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REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXVI. 
THE LUMBAR, SACRAL, AND CAUDAL SERIAL REGIONS VARY AS TO THE NUMBER OF THEIR VERTEBRAL 
QUANTITIES. 
SP BOEES or variety is ever attendant upon metamorphosis, and is a synonyme of modification. The 
comparison of two or more serial axes of one and the same recognised species of animals, will oftentimes 
prove the fact, that these forms are as diverse to each other as those which may be found in two or more 
separate animal ‘species; and consequently, specific variety does not suffer itself to be limited ie any 
arbitrary rule of nomenclature. Admitting the facts of the case to stand thus, the reason at once renounces 
the differential method for the persuasive argument of generalisation, upon the facts of a common analogy of 
type ; and, m despair of ever summing up the whole record of special variation, it recommences upon a new 
and better system ; one by which it is enabled to encompass under a general term a multitude of relationary 
facts, and thereby to span plurality with the enclosing arch and government of alaw. If nature outpaces all 
the efforts of human industry in establishing its differential nomenclature by casting abroad her prolific 
genesis of multitudinous and infinite variety, still the fecund act of creation bears within itself the seeds of a 
connective argument, which is, the analogy of form and the comparability of individuals. The comparative 
method, then, is taken as the guiding helm, and the pursuit of samenesses and similitudes marks all the 
progressive way of ratiocination, or the act of deducing consequences from premises. If a+=c, then 
c—b=a; consequently, the presence and absence of the quantity 0, is the differential law, and consequently 
the persistence of 0, for both quantities will render them equal ; for it is seen that the abduction of 4, from 
one of two equal quantities is the cause which renders them unequal. In the same way, we are to 
understand that the presence or absence of the coste is the differential law ; for when a vertebral quantity 
is plus the coste, it persists in thoracic series, and when a vertebra is minus the costz, it constitutes a unit 
of either the cervical, lumbar, or sacral series. 
It is impossible to establish any marked distinction 
between the forms of series, which, in reality, have no 
other difference than that apparent between plus and minus. 
Forms which are only. proportionally various to each other 
can have no other difference than that of quantity. And. 
serial forms which manifest this condition of proportioning 
must severally express or refer to the full archetype 
The 
fullest form of series must be archetype of that series, 
since even the smallest proportional form of the series 
bears the same comparison to the existing archetype which 
any minus quantity of an integer bears to that integer. 
The opposite figures show how the lumbar spine 
follows the thoracic series just as minus follows plus 
quantity, and also how the lumbar spine passes into the 
quantity from which each has been proportioned. 
— 
sacral spine as this does into the caudal series, without 
hiatus or any condition of absolute difformity. 
The same units are marked with similar letters in all 
the opposite figures, and it is by our keeping to the fixed 
numerical position of any unit of series that we are enabled 
to trace the law of form which renders it at one and the 
same place in either of minus or plus character. 
The same law which has rendered the first lumbar 
vertebra, 1/a, of fig. A as a proportional of 12 da, of the 
same figure, is that law which, ceasing to operate, leaves 
the vertebra 1 / a, in another lumbar spine in the character 
of a thoracic form. The mystery is revealed when we 
understand that plus is reduced to minus; for if plus be 
not reduced to minus then it still stands as plus, and 
consequently plus must be the archetype. 
