Conclusion to Metamorphosis

Petrus Camper’s Metamorphoses

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DEMONSTRATIONS OF CAMPER’S METAMORPHOSES

Nature gives us the most admirable and spectacular example of what has been advanced here in the metamorphosis that takes place in the frog.

Plate VII, Figure 12. Cow into a Bird
cow-stork metamorphosis

In erecting only the trunk in the manner of GC (purple line), it follows that the front feet lift off the ground and that, as the center of gravity is no longer supported by the front, it must be by the back feet in EI (blue line).
The trunk "G" (red circle) raising considerably from the ground, the neck must be stretched in GH (red line), and the head must be carried towards the back to coincide with the line of propensity in HI (dotted red line).
The front feet, rendered unfit for walking, are thus wings and terminate in accordance to Camper's general rules.

NOTE

Birds, being covered in feathers, are not tormented by flies, and hence do not require a long and flexible tail as among the quadrupeds.

Plate VII, Figure 13. Quadruped into a Human
horse-human metamorphosis

As the multiplicity of lines produces too much confusion, it is better to draw, for example, a horse on 4 legs and demonstrate on those of behind how the hips meet at a single point (green line).

that the hips will be compressed into a right line with the hams or thighs;
that the front legs coming to hang along the body in the manner of arms require as a result the necessity to be supported by the collarbones;
that the thighs and the legs find themselves necessarily in a one and same straight line;
that the head does not need to be at the end of a long neck and therefore needs no high withers;
that the back becomes flat;
that the head, having the brain and the cerebellum placed one in front of the other in a horizontal line, is now closer to a spherical shape and the center of gravity and of movement must meet at a single point;
that it is of all necessity that the jaw retreats inside, and, as a result, that the nose yields to the outside;
that the feet are curtailed;
and that 5 toes have to be given to the feet.

NOTE

It follows from the 3rd rule that the thighs, the calves in man and even the buttocks, have to be more fleshy, in proportion, because of the need of the trunk to keep itself upright.

(Aristotle had noticed that only man was tailless and had buttocks, and concluded that it had to be due to the fact that he was the only animal that stood.)

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