1975. The last system is only present in animals, in so far as they are aquatic in their habits.
1976. Insects, as being purely aerial animals, have therefore arteries and veins only so long as they are in the larva or worm-like condition, and as flies or perfectinsects may continue to live without them. On the contrary, the purely aquatic animals appear enabled to live without true respiratory and absorbent vessels. It in fact appears, that lymphatic as well as respiratory vessels are wanting in the molluscs, snails, and worms, since the water directly bathes or washes the arteries.
1977. Animals with both systems of vessels, the unclosed and closed, must be more perfect in structure, and must at once combine worm and insect in themselves. They are insects from having absorbent and respiratory vessels, but worms as having arteries and veins.
b.Veins.
1978. The veins are developed as mucus-vessels at the intestinal extremities of the arteries, which absorb the arterial mucus (blood), after it has deposited its air on the tegumentary substance, just as the lymphatic vessels absorb their fluid from the intestine or any other part of the body.
1979. As the artery is a respiratory vessel that has become self-substantial, so is the vein a similarly conditioned, and dismembered lymphatic vessel. In the one it is the lung, in the other the intestine, that has become the free vascular system. But in the proper vascular system both lung and intestine are repeated, the former as artery, the latter as vein.
1980. These arterio-lymphatic vessels (veins) necessarily convey their arterial mucus or blood into the stem of the original lymphatic system, or the thoracic duct. For every Indifferent must be brought toward the respiratory organ.
1981. The tegumentary lymphatic vessels (absorbents) consequently unite with the arterio-lymphatic vessels (veins), before arriving at the respiratory organ, and pursue their course thither in common, where they pass over into the air-vessels. The usual notion or idea is, that the lymphatic vessels, from conveying their fluid into the veins, should be subordinated to the latter. But the true philosophical view, is ofreverse import, although the veins are larger than the thoracic duct. In the investigation of such relations, recourse can by no means be had to quantity or size, but to the importance of the quality or contents.
1982. The veins are, properly speaking, subordinated to the lymphatic vessels, just as the arteries are to the tracheæ, or air-tubes, and the former therefore pass over into the lymphatic vessels.
c.Circulation.
1983. Through the veins, as arterio-lymphatic ducts, the vascular system has become a closed system in itself, because, on account of the polarity, the vein unites at both extremities directly with the artery. It is a continuation of the artery, like the air-duct is of the skin, and the lymphatic vessel of the intestine. Thereby aCirculationof the arteriose mucus or blood originates.
1984. In its essence the circulation is a combination of the intestinal with the branchial system intooneanatomical system.
1985. The circulation is therefore a higher formation, since through it the vascular system repeats in itself the totality of the vegetable organism.
1986. On that account the circulation is the vital process proper.
1987. But for that reason also, the circulation is impossible in the plant, since it is devoid of arteries and veins.
1988. It makes its appearance in the aquatic animals, for they have, generally speaking, vessels. Molluscs, snails, worms, and crabs already possess a circulation; it is wanting, on the contrary, in those animals that are without intestine, and ceases in insects, when, or in whom, the air-vessels obtain the preponderance.
1989. In circulation the galvanism is restricted. In the skin, intestine, air-and lymphatic vessel there is also galvanism, but distributed upon organs that are remote and subservient to different purposes.
d.Blood.
1990. The blood signifies the earth in the animal, combined with water and air.
1991. The blood is the proper nutritive matter for the animal.
1992. The blood is earth, which carries all terrestrial elements in itself, such as the air through the medium of the gills, the water through that of the intestine, and is consequently a complete planet.
1993. The blood is a fluid planet.
1994. The blood is the fluid body.
1995. The body is the fixed or rigid blood. Blood and body are wholly equivalent, have the same elements in themselves; only here the latter are stationary, there they course along. Both consist of mucus or gelatine, albumen and fibrine.
1996. The blood is half combusted mucus, the body mucus, that has been wholly subjected to combustion.
1997. After the vascular system has attained its own circulation, or to the closed galvanism, no higher development of the tegumentary formation is any longer conceivable; as little as after the blossom anything more could originate.
1998. After all three elements are united intoonepoint, intoonesystem, as is the case in the circulation, where the venous blood represents the water, the arterial blood the earth and air, no new system can further originate in the vegetative body.
