Identifier: animalvegetable01roge (find matches)
Title: Animal and vegetable physiology, considered with reference to natural theology
Year: 1836 (1830s)
Authors: Roget, Peter Mark, 1779-1869
Subjects: Biology Physiology Plant physiology Natural theology
Publisher: Philadelphia, Carey, Lea & Blanchard
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
of the skeleton of fishes, which correspond tothe arms and legs of quadrupeds, are the pectoral and ven-tral fins (marked respectively by the letters p and v in Fig.184.) The former are met with, with but few exceptions, • The bony arches arising from the skull, which support the bronchiae, orgills, have been considered as the bones corresponding to the ribs of terres-trial quadrupeds; and if this view were taken of them, it would tend to con-firm the analogy of the cranial bones to the spinal vertebra. STRUCTURE OF FISHES. 293 in all fishes; and they consist of a scries of osseous pieces,in which we may often recognise with tolerable precisionthe analogous bones composing the anterior extremities ofa quadruped; such as the scapula, clavicle, humerus, ulna,and radius.* These two latter bones are very distinctlymarked in the Lophhts jmcatorius, or Ajigler, as may beseen in Fig. 191, where b is the scapula; c, the clavicle; u,the ulna; and r, the radius. The carpus may also be recog-
Text Appearing After Image:
nised in a chain of small bones, w^, interposed between theradius and the Phalanges, z. In the Ray these phalangesare very numerous, and each is divided into several piecesby regular articulations: these are shown in Fig. 192: theyare arranged close to one another in one plane, and form aneffectual base of support to the integument which coversthem. The scapula, according to Cuvier, is sometimes de-tached from the rest of the skeleton, and at other times con-nected with the spine: in most cases, however, it is sus-pended from the cranium; a fact which may be cited in • Those anatomists who are fond of pursuing the theory of analogies,maintain that all these bones are merely developments of certain ribs, pro-ceeding- from the spine in its anterior parts. A similar orig-in has been as-signed to the pieces of bone to which the ventral fins are attached: but it isdifficult to reconcile this tlieory with the fact that these bones do not pro-ceed from the spine, and are quite detached fro

Note About Images