Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Darwiniana : Essays — Volume 02
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology)
I pass on from that now, as I merely wished to explain to you what I meant
by the use of the term "Geographical Distribution." As I said, there is
another aspect, and a much more important one, and that is, the relations
of the various animals to one another. The horse is a very well-defined
matter-of-fact sort of animal, and we are all pretty familiar with its
structure. I dare say it may have struck you, that it resembles very much
no other member of the animal kingdom, except perhaps the zebra or the ass.
But let me ask you to look along these diagrams. Here is the skeleton of
the horse, and here the skeleton of the dog. You will notice that we have
in the horse a skull, a backbone and ribs, shoulder-blades and
haunch-bones. In the fore-limb, one upper arm-bone, two fore arm-bones,
wrist-bones (wrongly called knee), and middle hand-bones, ending in the
three bones of a finger, the last of which is sheathed in the horny hoof of
the fore-foot: in the hind-limb, one thigh-bone, two leg-bones,
ankle-bones, and middle foot-bones, ending in the three bones of a toe, the
last of which is encased in the hoof of the hind-foot. Now turn to the
dog's skeleton. We find identically the same bones, but more of them, there
being more toes in each foot, and hence more toe-bones.
Well, that is a very curious thing! The fact is that the dog and the
horse--when one gets a look at them without the outward impediments of the
skin--are found to be made in very much the same sort of fashion. And if I
were to make a transverse section of the dog, I should find the same organs
that I have already shown you as forming parts of the horse. Well, here is
another skeleton--that of a kind of lemur--you see he has just the same
bones; and if I were to make a transverse section of it, it would be just
the same again. In your mind's eye turn him round, so as to put his
backbone in a position inclined obliquely upwards and forwards, just as in
the next three diagrams, which represent the skeletons of an orang, a
chimpanzee, and a gorilla, and you find you have no trouble in identifying
the bones throughout; and lastly turn to the end of the series, the diagram
representing a man's skeleton, and still you find no great structural
feature essentially altered. There are the same bones in the same
relations. From the horse we pass on and on, with gradual steps until we
arrive at last at the highest known forms. On the other hand, take the
other line of diagrams, and pass from the horse downwards in the scale to
this fish; and still, though the modifications are vastly greater, the
essential framework of the organisation remains unchanged. Here, for
instance, is a porpoise: here is its strong backbone, with the cavity
running through it, which contains the spinal cord; here are the ribs, here
the shoulder-blade; here is the little short upper-arm bone, here are the
two forearm bones, the wrist-bone, and the finger-bones.
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