4. SEXUAL SYSTEM.
1999. In so far as the animal adopts into itself, or is rather based upon, the whole plant, the blossom orSexis also developed in it. The vegetable sex consists of seed, capsule, and corolla.
2000. The seed is the first part of the blossom which is put forth in the plant. The most inferior or asexual plants have only seeds devoid of capsule and corolla, and produced without the concurrence of female and maleparts. The blossom in the animal is therefore in the beginning also nothing but seeds or ova. Thus these animals are asexual. Such as the Infusoria, whose body directly divides into new animals, like the fungi.
2001. The second floral organ is the capsule, which contains on its borders or dissepiments the seeds, and on its apex the stigma, or the opening of the cyst.
2002. So also in the succeeding forms of animal life the animal capsule or uterus originates. The orifice corresponding to the stigma is the mouth of the womb; the seeds upon the septum becomeovary.
2003. The lowest animals, as the Polyps, are fundamentally none other than such an uterine system. The polyp's mouth is the os uteri; the sac formed by the polyp's body is the uterus, in which ova-cysts or ovaries develop, that open into the margins of the month.
2004. In such animals the uterus and intestine, as likewise the mouth and uterine orifice are fundamentallyoneorgan; nutritive matter and ova are also one in kind. External tegument as branchial organ is at the same time also a tegument of the uterus.
2005. The higher animals are distinguished from the lower by separation of all these intricate and, as it were, coalesced organs.
2006. Digestion, respiration and nutrition, growth and propagation, are originally of one kind. But with further development come the male parts also, which belong to the category of the organs.
Parallelism of the Animal and Vegetable Body.
All vegetative systems of the animal body being now developed, the attempt to co-ordinate them with those of the plant admits of being made.
2007. What thesexual partscorrespond to in plants, needs no exposition.
2008. And just as little that thelungis the parallel organ to the leaves orfoliage. The relation of the other organs is, on the contrary, difficult; the striking resemblance, however, of the sexual parts and the lungs to thesame systems in plants, is ground sufficient for assuming also the parallelism of the other organs.
2009. If therootbe compared with the intestine, then thestalk, as being the medium of thevascular system, must be regarded asheart.
2010. Thebarkwill correspond to theskin, the liber to theveins, thewoodas a tracheal body to thearteries.
2011. The vegetable tissue will be transformed into the lowest organs of the animal; thecellsinto themucous tissue, theintercellular passages into thelacteal vessels, thetracheæ, or spiral vessels, into the lowest kind of respiratory tubes or thecutaneo-lymphatic vessels. We have accordingly the following parallel series:
A.Tissues.1. CellsMucous tissue.2. DuctsAbsorbents.3. TracheæCutaneo-absorbents.B.Systems.4. BarkSkin.5. LiberVeins.6. WoodArteries.C.Members.7. RootIntestine.8. StalkHeart.9. FoliageLung.D.Sexual parts.10. SeedOvum.11. OvaryUterus.12. CorollaTestes.
B.ANIMAL SYSTEMS.
2012. As in the blossom the light allows the whole vegetable trunk to be once more developed, though with coloured signs or marks of distinction, so also is the animal body taken up into the sense of light, and the vegetative systems are elevated unto light-or rather æther-systems.
2013. A new animal originates upon the old animal and is equivalent to it. Every perfect animal istwofold in its nature, being a planetary and solar animal, a vegetative and animal being.
2014. Three animal systems must be developed out of the three vegetative, an earth-, water-, and air-system, each being refined or purified through the agency of light, and forming the bones, muscles, and nerves, which correspond to the gravity or materiality, the heat or motion, and the light or tension.
2015. Everything that is higher in its nature can only be developed out of that which is its direct antecedent, like the blossom from the leaf. Now the artery is the ultimate Vegetative. In this therefore, must the elements of the osseous, muscular and nervous systems reside. Now, the artery consists, of four parts, of the cellular, fibrous, dense serous coat, and of the blood. The cellular coat or tunic is the remnant of the whole tegumentary formation. The fibrous tunic is the embryo of the muscular system. The serous tunic is the embryo of the osseous system; for in old age it attains to ossification, bony lamellæ being deposited around it. The blood is the embryo of the nervous system. It is only requisite for it to coagulate, and it is then nervous mass. Nervous globules are blood-globules quiescent, or in a state of rest. Accordingly, in the artery, the whole body has been actually prefigurated or typified.
