Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/443

 PHILOSOPHICAL ANATOMY of an individual animal as in the comparative rank in the various groups. In ordinary mam- mals both the anterior and posterior limbs are organs of locomotion, but in man the anterior are transferred to the cephalic series, serving the purposes of the head ; the cephalization of the body, therefore, in him reaches the extreme limit, justifying his elevation by Owen in a group by himself, the archencepJiala. Dana maintains that cephalization is a fundamental principle, as respects grade, in zoological life, and throws great light upon classification. The term decephalization he applies to the opposite or descending gradation, in which members are transferred from the cephalic to the locomotive series, with elongation of the thorax and abdomen. Prof. E. S. Morse, in the "American Journal of Science" for 1866, applies this system to the classification of mollusks. Though Owen's conclusions are ac- cepted by most anatomists as coming nearest the truth, Mr. Maclise, in the article " Skele- ton " of the " Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology" (vol. iv., London, 1852), looks at the osseous framework from another point of view, and comes to very different results, at only a few of which can we glance here. He denies that there is any such ens as a typical vertebra, and maintains that vertebra are unequal quantities, varying in different regions of the trunk; according to him, the cervical, lumbar, and sacral vertebra develop costal appendages as well as the dorsal; the first seven thoracic costo-vertebral figures are complete, and all other parts of the mamma- lian spinal axis are more or less modified from this archetype. The fore limbs are homolo- gous to one another and to the posterior limbs; the scapula and ilium are the homologues of the posterior laminaa of a dorsal vertebra, the acromion and inferior iliac spinous processes correspond to transverse processes, and the head of the humerus and femur to the head of a rib. In 1864 Prot Huxley instituted a new comparison of limbs, placing them in the po- sition they assume in the embryo, but adopting the view generally maintained in Europe, that their relation is one of parallelism and not of symmetry, or that homologous parts look in the same direction. The opposite view, that of symmetry, or that homologous parts look in opposite directions, has been extensively adopt- ed by American anatomists, and notably by Jef- fries Wyman and Dr. Wilder. Prof. Wyman, in a paper on "Symmetry and Homology in Limbs" ("Proceedings of Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xi., 1867), maintains that the fore and hind limbs are not parallel repetitions of each other, like two ribs on the same side of the body, but are symmetrical parts repeating each other in a reversed manner from before backward, as right and left parts do from side to side. He drew attention to the remarkable analogy between symmetry and polarity, thus explaining both normal and abnormal develop- ment. He holds that the two ends of the body PHILOSOPHY 429 repeat each other, without meaning thereby that the head and pelvis repeat each other, as Oken maintained. He denies that the scapular arch is a modified rib belonging to the occip- ital vertebra, and believes that limbs are not dependencies of the scapular and pelvic arches, but belong to the category of tegumentary or- gans, their connection with the vertebral col- umn being secondary, like that of the teeth with the jaws. In opposition to the views of Owen, he regards the radius as homologous with the fibula, and the ulna with the tibia. Prof. B. G. Wilder, in his papers on " Inter- membral Homologies," in the "Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. xiv., 1871, and of the "American Association for the Advancement of Science," 1873, com- bats the old idea of parallelism of limbs, or that the thumb is the homologue of the great toe, &c., and substitutes that of symmetry, maintaining with Prof. Wyman that the above example is simply one of analogy, and that the true homologue of the thumb is the little toe. He has coined many new and expressive words, his "tools of thought," for the study of the nature and homologies of limbs; he seeks to prove that the cephalic and caudal regions are comparable with each other as are the right and left sides ; that the anterior and posterior limbs are appendages respectively of these re- gions ; and that an anterior limb is compara- ble with a posterior, as the two anterior or the two posterior are comparable with each other. He gives a bibliography of the subject of philo- sophical anatomy, to which the reader is re- ferred for the views of writers, both European and American, which cannot be alluded to here. PHILOSOPHY (Gr. ^Adf, loving, and ao^a, wisdom), the universal and absolute science, aiming to explain phenomena by ultimate causes ; to grasp the nature of real as distin- guished from phenomenal existence; to system- atize the forces and the laws which prevail in the activities of God, man, and nature ; to re- duce the universe to a principle of unity ; and to exhibit at once the impulse and the goal of destiny. The origin of the name is attribu- ted, on questionable authority, to Pythagoras, who preferred to be called a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, rather than a sophist or sage. It was appropriated and first popularized by Socrates, who made it the distinctive appella- tion of his teaching in contrast with the arro- gant designation of the sophists. Originally as- sumed in modesty, the term did not retain its etymological and Socratic meaning, but return- ed to that of <ro0/a, or wisdom. Among the most significant definitions of philosophy are the following: "the knowledge of things di- vine and human " (attributed to Pythagoras) ; " a meditation of death " (jie^iri] davdrov), and " a resembling of the Deity in so far as that is possible to man," also " search after true knowl- edge" (Plato); "the science of being," or of that which underlies all other sciences (Aris- totle); "that part of human learning which