REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXXV. 
= 
THE VENTRAL AND THORACIC REGIONS OF SERIES ARE COMPARED TO EACH OTHER, AS. BEING DESIGNS IN 
MINUS AND PLUS QUANTITIES. 
v CREATION stands opposite to creation, just as vacuum is opposite to matter, And as presence and 
absence, or entity and nonentity, cannot hold, at one time, the same situation, any more than two entities 
can, at one and the same time, occupy the same place, so will it be equally vain to describe them as one and 
the same thing or condition. But the law of series which developes entities, as graduated figures or plus and 
minus quantities permits us to recreate, at least in idea, the presence of lost quantity, and certainty awaits 
this method of anatomical comparison, forasmuch as it assimilates to mathematical rule. For though we 
cannot rationally say that the place which a+b now occupies is also receiving another quantity equal to 
a+6, still, we may clearly understand, that, between a+6 in one place and a—b in the next place, a certain 
quantity is lost, which quantity is the difference between them ; that is to say, the quantity 4 lost to a—b. 
Design may, therefore, occur by reason of | quantity lost, as well as by quantity present, and the’ simple 
comparison between a4+6 and a—O proves it; whereas, in this very proof, we have drawn an equation 
between the difform and the uniform, between the quantity a—b and a+d. For we contend that it is 
impossible to estimate the present inequality of a+6 and a—é, independently of their assumed equation, 
or a+b contrasted with a+b. The ventral region of series is minus the costal quantities, while the 
thoracic region is plus those quantities ; and, therefore, we conclude that the venter is.a design by the 
loss of coste ; whereas the thorax is a design by the presence of costz ; whereupon we remark, that the 
idea of lost quantity, and the design thereby occurring, is one which stands in as bold relief as the idea 
of such quantity actually present, and also attended with design. If the ventral region did not bear 
evident traces of those cost, of which it is now minus, still serial order would create, in us, the idea of 
the same, for the venter holds serial relation with the thoracic coste, and the comparison of both regions 
gives the full account of their present designs, together with the manner in which the law of form has 
operated for their creation. 
Whilst we consider the skeleton archetype to be a series 
of thoracic quantities, such as the seven first costo-vertebral- 
sternal structures, which describe complete circles from the 
spine behind to the sternum in front, we must then interpret 
the cervical and abdominal regions of series to be those 
whereat Nature, in furtherance of her design, has sub- 
tracted both sternal and costal quantity from series, and at 
which very places, otherwise, if fitness had demanded, those 
same structures might still have persisted. In proof of this 
interpretation, the question naturally suggests itself, do we 
find any traces of the costal and sternal quantity in the 
- regions of the cervix and abdomen? We do, undoubtedly. 
From the sternal median line in front of thoracic’ per- 
sistent osseous quantity, there extends a fibrous band, 
named linea alba, which marks the ventral median line, 
and from this we see, projecting laterally, the fibrous 
traces of ventral costee, which now bear the name of linee 
transversé. There can be no doubt that these linea alba 
and linez transverse repeat over the abdomen those struc- 
tures which take serial order in front of the thorax, under 
The ossific 
process takes place in three stages; the primary stage is 
the name of sternum and costal cartilages. 
ligamentous, the second cartilaginous, the third osseous. 
| Every skeleton piece, which now presents as cartilage; has 
