Vestiges of the Natural History of CreationChambers, Robert
Science
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Chambers, Robert
Creation; Evolution (Biology)
To come to particular points of the organization. The brain of man,
which exceeds that of all other animals in complexity of organization and
fulness of development, is, at one early period, only “a simple fold of
nervous matter, with difficulty distinguishable into three parts, while a
little tail-like prolongation towards the hinder parts, and which had
been the first to appear, is the only representation of a spinal marrow.
Now, in this state it perfectly resembles the brain of an adult fish,
thus assuming _in transitu_ the form that in the fish is permanent. In a
short time, however, the structure is become more complex, the parts more
distinct, the spinal marrow better marked; it is now the brain of a
reptile. The change continues; by a singular motion, certain parts
(_corpora quadragemina_) which had hitherto appeared on the upper
surface, now pass towards the lower; the former is their permanent
situation in fishes and reptiles, the latter in birds and mammalia. This
is another advance in the scale, but more remains yet to be done. The
complication of the organ increases; cavities termed _ventricles_ are
formed, which do not exist in fishes, reptiles, or birds; curiously
organized parts, such as the corpora striata, are added; it is now the
brain of the mammalia. Its last and final change alone seems wanting,
that which shall render it the brain of MAN.” {201} And this change in
time takes place.
So also with the heart. This organ, in the mammalia, consists of four
cavities, but in the reptiles of only three, and in fishes of two only,
while in the articulated animals it is merely a prolonged tube. Now in
the mammal fœtus, at a certain early stage, the organ has the form of a
prolonged tube; and a human being may be said to have then the heart of
an insect. Subsequently it is shortened and widened, and becomes divided
by a contraction into two parts, a ventricle and an auricle; it is now
the heart of a fish. A subdivision of the auricle afterwards makes a
triple-chambered form, as in the heart of the reptile tribes; lastly, the
ventricle being also subdivided, it becomes a full mammal heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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