2016. Every animal system necessarily exists under a duplex character, being once in the service of the vegetative systems and once for itself; or it exists as trunk and as blossom. There is, therefore, a vegetative and animal nervous system, and, under such binary conditions, osseous and muscular systems likewise.
2017. All three systems are offsets from the arteries, and therefore their constant companions. The animal systems are calledflesh.
1. NERVOUS SYSTEM.
2018. The nervous mass is coagulated blood. The nervous system is thus a higher arterial system. Thehighest arteries, however, are the air-tubes. The nerves therefore run parallel with the tracheal systems.
2019. What the tracheæ are for the vegetative body, namely, the vitalizing and motor principle, such are the nerves for both the animal and vegetative body.
2020. The nerves are distributed like the tracheæ of plants, in individual threads or filaments, which run near to each other arranged in a fascicular manner, and then mutually separate.
2021. The nervous filaments everywhere accompany the arteries, and, as far as their ultimate ramifications, like the tracheæ of insects pass to all parts of the body.
2022. The nervous mass has been separated into an arteriose and venous mass, the former being the cineritious or gray substance, the latter the medullary or white. The nervous system is therefore an entire blood-system, with two poles; it is therefore alive and active for itself, or independent of other systems.
2023. Both nervous masses are in a state of constant tension against each other, and consequently in constant tension with the whole body.
2024. The nerves are filaments that, upon the separation of the parts of the body, have remained behind, just like the arteries are tubes individualized in the general parenchyma, throughout which the sap was previously dispersed as in the vegetable trunk. The first individualization necessarily takes place at the oral extremity. The first nerve is a ring surrounding the pharynx or gullet. Thus, if the body consists of several consecutive rings or cysts, as in the Worms, each ring will or can have its nervous ring, which inferiorly gives off nerves to the vegetative organs, and superiorly to the animal, if these be present. Such a point for giving off nerves is called a ganglion; since also every ganglion sends off nerves to join other ganglia; so both below and above a nervous cord or string will originate in the longitudinal direction. The nerves, which have been left behind in the vegetative parts, form the vegetative nervous system; those that remain in the animal parts, the animal system.
a.Vegetative Nervous System.
2025. The vegetative nervous system is the nervous mass that has remained behind, after the greatest part of it has become converted into tegumentary formations. Now, as these tegumentary formations, being surrounded in the higher animals by flesh, were thus viscera, so may the vegetative nerves be called alsoVisceralorSplanchnic nerves.
2026. These visceral nerves govern the vessels, the intestine, and lung; with the sexual parts also, yet in their case in combination with the animal nerves, because the sexual parts are at one and the same time organs of vegetative and animal life.
2027. These visceral nerves everywhere accompany the vessels, and are therefore like these distributed in a cystic manner between intestine and skin. They form a large cyst which concentrically surrounds the intestine.
2028. They do not, however, like the intestine, form any closed cyst, but only a cystimorphous net, like the vessels.
2029. The two nervous masses are in them separated from each other, like as the branchiæ have been distributed along the whole body and separated from the intestine. The gray or branchoid substance has separated itself from the white medullary substance into individualganglia, or as it were into individual nervous branchiæ. The medullary substance has also retained its connexion though only in a ramular manner, and not uninterruptedly like an integument. It is calledplexus.
2030. The ganglia and the plexuses stand in mutual opposition, like the branchiæ and intestine, like artery and vein, like blood and lymphatic vessels. The ganglia oxydize, polarize; they are the active. The plexuses suffer, digest, and are the recipient.
2031. The visceral nerves, like the viscera, act for themselves, being unconcerned for the animal systems.
2032. The visceral nerves have a vegetable sensationfor themselves, a sense of touch, such as the blossom might have in the instant of the pollenization.
2033. As all formations have become symmetrical through and in accordance with the vascular system, so does the vegetative nervous system separate into two parallel stems which accompany the arterial trunk. They are called intercostal nerves. These ramify and form plexuses that accord with the visceral organs, which they govern.
b.Animal Nervous System.
