REMARKS ON THE FIGURES OF PLATE XXXVI. 3 
those costal structures of which the abdominal region is 
now wanting ; and to this the abdominal region itself bears 
its own testimony, for it shows traces of a sternal structure 
in the linea alba, and traces of costal forms in the trans- 
verse intersections. 
Figs. E, F, G, and H show varieties as to the number of 
ribs which meet the sternal median structure in front, 
and varieties also as to the number of the thoracic costa 
themselves, from which it must be concluded that the 
length of-a thorax is mainly dependent upon the number 
of ribs which persist for the lumbar units of series, and 
also that the length of a loins depends upon the meta- 
morphosis of costal forms. 
‘In figs. E, F, G, and H, the clavicle, e, holds serial order 
with the first rib, f, and with the pubic bone, i. 
perceive that between e, the clavicle, and i, the pubic 
bone, happens the thoracic region as the persistent plus 
We now 
serial quantity, and the abdominal region where such a 
plus has been subtracted. 
Now, as we have before said, that, between plus quantity 
and its proportional standing in the same serial order, pre- 
sides the spirit of design, so do we proceed to confirm 
those views by demonstrating that the proportional is a 
design by the loss of that very quantity which we find 
elsewhere in the plus form. And with this understanding 
it will at once appear evident that we still bound ourselves 
within the limits of the remark above made, viz., that 
where design exists, by reason of subtracted quantity, so 
therefore, will it be in vain that we make search for 
absolute serial uniformity, as characterising the presential 
state of any one skeleton axis; at the same time that 
the order of graduated series is still developing the idea 
of this uniformity, and actually contrasting the present: 
minus design with its original, but now non-existent, plus 
condition. 
Endeavouring, therefore, to furnish support to our 
opinion by facts, and speaking through those facts, and not 
through mere sounds of speech, we may observe that, while 
a Thersites can defy a Plato, a Galileo, a La Place, or a 
Newton,* to demonstrate equality and absolute uniformity 
between the present condition of the quantities a—6 and 
a+b, so may a Thersites again defy them to explain the 
existence of any other species or difference between those 
quantities, save that of 4, existing for the one and non-ex- 
isting for the other. It is by the loss of costal quantity at the 
lumbar region of series in figs. E, F, G, H, that we have the 
venter as a minus design or hiatus in.-skeleton plus series,+ 
whereas it is by the persistence of the like costal quantity 
forthethoracicregion of series that we have that plus thoracic 
design ; and therefore the knowledge of the.quantity lost 
is equal to the knowledge of the quantity present, both of 
which establish the ideas of serial plus uniformity, which 
then is taken as the standard of comparison whereby the 
transcendency of design may be fully estimated. 
* The uniformity which is spoken of in the following terms cannot stand for more than its actual value, that is to say, as being only 
expressive of the law of symmetry which still presides over the line of serial proportional quantities. 
“Tam miram uniformitatem in 
planetarum systemate, necessario fatendum est intelligentia et concilio fuisse effectam. Idemque dict possit de uniformitate illa que est in 
corporibus animalium. Habent videlicet animalia pleraque omnia, bina latera, dextrum et sinistrum, forma consimili: et in lateribus illis, a 
posteriore quidem corporis sui parte, pedes binos; ab anteriori autem parte, binos armos, vel pedes, vel alas, humeris affixos: interque 
humeros collum, in spinam excurrens, cui affixum est caput; in eoque capite binas aures, binos oculos, nasum, os et linguam ; similiter 
posita omnia, in omnibus fere animalibus.’”’—Newton, Optices, sive de reflewionibus, $c. Edit. secunda, 1719, p. 411. 
+ “Mais la beauté de la nature, qui veut des perceptions distinguées, demande des apparences de sauts et pour ainsi dire des chutes de 
musique dans les phénomenes, et prend plaisir de méler les espéces.”— Leibnitz, Cures Philosophiques, nouveaue essais sur Uentendement 
humain, liv. iv., p. 441: Amsterdam et a Leipzig. 
