9 REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXXV. 
been, at a former stage, of fibrous structure; and every 
skeleton piece which now presents as bone, has been, at 
one stage fibrous, at another stage cartilaginous. 
That anterior median line expressed by the sternum and 
linea alba, presents, in several regions of its length, those 
three phases of transitionary creation. In the thorax it 
is osseous; at the region of transition from thorax to ab- 
domen it is cartilaginous; in the abdomen it is fibrous, 
and it stretches from the last sternal piece to the sym- 
physis pubis, thus relating the pubic structure to the 
thoracic quantities, and, as it were, pointing silently to 
some, as yet unexpressed, sentence of anatomical design, 
fashioned from serial archetype uniform quantity, by the 
simple law of metamorphosis or proportioning. 
The sternal structure is one which instances an almost 
endless variety as to the number of its elemental or forma- 
tive pieces, as will be seen, for all the opposite figures show 
that the sternum is not developed alike in any two amongst 
them. Whilst we find that such variety attaches to the 
sternal structure as developed even in one species, it may 
easily be guessed how endless a variety prevails as to the 
mode of development of the sternum for all other species 
of animals. A generalisation of the sternal forms, such as 
they are, can alone give us any insight into their nature. 
But as the sternal median line expresses a sentence of 
design which is beyond the limits of the present subject, 
so shall it remain, and all the remark which we shall here 
make respecting it is, that the linea alba is a continuation 
of it over the animal venter, and that we have discovered 
in the linea alba various islets of cartilaginous structure 
and even osseous deposit, thus simulating, in some mea- 
sure, the thoracic sternum. 
In all the opposite figures, the median line a, bisects the 
sternum from this point to the xiphoid cartilage 6, and 
thence passes through the linea alba to the umbilicus ec, 
and thence to the pubic symphysis d, which it also bisects 
after the manner of a sternal cleavage. 
The opposite figures, therefore, clearly manifest the fact 
that the fibrous linea alba is a continuation of the sternal 
median line, and this also allows it to be inferred, that the 
pubic bones hold serial order with the thoracic costz, 
between both of which structures occur the linee trans- 
verse. 
The opposite figures likewise shew that e, the sternal end 
of the clavicle, holds a serial relation with f, the first rib, 
and from f, to g, all the thoracic cost stand in series as pro- 
portional quantities. From g, to the pubic arches occur 
the serial order of linez transverse. Let these facts be 
_added together, and the product of the addition must be 
that Nature expresses a certain serial relation between 
thoracic, ventral, and pubic formation. 
The number of thoracic costz is not fixed and invariable, 
neither is that of the linez transverse intersecting the 
abdominal region. 
When we would follow the design of Nature, and. ap- 
preciate the miracles of effect, produced by the simplest 
mode of causation, we have only to contemplate the gra- 
2 
dation of serial order, or the thing a+b followed by the 
proportional a—6, between which quantities comparison 
will demonstrate the teeming evidence of design, as reign- 
ing all along the graduated line of figures, whether in one 
region they stand plus and equal, or, in several regions, they 
present as minus and various. For it is fully manifested 
that Nature operates to fitting results, as well by the 
absence as by the presence of quantity, and this mode of 
development is best proved by our supposing quantity to 
exist were she has designed that it shall not exist, (as, for 
example, the costal forms at cervix or loins,) or conversely, 
by our supposing it to be absent where she has ruled that 
it shall be present (as, for example, the thoracic region 
minus the cost), in which case it could no longer bear 
the name of thorax. 
The existing proportional series, as being the creation 
of natural operation, is the fitting design, and we may the 
more clearly estimate that fitness, as occurrmg by lost 
quantity, when we shall imagine the presence of the quan- 
tity which is lost. For while there is every reason to believe 
that lumbar vertebre are the minus quantities proportioned 
from their plus costo-vertebral forms, we then give full 
value to the potency of ventral design only by contrasting 
the costal presence with the costal absence, or unfitness 
with fitness, that is to say, an absolute serial uniformity, 
supposed to exist where the proportional or graduated 
variety can alone fittingly exist. 
The ens present where it should be absent is as evident 
an unfitness as the ens absent where it should. be present. 
This error is never committed under the rule of natural 
development, and yet it is upon the very possibility of its 
occurrence that comparative science is to base its study of 
uniformity. For while it is evidently the process of 
Nature to annihilate costal quantity from the lumbar 
vertebree, in order that the parturient venter shall have 
free motion, during the act of genesis and the creation of 
the analogue, so we conclude therefrom, that the thoracic 
series of uniform archetypes, which is the prime model, 
and which we may conceive to be continuous throughout, 
from first to last of the serial line, has undergone meta- 
morphosis at the ventral region, and thereby answered 
the required design. This design is consequent upon the 
occurrence of a hiatus im series, and we call that hiatus 
the venter which still bears fibrous traces of lost osseous or 
costo-sternal quantity. . 
In figs. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, we view the thoracic series 
terminating where the ventral region commences; and this 
is equal to the assertion that the thorax and venter form one 
continuous surface, enclosing one general cavity from the 
cervix above to the pelvic arch below *. Throughout this 
general enclosing surface or periphery, whether of the recent 
body or the recent skeleton form, we cannot discover any . 
natural boundary, as separating one region from the other, 
except that which occurs between plus and minus quantity. 
The muscular partition, or diaphragm, can with no more 
reason be said to draw the line of distinction between the 
thoracic and ventral regions, than can the interventricular 
* “ The thorax being denominated that cavity which extends from the neck to the pudenda.”—Aristotle, History of Animals, book 1, p. 16. 
