Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology)
In that skeleton there are a number of parts to be recognised. The long
series of bones, beginning from the skull and ending in the tail, is called
the spine, and those in front are the ribs; and then there are two pairs of
limbs, one before and one behind; and there are what we all know as the
fore-legs and the hind-legs. If we pursue our researches into the interior
of this animal, we find within the framework of the skeleton a great
cavity, or rather, I should say, two great cavities,--one cavity beginning
in the skull and running through the neck-bones, along the spine, and
ending in the tail, containing the brain and the spinal marrow, which are
extremely important organs. The second great cavity, commencing with the
mouth, contains the gullet, the stomach, the long intestine, and all the
rest of those internal apparatus which are essential for digestion; and
then in the same great cavity, there are lodged the heart and all the great
vessels going from it; and, besides that, the organs of respiration--the
lungs: and then the kidneys, and the organs of reproduction, and so on. Let
us now endeavour to reduce this notion of a horse that we now have, to some
such kind of simple expressions as can be at once, and without difficulty,
retained in the mind, apart from all minor details. If I make a transverse
section, that is, if I were to saw a dead horse across, I should find that,
if I left out the details, and supposing I took my section through the
anterior region, and through the fore-limbs, I should have here this kind
of section of the body (Fig. 1).
[Illustration: Fig. 1]
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