2034. The animal nervous system is the repetition of the vegetative, and is combined therewith to constitute an unity. The nervous cyst that was previously dissevered in a reticular manner, becomes a closed tube, which is placed upon the light-exposed side of the other animal systems, and thus upon the vertebral column. This closed nervous tube is called themyelon, orspinal cord.
2035. The spinal cord is worth as much as all the visceral nerves taken together; it is the felted system of intercostal nerves; and is, properly speaking, none other than the posterior double cord of ganglia. It consists therefore also of ganglia and plexuses, but both have coalesced, on account of the increase of the mass and its endeavour towards the attainment of union.
2036. The ganglia form a tube, which is inclosed by the tubes of the plexuses. The ganglion-tube is the gray, the plexus-tube the medullary substance.
2037. If the gray substance appear to reside within the medulla, this is the result only of involution or a folding in. The parietes of the spinal marrow stand therefore in everlasting tension with each other, like ganglia and plexuses, and like arteries and veins.
2038. The spinal marrow is the content of the bones and muscles, like the intercostal nerves or the visceral cord are the contents of the abdominal cavity, and as the blood is that of the internal and fibrous coat of the arteries. Bones and muscles are the animal parietes ofthe nerves, as the two vascular membranes are the vegetative walls of the blood. The skin, as branchia, incloses all, like the cellular membrane does the vessels.
2039. As the intercostal ganglia give off plexus-forming ramules; so does the spinal marrow; there are the spinal nerves. The spinal marrow is, first of all therefore, the coalescence of the two intercostal nerves.
2040. These spinal nerves are, however, animal plexuses, which partly encroach upon the visceral nerves, and partly pass to the animal systems.
2041. There are therefore two kinds of spinal nerves, vegetative and animal, and as many of them as there are divisions in the viscera and in the animal systems.
2042. The nerves pass off symmetrically from the spinal cord, because the nervous mass belongs to the symmetrical osseous system. They form therefore rings both anteriorly and posteriorly.
2043. The nervous system does not consist of individual cysts, like its two animal teguments, or bone and flesh. It is at one time the type or image of the vascular trunk and its ramifications; at another the indifferent æther-mass, which does not crystallize; it is lastly the organic primary mass that has remained persistent, and must thus be coherent in texture. It is the blood continually streaming from the animal divisions of the heart.
2044. The whole animal nervous system is a tegumentary cyst with tubes passing off from it symmetrically in the form of rings.
2045. The spinal cord cannot be the highest. It has only the lowest signification, in so far as it stands in the service of the viscera and the sense of touch, and thus follows the position and arrangement of the bones. Thus the spinal cord is first of all anosseo-nervous mass.
2046. The nerves, as running for the most partforwards, are musculo-nervous mass; those running backwards or outwards are tegumentary or sensitive nerves. This signification furnishes us, also with the physiological function of these two divisions of nerves. The nervesare homologous with the flexors, the spinal cord with the extensors; the nerves with the air, the medulla with the earth; the former with the arteries, the latter with the veins; the nerves are thus what is more active, the medulla that which is more inert.
2047. On that account the nerves only are in intercourse with the world, while the medulla broods within itself. Consequently, both these nerve-formations are not as yet the pure self-substantial nervous blossom, which no longer imitates flesh and bone, but only itself.
Brain.
2048. The highest point attained by the lower systems are the orifices of the viscera, the mouth and the nose. The mouth is the first animal sign, which the plant gives off in the blossom from itself. The Noblest lies therefore at the anterior extremity of the animal, or in man in the directionupwards.
2049. It consequently occupies the middle point, or one that is between the anterior flesh and the posterior bones, and at the same time the spot, from which all vital processes emerge, or the mouth.
2050. The oral nervous mass is theBrain. It forms originally the posterior ganglia of the pharyngeal ring.
2051. The situation of the brain is essentially in front of or above the body, in opposition to the sexual parts, which are the lower totality.
2052. It is, however, above and behind; for it is originally situated posteriorly. The brain can therefore originate only, when the posterior medulla inclines from above forwards, making a curve in the latter direction; the brain is a spinal cord that has been bent from above forwards.
