[208] The numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, &c. are formed by adding the successive terms of the series of natural numbers thus:
| 1 | = 1 |
| 1+2 | = 3 |
| 1+2+3 | = 6 |
| l+2+3+4 | = 10, &c. |
They are called triangular numbers, because a number of points corresponding to any term can always be placed in the form of a triangle; for instance—
| . | . .. | . .. ... | . .. ... .... |
| 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
[215] Kirby and Spence.
[221] See an article by Dr. Weissenborn, in the New Series of “Magazine of Natural History,” vol. i. p. 574.
[224] “It is a fact of the highest interest and moment that as the brain of every tribe of animals appears to pass, during its development, in succession through the types of all those below it, so the brain of man passes through the types of those of every tribe in the creation. It represents, accordingly, before the second month of utero-gestation, that of an avertebrated animal; at the second month, that of an osseous fish; at the third, that of a turtle; at the fourth, that of a bird; at the fifth, that of one of the rodentia; at the sixth, that of one of the ruminantia; at the seventh, that of one of the digitigrada; at the eighth, that of one of the quadrumana; till at length, at the ninth, it compasses the brain of Man! It is hardly necessary to say, that all this is only an approximation to the truth; since neither is the brain of all osseous fishes, of all turtles, of all birds, nor of all the species of any one of the above order of mammals, by any means precisely the same, nor does the brain of the human fœtus at any time precisely resemble, perhaps, that of any individual whatever among the lower animals. Nevertheless, it may be said to represent, at each of the above-mentioned periods, the aggregate, as it were, of the brains of each of the tribes stated; consisting as it does, about the second month, chiefly of the mesial parts of the cerebellum, the corpora quadrigemina, thalami optici, rudiments of the hemispheres of the cerebrum and corpora striata; and receiving in succession, at the third, the rudiments of the lobes of the cerebrum; at the fourth, those of the fornix, corpus callosum, and septum lucidum; at the fifth, the tubor annulare, and so forth; the posterior lobes of the cerebrum increasing from before to behind, so as to cover the thalami optici about the fourth month, the corpora quadrigemina about the sixth, and the cerebellum about the seventh. This, then, is another example of an increase in the complexity of an organ succeeding its centralization; as if Nature, having first piled up her materials in one spot, delighted afterwards to employ her abundance, not so much in enlarging old parts as in forming new ones upon the old foundations, and thus adding to the complexity of a fabric, the rudimental structure of which is in all animals equally simple.”—Fletcher’s Rudiments of Physiology.
[226] Project Gutenberg note: the table in the book is very wide. Since it won’t fit within the normal Gutenberg margins, and cannot be reproduced typographically, the rows of the table have been broken out as follows.—DP.
Table shows: scale of animal kingdom (the numbers indicate orders); order of animals in; ascending series of rocks; fœtal human brain resembles, in
(The numbers indicate orders)