERTEBRAL LENGTH OF A CERVICAL OR LUMBAR REGION DEPENDS UPON THE PRESENCE 
OR ABSENCE OF COSTA. 
ORM is a creation which balances between the opposite conditions of excess and defect. The excess is 
uniformity ; the defect is species or variety. Between these extremes of excess and defect, we discover 
that all the quantities of serial order constantly play ; and hence it is, that they are not to be fettered by a 
nomenclature, however laboured this may be. For when the form is itself illusory as to character, the 
nomenclature must, in the same ratio, be infirm as to capability. When we affix a name to minus quantity, 
we afterwards find that it advances to plus condition, and, in the very act, it bursts the bonds of nomen- 
clature. When, again, we give a name to plus quantity, we afterwards discover that the form shrinks from 
its original bulk, and leaves the bond of nomenclature lax and useless. In this state of unfixity of character 
manifested by the serial line of quantities, we are compelled to follow the natural law of plus and minus 
proportioning ; and upon seeing that species is negation of parts, and also that unity follows plus increase 
invariably, we, hence, track creation in the produce of whole quantities until we arrive at the sum total of 
development, beyond which nature does not pass. ‘This full form or quantity is then named unity, and the 
multiplication of this form through series is named serial uniformity. But as one or more figures of such a 
series may be arrested in a minus stage and cause gap or hiatus, so we call this state “species by subtraction 
of quantity,” and if we are asked, of what quantity ? Nature herself answers this question, by the plus figure 
produced in some part of her series. The cervix is minus, and the thorax is plus. 
Figs. A, B, C, and D, are back views of the figures of 
plate 22, and show that it.is the autogenous or costal 
elements of the cervical and lumbar vertebree which un- 
dergo the mutation of plus and minus proportioning. The 
exogenous pieces which stand behind in the cervical com- 
pound transverse processes, figs. A, B, together with the 
exogenous dorsal transverse process which stands behind 
the head of the thoracic rib, and the exogenous tubercles 
which, in the same way, project behind the autogenous 
costal elements marked a, a, in figs. C and D, never vary 
materially as to plus and minus proportioning. 
The thoracic coste a,a, figs. A, B, hold series with ie 
anterior or autogenous element of the cervical transverse 
process, and also with the autogenous costal pieces @, a, 
of figs. C, D, usually named transverse processes of the 
lumbar spine. These are homologous elements, and the 
varied proportionals of costal full quantity. 
The comparison of a cervical or minus series with a tho- 
racic or plus series, is like the comparison of negation 
with affirmation, that is to say, of increation with creation. 
Where form és not, then no manner of reasoning can re- 
create the form ; and where form is, then, in like manner, 
no reading can render it otherwise. But where form is 
proportional, and still holding series with figures which 
stand in plus created condition, then we say, that, by the 
rule of comparison, we are taught to fill up hiatus, and by 
this very process of re-establishing serial uniformity, we 
retrace natural design to its very source, and expose the 
fount and spring of all its process. 
In figs. A, B, C, and D, we view hiatus produced in 
series, and bounded by the plus original quantities, stand- 
ing full at the extremes, as thus, 9, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 9. 
This hiatus is the effect of quantity subtracted, and we 
say that the plus extremes inform us of how far subtraction 
or metamorphosis has been carried upon the means. The 
quantities marked as 5, 5, 5, &c., are severally minus 4 
fractionals when we compare them with the plus integer 
9; and under this reading we interpret that the seven 
osseous quantities, known as the cervical series of fig. A, 
are severally minus those costal forms which we find pro- 
duced upon the first thoracic figure 1 d a. 
Now, as the quantity 5 is evidently a proportional of 