2053. The more the spinal cord is curved forwards, so much the nobler is it. This is self-evident.
2054. The brain is a spinal cord which makes the transit from the signification of bone to that of flesh.
2055. In the brain therefore the tendency mustprincipally reside, to give off nerves, and perfect them into self-substantial nervous organs.
2056. In man the brain with its nerves curves round like a crosier, and that more perfectly than in any other animal. The spinal cord therefore in the highest formation of the brain returns again parallel to the direction, in which it has ascended.
2057. In the brain there is of necessity the greatest quantity of nervous mass. The brain is the nervous trunk, as theliveris probably the vascular trunk.
2058. In the brain the cystic formation has been most purely represented; as e. g. in the cerebral cavities or ventricles. The brain is the stomach of the nervous system or its lungs.
2059. The brain consists essentially of two substances, of one accommodated to the flesh, and one to the bones, or of one arteriose, and the other venous. The former is the gray or cortical, the latter the white or medullary substance. The cortex is the lung of the brain, the medulla the liver or the intestine.
2060. The bark or cortex is the polarizing, active, oxydizing; the medulla the patient or suffering.
2061. This nervous pulmonary substance is continued along the spinal cord and even along the nerves, there as veritable gray substance, here as the vascular membrane of the nervous mass.
Head.
2062. The brain, as being a system that has been separated superiorly from the other systems, determines theHead. The head is only there in so far as a brain is there.
2063. Head and trunk are antagonistically disposed, as Animal and Vegetable, or still more exactly, like nerve and bony flesh are to the viscera.
2064. The head is naught but a nervous organ.
2065. The concomitants of the nervous mass follow the brain, but, instead of the medulla having been previously subordinated to, or at least co-ordinated with, these,it is they that are thus related to the brain. The bones of the brain are the brain-case or cranium, the flesh of the brain, the face or countenance. On the head, bones and flesh have been disposed in the strictest manner according to their dignity or worth. Posteriorly there is almost pure bone, in front almost pure muscle.
2066. The cranium can be none other than the vertebral column continued around the brain. It consists of three vertebræ, the face of one. This will become clear in what follows.
2067. If the bones of the head are the repetition of those of the trunk, so also must the flesh of the head be a repetition of that of the trunk. Pectoral and abdominal muscles are ennobled in the muscles of the face.
2068. The face must have been principally formed by the orifice of the intestine—the mouth, and by the opening of the lungs—the nose, and by the apex of the vascular system—the members which are repeated as jaws. The month is the stomach in the head, the nose the lung, the jaws the arms and feet.
2069. The salivary glands are the liver in the head, as the mouth is its stomach. The liver that was originally also symmetric in form has become wholly symmetric in the higher organized head and forms two glands. The salivary ducts are the hepatic or biliary ducts.
2070. The tongue is the pharynx elongated upon the anterior side, because in front there is more flesh. The tongue is the extremity of the intestine converted into muscle.
2071. The nose includes pectoral muscles, the mouth arthric muscles or those of the limbs.
2072. If pectoral and abdominal muscles are repeated in the face, so also must the anterior bones, ribs, and limbs be repeated. It will be shown, in treating of the organs, that the nose is a vertebra, the jaws members, and their muscles those of the limbs. The head is the whole trunk with all its systems. The brain is the spinalmarrow, the skull the vertebral column, the mouth intestine and abdomen, the nose lung and thorax, the jaws are members.
Senses.
2073. The perfect animal again consists of two animals, the spiritual or solar, and the terrestrial or planetary. The animal nervous system does not continue to remain simply in the service of the other systems, but seeks also to gradually render itself self-substantial or independent. Now, the operation of the nervous system for itself is sensation. The parts of the nervous system having become self-substantial, will be therefore pure organs of sensation. Yet as the nervous system cannot emancipate itself from the other systems, so will its highest development be attained only in combination with the highest development of the other systems. There are therefore as many stages of the self-substantial nervous development, as there are special anatomical systems.
2074. Sensation must be modified according to the processes performed by those systems, with which the nervous system combines. These systems are, however specifically distinct from each other. Sensations that are specifically distinct are sensorial sensations. Organs of sense are accordingly the combination of the highest part of an anatomical system with the nervous system. Sensorial sensations are different processes of the anatomical systems perceived in the nervous system.
