This meristic variation, as Bateson calls it, is the great distinctive character of the spinal region, which distinguishes it from the cranial region with its fixed number of nerves, and its substantive rather than meristic variation.
Such marked meristic variation in the spinal nerves, in contrast to the fixed character of the cranial nerves, certainly points to a more recent formation of the former nerves.
Next comes the question, why was the pronephros not repeated in the meristic repetition that took place during the early vertebrate stage?
This meristic variation is a sign of instability, of want of fixedness in the type, and is evidence, as already pointed out, that the spinal region is newer than the cranial.
Meristic law is that of balance and distribution: it defines what is and is not to be possessed.
The violation ofmeristic law is [Greek: anomia] (iniquity).
When however we pass from the substantive to the meristic characters, the conception that the character depends on the possession by the germ of a particle of a specific material becomes even less plausible.
Now since variation consists as much in meristic change as in alteration in substance or material, there is one great range of problems of causation from which we are as yet entirely cut off.
As themeristic system of distribution spreads through the body, chemical differentiations follow in its track, with segmentation and pattern as the visible result.
These agents do not, to use a loose expression, come into touch with the meristic forces.
We know nothing of the causation of division, and we have scarcely an observation, experiment or surmise touching the causes by which the meristic processes may be altered.
The question thus arises whether this webbing is of the same nature as that shown to be a dominant in Man, and indeed whether the phenomenon in pigeons is really meristic at all.
The "ripples" of meristic division not merely divide but differentiate, and when a "ripple" forks the result is not merely a division but a reduplication of the organ through which the fork runs.
In so far as mutations may consist in meristic changes of many kinds and in the loss of factors it is unnecessary to repeat that we have abundant evidence of their frequent occurrence.
The Meristic Variations form on the whole a natural and fairly well defined group, but the Substantive Variations are obviously a heterogeneous assemblage.
Lastly, it may be recalled that in sterility we are almost certainly considering a meristic phenomenon.
Variations in the number of vertebrae and other meristiccharacters of fishes correlated with the temperature of water during development.
There are meristic variations, involving the symmetrical pattern, and substantive variations involving changes in the constitution or substance of the organism.
Meristic law is that of balance and distribution: it defines what is and is not to be possessed.
Meristic law, or that of tenure of property, first determines what every individual possesses by right, and secures it to him; and what he possesses by wrong, and deprives him of it.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "meristic" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
