In another place it says:
“Thus, the thigh bone or femur represents the fusion of at least five distinct segments, the union not being fully completed until about the twentieth year.” (Same book, p. 553, column 1.)
There is no bone in the fertilized ovum; therefore each skeleton and each bone is produced anew; that is, it grows anew for itself. No two bones are exactly alike. In the case of pairs similar bones are on opposite sides of the body, thus half the ribs, one arm, hand, leg, and foot are on each side of the body. Each of the twenty-four regular joints in the spinal column is similar to every other joint except the atlas. But, beginning at the top and going downward, each joint is smaller than the one next below it.
The bones of the skeleton have pores, foraminæ (holes), cavities, processes, joints and sutures. Some of them are long, others short, broad and irregular. Each is attached to one or more other bones by a joint or a suture. Each is adjusted to, and correlated with every other, in structure, form, size and function. The bones in the infant body grow inside of it and while in the mother’s womb. There is no model present by which to make it.
Who determines at what points in the embryo body these two hundred and seventy-eight bones shall be built up? Who ordains that there shall be twenty-two in the skull, thirty-three in the spinal column, etc.? Who fixes the structure, form, and size of each bone? Who adjusts and correlates each bone in the skeleton to every other? Who counts them? Who guides and controls the forces and motions that build up the skeleton, in such a manner that the bones on the right side have the same structure, form and size as those on the left? How does it happen that the bones on the right side are the reverse of those on the left? How does it happen that each human skeleton is exactly like every other. Who fixes nine months as the time in which the infant skeleton shall mature sufficiently for birth?
The father contributes the spermatozoön and the mother the ovum; these two cells fuse into the germ-cell (fertilized ovum), which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, with a possible trace of phosphorus and sulphur. Whatever qualities, characteristics, traits and potentialities pass from the parents to the child must necessarily be transmitted by and through the germ-cell (or fertilized ovum), for nothing else passes from the parents to the child. This cell is about the size of one-sixth of a common pin’s head; and is barely visible to the naked eye under the most favorable conditions. It has no intellect, memory nor will-power; no knowledge of anatomy, nor of the human body.
It is immediately divided into two daughter-cells, these into four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two and so on to infinity. Thus, it appears that the infinitesimal fertilized ovum is soon disintegrated, divided into millions of pieces and distributed among the new cells which are made from the food of the mother.
It is impossible to believe that the minute fertilized ovum when divided into a million pieces, selects the atoms, generates, guides and controls the forces and motions which build up the two hundred and seventy-eight bones in the infant body. It is preposterous to suppose that the millionth part of the germ-cell can determine the point in the embryo body, in which the skull bones, the ear bones, the spinal column, the arm-buds, leg-buds, etc., shall appear. Nor can we believe that this little cell or any of its daughter-cells can spontaneously and automatically produce any of the vital phenomena, manifested by the human skeleton.
Every one knows that neither the father nor the mother has any voluntary power, nor any control over the development and growth of the embryo.
Does the embryo develop and grow by accident or chance? Surely not; for each embryo develops and grows precisely as every other does, in every age and country, thus showing that the same ubiquitous creative force makes all of them.