2075. The first combination of the nerves with the vascular system that has become free, or with the integument, is the sense of feeling—vascular sense. The intestinal system emancipated and combined with the nerves, is the tongue—gustatory sense—intestinal sense. The lung upon its highest evolution with the nervous system is the nose—olfactory sense—pulmonic sense. These are thus the sensorial organs of the vegetative systems—senses of vegetative life.
2076. There are indeed three animal senses; but as the osseous and muscular system form in their conjoined operation but one system or the motor system—therecan be therefore only 2 animal senses. The osseo-muscular or motor sense is the ear. If the nervous system becomes wholly self-substantial, the nervous sense thus originates, or the eye, in which the brain itself has been planted outwardly, and acts independently of all other systems.
2077. The vessels form the general system, and therefore the tegumentary sense surrounds the whole body. Its brain is the spinal cord.
2078. The four remaining senses are perfections of individual systems at their perfect extremity, and thus in the proximity of the mouth and the brain. They together form the head. The jaws and the tongue obtain their nerves from the medulla oblongata, and this is therefore the brain of the gustatory sense. The brain for the nose is the gray cerebral substance, because the olfactory nerves are its elongations. The ears obtain their nerves from the cerebellum, which is consequently the auditory brain. The eyes are developments of the great brain or cerebrum—optic brain. Such is the rationale and signification of the divisions of the brain.
2. OSSEOUS SYSTEM.
2079. The nervous mass consists of indifferent, deoxydized blood-globules. If these be peroxydized, then the highest oxyd of the planet is deposited in them, namely, the earth, and that indeed which was the last remnant in the order of their production, or the calcareous earth.
2080. Vesicles or cells replete with calcareous earth are globes. The osseous texture consists therefore of globes; is only a dense cellular tissue, and thus ranks nearest to the vegetable structure. The basis of the bones is at first a cellular gelatine, which, with increased oxydation, is converted into cartilage. Finally, calcareous earth is deposited in this cartilage.
2081. In the lower organized animals, who breathe for the most part by means of branchiæ, the acid combined with the calcareous earth is an inorganic, or the carbonic acid, i. e. oxygen combined with carbon, orthe earthy Inflammable; in higher animals it is an organic acid or phosphoric acid, i. e. oxygen combined with phosphorus, or the aerial Inflammable. Phosphoric acid may be regarded as peroxydized gelatine, as acid of gelatine. The bone is therefore earth, salt and Inflammable.
2082. The first appearance of the osseous mass is in the oxydizing organs. It is formed from the dense or internal coat of the arteries, since in old age bony lamellæ are deposited upon this. In the hearts also of many animals bones are formed.
2083. The first regular formation of bones is exhibited in the trachea or air-tube, which has been directly exposed to the oxydizing process of the air. These first forms of the bones are rings.
2084. The antetype of the bone is, however, the intestine, as the air-vessels are the antetype of the nerves. The bone is a tube, an ossified intestine.
2085. There are two osseous systems, a vegetative and an animal; the one surrounds the tegumentary systems, as, e. g. the scales of Fishes and Reptiles, horny rings of Insects; the other the nervous systems.
a.Vegetative Osseous System.
2086. The vegetative osseous system is divisible into dermal, tracheal, intestinal, and vascular bones.
2087. The dermal bones are tegumentary rings, which surround the whole body, and are tracheal rings in so far as the skin is originally a respiratory organ. Such are the rings of the body in Insects, the shells of the Gasteropods and Molluscs, with scales and scutes in general.
2088. The tracheal bones are the branchial arches and tracheal rings.
2089. The intestinal or splanchnic bones are tubes environing the intestine, as in the corals, or imperfect annular segments, which at one time are found in the stomach, as in the Mollusca, at another in the pharynx, as in the Worms, Snails, Sea-urchins, and Holothuriæ;constituting what are called pharyngeal maxillæ. The branchial organs are fundamentally also none other than pharyngeal rings. The lingual and palatal bones, with the intermaxillary bones, belong also to the same category.
2090. The vascular bones are displayed in the hearts of many animals. The three last divisions may be called visceral or splanchnic bones; and then we have tegumentary, splanchnic, and nerve-bones.
b.Animal Osseous System.
