The foundations of The origin of species : a sketch written in 1842 / edited by Francis Darwin.
- Charles Darwin
- Date:
- 1909
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The foundations of The origin of species : a sketch written in 1842 / edited by Francis Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
80/94 page 48
![§ x. Recapitulation and conclusion. Let us recapitulate the whole (?) (of) these latter sections by taking case of the three species of Rhinoceros, which inhabit Java, Sumatra, and main¬ land of Malacca or India. We find these three close neighbours, occupants of distinct but neighbouring districts, as a group having a different aspect from the Rhinoceros of Africa, though some of these latter inhabit very similar countries, but others most diverse stations. We find them intimately related [scarcely (?) differences more than some breeds of cattle] in structure to the Rhinoceros, which for immense periods have inhabited this one, out of three main zoological divisions of the world. Yet some of these ancient animals were fitted to very different stations: we find all three (illegible) of the generic character of the Rhinoceros, which form a [piece of net]1 set of links in the broken chain representing the Pachydermata, as the chain like¬ wise forms a portion in other and longer chains. We see this wonderfully in dissecting the coarse leg of all three and finding nearly the same bones as in bat’s wings or man’s hand, but we see the clear mark in solid tibia of the fusion into it of the fibula. In all three we find their heads composed of three altered vertebrae, short neck, same bones as giraffe. In the upper jaws of all three we find small teeth like rabbit’s. In dissecting them in foetal state we find at a not very early stage their form exactly alike the most different animals, and even with arteries running as in a fish: and this similarity holds when the young one is produced in womb, pond, egg or spawn. Now these three undoubted species scarcely differ more than breeds of cattle, 1 The author doubtless meant that the complex relationships between organisms can be roughly represented by a net in which the knots stand for species.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31351761_0082.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
