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nydus/On Growth and FormPublic
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CHAPTER XVII ON THE THEORY OF TRANSFORMATIONS, OR THE COMPARISON OF RELATED FORMS

surprising nor peculiar; for it is linked with all the conôÙsiôÙdeôÙraôÙtions of mechanical efficiency and functional modification which we dealt with in our last chapter. The scapula occupies, as it were, a focus in a very important field of force; and the lines of force converging on it will be very greatly modified by the varying development of the muscles over a large area of the body and of the uses to which they are habitually put.

A lateral view of a human skull overlaid with a square grid for anatomical comparison, from D'Arcy Thompson's work.
A D'Arcy Thompson transformation grid showing a curved coordinate system mapping biological growth or form.

Let us now inscribe in our Cartesian co-ordinates the outline of a human skull (Fig. 404), for the purpose of comparing it with the skulls of some of the higher apes. We know beforehand that the main differences between the human and the simian types depend upon the enlargement or expansion of the brain and braincase in man, and the relative diminution or enfeeblement of his jaws. Together with these changes, the 〜facial angle〝 increases from an oblique angle to nearly a right angle in man, {771}

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