fatal to the opponent, offers but a fragile support to the 
assailant’s own cause; for though this latter may demon- 
strate error by contrast with fact, still he does not,convert 
what is error on the one side of the question into a truth on 
_the other ; by which we mean, that though the specialist 
may rationally deny the existence of absolute uniformity 
or equality between two or more skeleton fabrics, still he 
fails to give their species or minus quantity any other 
absolute character than that of being a proportional of plus 
unity. And hence springs the necessity of establishing the 
character of a whole quantity, the subtraction from which 
is the creation of species. The proportional is, no doubt, 
minus something which the whole possesses, and there- 
fore, if the proportional, being minus some quantity, is 
hence to be designated a species, we also herefrom infer 
that the origin of species is in subtracted quantity. 
Species, therefore, resides in the negation of that 
quantity which causes unit 20 of fig. A to be proportionally 
different to unit 19 of the same series, or to unit 20 of the 
REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXX. 3 
other series of figs. B,C, and D. The costo-vertebral 
quantity is the whole, and the first lumbar vertebra is the 
proportional of such a whole, and it is this same law of 
proportioning which yields figs. A, B, C, and D as the 
various finite lengths of an original series of costo-vertebral 
archetype quantities. The caudal termination is the 
vanishing point of converging series, and is consequent 
upon the subtraction of quantity from a plus uniform 
continuous series of thoracic figures. The paces of design 
will be read accordingly, and the length of each caudal 
region, whether we contemplate it en sa cachette within 
the anatomy of the incarnate divinity of the type Av6po- 
mivos,* or whether we view it openly measurable in the 
neighbouring brute type AvOpwroedys,+ still the only 
‘ascertainable difference that can be said to prevail is that 
of a—b in presence of a+b, nor could a Wolfius, a Des 
Cartes, a De Moivre, or a Newton describe the creation 
mathematically otherwise. 
° . P = ° . . . 
*« “ T’etonnante analogie qui se trouve entre la structure du corps humain et celle des quadrupédes, des oiseaux, et des poissons.”—“ On 
peut changer une vache en oiseau, wn guadrupéde en homme.” —Camrnr, Deux Discours sur ? Analogie qwil y a entre la Structure du Corps 
humain et celle des Quadrupédes, 8c. 
+ “Mais, si Yorang-utang n’est point un Homme, il en est au moins le Prototype le plus parfait qui soit sur la terre.”—Bownnnr, Contemp. 
de la Nat., chap. xlvii. . 
