@- 
_ this law when we compare the several conditions in which 
the same numerical unit presents in different animal forms. 
For if there be truth in the reading that the unit marked 
20a, (a first lumbar quantity) in fig. A is but a proportional 
~of such another quantity as that marked 19a, in the same 
series, so do we meet with a further illustration of the fact 
when we compare 20a, of fig. A with 20a, of fig. C, and 
next with 20a, of fig. B, for these also prove the same law 
of their proportional creation.* 
While the degradation from plus to minus quantity 
‘appears to be the law of skeleton formation, we hence can 
produce evidence of this simple operation as well from the 
comparison of those serial proportionals which constitute 
the one skeleton axis as from a more extended comparison 
held between the same numerical units of three or more 
REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXIX, 3 
distinct animals. And in addition to this we remark that 
if in fig. A those units marked 19a, 20a, 24a, and 31, can 
reasonably be regarded as the proportionals or decreasing 
series of such original quantities as those ranging between 
unit 8 and unit 18 of the thorax, then may we furnish 
ourselves with as perfect an idea of a skeleton prime model 
of unity, or the plus archetype series, as if we had subjected 
to the same rule of comparison the entire graduated scale of 
an animal kingdom.+ For while we advance the reading 
that any one of the minus units of fig. A is a proportional 
metamorphosed from quantity such as unit 15a, of the 
thorax, then this condition of development cannot possibly 
be contemplated isolatedly, from the fact that the original . 
series was composed of such quantities as unit 15a, and 
this is uniformity. 
. 
* “ Nous avons vu plus haut que les premiers qui tombent dans l’erreur sont ceux qui cherchent a faire cadrer immédiatement un fait 
individuel avec leurs opinions ou leur maniére de voir. Nous trouverons au contraire que ceux qui savent étudier une observation, une expérience, 
sous tous les points de yue, la poursuivre dans toutes ses modifications et la retourner dans tous les sens, ouaivens aux résultats les plus féconds.” © 
—Goethe, Zuvres d’ Historie Naturelle, Introduction, p. 11. 
+ L’Echelle de la Nature se construit donc en passant du composant au composé, du moins parfait au plus parfait. Sa Bente Contemplation 
de la Natures chap. xiii. 
