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, 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.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44