2091. The animal or nervo-osseous system must separate from the vegetative system of bones, and be placed upon the side exposed to the light. The side of the inferior animal that is exposed to the light, or averted from the earth, is the upper surface, dorsal region orback.
2092. The back holds the same relation to the ventral side as light does to the darkness, as sun to the earth; therefore the dorsal side is of a dark, the ventral of a faint or pale colour.
2093. Back and belly are related polarwise to each other.
2094. Through the medium of the bones the distinction between back and belly has been definitely established in the animal, and, as a consequence thereof, the distinction also of right from left. Before a formation of bone exists, the animal is for the most part a round cylinder.
2095. The osseous system can in itself be only symmetrically constructed.
2096. The osseous is the only symmetrical system in an animal. The other organs are so only in so far as they follow the arrangement of the osseous system.
2097. The animal osseous system is, from its being a repetition of the intestinal canal, a tube. This tube is surrounded, like the trachea, by rings, between which the tegumentary tube suffers constrictions.
2098. The back is a series of numerous bony rings.
2099. These bony rings are thebodiesof the vertebræ.
2100. The vertebræ have originated through polar repetition, through the muscular cysts.
2101. In addition to the series of vertebræ on the back, a vertebral column is formed moreover along the ventral surface, and without doubt there only where the air-organ, the branchia or lung, is situated. This inferior vertebral column is the breast-bone orsternum.
2102. All the systems, even those that are of a subordinate character in the animal, follow the direction of the main vertebral column. The intestine, as well as the vessels, are placed in accordance with it. Thus the principal trunks of the vessels take their rise along the vertebral column, the other vessels being given off from them in this situation, like the lymphatics from the intestine.
2103. The vascular ramules which surround the intestine and the skin, run out from a main stem, and are directed in a symmetric manner downwards and upwards (in the horizontal body of animals), or towards the belly and back.
2104. If new bony rings originate, they must also take these directions. They accompany the vessels that run in a circle, as the vertebral column accompanies the vascular trunks. These annularly-disposed bony twigs or apophyses constitute in the direction downwards the ribs, in that upwards the vertebral arches. Anterior and posterior to the vertebral column there consequently originates a long canal formed by the bony rings. In the anterior canal lie the galvanic or vegetative organs, in the posterior or upper, the organs of light must be situated "par excellence." The former of these canals is called the thoracic and abdominal cavity, the latter the vertebral canal. The vertebral canal is not the bony or medullary cavity itself, but it has been formed by several bony cysts in the same manner as the thoracic cavity. It consists of the body and the two arches. These are thus posterior (superior) ribs. The vertebral canal has the same signification as the thoracic cavity has; it is only a posterior thoracic cavity. It therefore contains,like the anterior canal, viscera dissimilar in kind to bone; the one including the spinal cord, the other vessels, intestine, and lung.
2105. The bony cysts that have originated through constriction do not all harden into calcareous matter, but they remain as alternating membranous cysts. Between the rings there are permanent cysts. The membranous cysts form thejoint, or articular capsule. An articular capsule is a bone which has remained soft.
2106. This change in the ossific process takes place through the attachment of muscles, concerning which we shall treat in the sequel.
2107. The whole osseous system is consequently a symmetrical arrangement of several polar cysts and rings.
2108. The vertebra is not a single ring, but is at once a tolerably compound osseous system. The whole osseous system is nothing but a vertebra repeated.
2109. The number of the vertebræ necessarily conforms to that of the pairs of nerves or ganglia of the spinal cord; for they are indeed only the periphery or envelope of the latter. The number of nerves is, however, adapted to that of the organs, which they have to take care of.
2110. Now, the nervous organs are the senses. There are consequently as many divisions of vertebræ as there are senses. Thus there are vertebræ appertaining respectively to the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Now as the four latter senses make up the head, but that of touch or feeling is distributed over the whole body, and superintended by the spinal nerves, the vertebræ thus divide into two principal sections, into vertebræ of the head and trunk. The number of cephalic vertebræ is 4; namely, nasal, ocular, lingual, and auditory vertebræ.
