Observations on the limbs of vertebrate animals : the plan of their construction, their homology, and the comparison of the fore and hind limbs / by George Murray Humphry.

  • Humphry, George Murray, Sir, 1820-1896.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the limbs of vertebrate animals : the plan of their construction, their homology, and the comparison of the fore and hind limbs / by George Murray Humphry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    38/54 (page 34)
    I venture upon this hint with some timidity and not without much reflection, knowing that it is in opposition to the views of one whose labours in this field exceed those of anv living anatomist, and whose authority is deserving of proportionately great weight. I feel, too, an unwillingness to cast a doubt upon a great and important generalization ; for generali- zations give a charm and an impetus to science, and it is vexing and disappointing to find them questioned when we have nurtured them and enjoyed them and looked to them as our helps to further progress. But after all, it is by questioning and discussing, no less than bv assenting, that science is to be advanced; and a theory, if true, will thereby shine forth brighter and clearer and better fitted to light men on their way. This feeling renders me unwilling to assent to the expression that “ the same type has governed the formation of the two limbs1;” I would rather say that they are products from one simple structure, their similarities not being the result of a subjection to one pattern but of an emanation from one point under the influence of similar nutritive forces. So likewise it seems scarcely correct to speak of “the fading away of the patternunless we have stronger ground for belief in the existence of a pattern. Again, the statement that “ the archetype is progressively departed from as the organisation is more and more modified in adaptation to higher and more varied powers and actions3,” would seem to me more correct if the term “ simple primary form” were substituted for the word “archetype.”