2111. To a perfect vertebra belong at least five pieces, namely, the body, in front the two ribs, behind the two arches or spinous processes; every vertebra of the head consists therefore of five pieces also. In those vertebræ which are removed from the respiratory organ,the ribs are smaller, as in the ventral ribs, and anchylosed with the body, as in the cervical vertebræ, where they are represented by the perforated transverse processes, and in the lumbar vertebræ they disappear entirely.
2112. The formation of the cervical vertebræ, where the ribs have been impacted or interposed between the body and spinous processes, is continued into the cranial vertebræ. These are only expanded cervical vertebræ. At the base of the skull four vertebral bodies lie in a series one behind the other; the body of the occipital bone, the two bodies of the sphenoid, and the vomer. Upon the sides of each of these bodies are situated alar processes, which correspond to the transverse processes of the cervical vertebræ, or to the ribs; e. g. the articular heads or condyles of the occipital bone, the alæ majores and minores of the sphenoids, and the two sides or lateral surfaces of the vomer. Behind these are placed the two broad cranial bones, which correspond to the spinous processes; as the occipital ridge or crest, the parietal, frontal and nasal bones. The occipital vertebra consists of the body, the two condyles and the occipital crest. The parietal vertebra consists of the body of the posterior sphenoid, the alæ majores, and the parietal bones. The frontal vertebra consists of the body of the anterior sphenoid, the orbitar wings or alæ, and the two frontal bones. The nasal vertebra consists of the vomer, the ethmoid and the two nasal bones. The occipital vertebra is the auditory vertebra; it incloses the auditory bones and the cerebellum, which gives off the nerves of hearing. The parietal vertebra is the lingual vertebra; the maxillary and lingual nerves passing through its alæ majores. The frontal vertebra is that belonging to the eye; through the orbitar plates or wings the optic nerves pursue their course, and it environs the cerebrum, from which these nerves originate. The nasal vertebra contains the olfactory nerves.
2113. Each cranial sense has thus only one vertebra, and the skull will consequently be formed of four vertebræ, whereof three appertain to the cranium, one unto theface. (See Oken's Ueber die Bedeutung der Schädelknochen, 1807.—Isis, 1817, S. 1204.)
2114. Several vertebræ are, however, found for the sense of feeling or touch, because it includes all the organs of the trunk. There must be therefore as many vertebræ in the trunk as there are particular organs placed therein. Of these there are three, the respiratory, digestive, and sexual system, or thorax, abdomen, and pelvis. To the thorax belong the neck, the arms, and the entire set of ribs. 5 vertebræ must appertain to the arms, because they have 5 digits and 5 nerves. But the ribs, and consequently also the digits, are determined by branchial vessels, are only repeated branchial arches, whose number in almost the entire class of fishes is 5. There are therefore also 5 thoracic or pulmonic vertebræ. Since the larynx consists of the 5 original branchial arches, and lies in front of the neck; so must the 5 superior cervical vertebræ stand in the signification of branchial vertebræ. The odontoid process of the second vertebra must be regarded, from its being separated from it in the fœtus, as a particular cervical vertebra. Accordingly, in the Thricozoa there are eight cervical vertebræ. The 3 inferior cervical, and the 2 upper costal or rib-vertebræ, give off through their interspaces the nerves of the arms, and are consequently the brachial vertebræ. The 3-7th rib are thus appended to the 5 proper thoracic vertebræ, which stand in the signification of the pulmonary vertebræ. To these succeed the 5 short ribs which belong to the abdomen; their vertebræ are thus intestinal vertebræ. The succeeding vertebræ belong to the sexual system, and are indeed the 5 lumbar or pedal vertebræ, because they furnish the pedal or foot-nerves, the 5 sacral vertebræ being the proper sexual vertebræ. The coccygeal or caudal vertebræ correspond to the cervical vertebræ, and are present for the sake of the sexual branchiæ; usually one and the other is arrested. Thus there are,—
3×5 Respiratory vertebræ.3×5 Sexual vertebræ.1×5 Digestive vertebræ.
The number of the sensitive vertebræ is consequently 7×5=35, which are distributed into three groups, in accordance with the principal cavities of the body, whereof the 2 terminal groups consist of 15, but the abdominal group, which combines or unites them, only of 5. The body is accordingly not merely laterally, but also in length, a perfectly symmetrical structure, which has been parcelled out in the following manner into its five stockworks, stories or floors: