move in accordance with time, is the source of much that is pleasing in music, and assists the effect of melody.

"The hand

Sang with the voice, and this the argument."

The closest connection is thus established between the enjoyments of the sense of hearing, and the exercise of the muscular sense.*

The effect of disorders of the nervous system upon the muscular frame, is sometimes to show how natural certain combinations of actions may be, although morbidly excited. The following is a curious illustration:-A young woman, who could not be taught to go down a country-dance, suffering under a nervous illness, began to execute involuntary movements, not unbecoming an opera-dancer. At one time she would pace slowly round the room, with a measured step, the arms carried with elegance, as in a minuet; again, she would stand on the toes of one foot, and beat time with the other; on some occasions she would strike the table, or whatever she could reach, with her hand, many times softly, and then with force; at length it was found that she did everything in rhythm. A friend thought that in her regular beating he could recognise a tune; and he began singing it. The moment the sound struck her ears, she turned suddenly to the man, danced directly up to him, and continued to dance, until he was quite out of breath. The cure of this young woman was of a very unusual kind: a drum and fife were procured, and when a tune corresponding to the rhythm of her movements was played, in whatever part of the room she might be, she would dance close up to the drum, and continue dancing until she missed the step,-when these invo

rative influence of music over the passions and over disease. And it appears to have been resorted to by Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, both in acute and chronic disorders. Hence the phrase, "Loca dolentia incantare."

*It is probable that we must as- | Galen records instances of the restocribe to this the power possessed by music over the passions, and even over disease. It is recorded that the music teacher of Socrates [and many will be pleased to know that so sage a man had a music teacher] seeing one inflamed with wine, intent, while the flute was played in Phrygian measure, on setting fire to the house, cured him by ordering the player to change the mode to the grave and soothing Spondæus!

To learn how much of the pleasure of the sense of Vision depends on muscular action, see the 'Additional Illustrations" in the Appendix.

luntary motions instantly ceased, and the paroxysm ended. The physician, profiting by this, and observing a motion in her lips, put his ear close to her mouth; he thought he could hear her sing; and questioning her, she said there was a tune continually dwelling upon her ear, which at times irresistibly impelled her to begin her involuntary dance. In the end, she was cured by altering the time, in beating the drum; for, whenever she missed the time, the influence ceased to have its effect.*

If asked what this extraordinary disease is, we can only answer that, being an excitable state of the nervous and muscular systems, it will be called Chorea; but it is an instance of a natural combination of muscular actions, morbidly produced; just as in hysteria, where the expression of various natural passions, for example, weeping or laughing, is frequently exhibited.

CHAPTER X.

THE ORGAN ADAPTED TO THE INSTINCT.-THE HAND NOT THE SOURCE OF INGENUITY OR CONTRIVANCE, NOR CONSEQUENTLY OF MAN'S SUPERIORITY.

SEEING the perfection of the human Hand, both in structure and endowments, we can hardly be surprised at some philosophers entertaining the opinion of Anaxagoras, that the superiority of man is owing to his hand. Although the system of bones, muscles, and nerves belonging to this extremity, is suited to every form and condition of vertebrated animals, yet it is in the human hand that we perceive the consummation of all perfection, as an instrument. This superiority consists in its combination of strength, with variety, extent, and rapidity of motion; in the power of the thumb, and the forms, relations, and sensibility of the fingers, which adapt it for holding, pulling, spinning, weaving, and constructing; properties which may be found separately in other animals, but are combined in the human hand.

The

In virtue of these provisions, the hand corresponds to the superior mental capacities with which man is endowed. instrument is capable of executing whatever his ingenuity suggests. Nevertheless, the possession of the ready implemeift is not the cause of man's superiority: nor is its aptness for execution the measure of his attainments. So we rather say, with Galen, that man has a hand, because he is the wisest of creatures, than ascribe to his possession of a hand, his superiority in knowledge.*

This question has been raised, from observing the perfect

*Ita quidem sapientissimum animalium est homo: ita autem et manus sunt organa sapienti animali convenientia. Non enim quia manus habuit propterea est sapientissimum, ut Anaxagoras dicebat: sed quia sapientissimum erat, propter hoc

manus habuit, ut rectissime censuit Aristoteles. Non enim manus ipsæ homines artes docuerunt, sed ratio. Manus autem ipsæ sunt artium organa: sicut lyra, musici; et forceps, fabri.

correspondence between the propensities of animals, and their forms and outward organisation. When we see the heron, still as a grey stone, and hardly distinguishable from it, standing by the water side, intently watching his prey, we might at first suppose this was a habit acquired from the use of his stilt-like limbs, constructed for wading, with his long bill, and flexible neck; for the neck and bill are as much suited to its mode of seizing the fish, as the liester is to the fisherman, in spearing the salmon. But in the configuration of the black bear, there is nothing peculiarly adapted for his catching fish; yet will he sit, on his hinder extremities, by the side of a stream, morning, or evening, on the watch, like a practised fisher; and so perfectly motionless is he, that he will deceive the eye of the Indian, who mistakes him for the burnt trunk of a tree; when the bear sees his opportunity favourable, he will thrust out his fore-paw, and with incredible celerity seize a fish. In this instance, the exterior organ is not the cause of the habit or of the propensity. Hence if we see the instinct bestowed without the appropriate organ, may we not in other examples when the two are conjoined, believe that the habit exists with the instrument, not through it?

The canine teeth are not given without a carnivorous appetite; nor is the necessity of living by carnage joined to a timid disposition; but boldness and fierceness, as well as cunning, belong to the animal armed with retractile claws and sharp teeth, and which preys on the living.* On the other hand, the propensities of the timid vegetable feeder are not to be attributed to his having mobile, erect ears, or prominent eyes: though his suspiciousness and timidity correspond to these forms. The boldness of the bison or the buffalo may be as great as that of the lion; but the impulse that directs them in their mode of attack is different: instinct impels them to gore with their horns. And they will strike with their heads, whether they have horns or not; "The young calf will butt against you before he has horns," says Galen; or as the Scotch song has it, "the putting cow is aye a doddy;" that is, the humble cow (inermis), although wanting horns, is ever the most mischievous.

*In some of the quadrumana, the canine teeth are as long and sharp as those of the tiger-but they are in

L

struments of defence only: they bear no relation to the appetite, mode of digestion, or internal organisation.

When that noble animal, the Brahmin bull, of the Zoological Gardens, first put his hoof on the sod, and smelt the fresh grass after his voyage,—placid and easily managed before, he became excited, plunged, and struck his horns into the earth, ploughing up the ground on alternate sides, with a very remarkable precision. This was his dangerous play: just as the dog, in his gambols, worries and fights; or the cat, though pleased, puts out its claws. It would, indeed, be strange, where all else is perfect, if the instinctive character or disposition of the animal were at variance with its arms or instruments.

But the idea may still be entertained, that the accidental use of the organ may conduce to its more frequent exercise, and thereby to the production of a corresponding disposition. Such an hypothesis would not explain the facts. The late Sir Joseph Banks, in his evening conversations, told us that he had seen, what many perhaps have seen, a chicken catch at a fly, whilst the shell stuck to its tail. Sir Humphry Davy relates that a friend of his, having discovered, under the burning sand of Ceylon, the eggs of an alligator, had the curiosity to break one of them; when a young alligator came forth, perfect in its motions and in its passions; for although hatched in the sand under the influence of the sunbeams, it made towards the water, its proper element: when hindered, it assumed a threatening aspect, and bit the stick presented to it. We may therefore conclude, that as animals have propensities implanted in them to perform certain motions to which their external organs are subservient, so their passions or dispositions are given as the means of directing them how to defend themselves, or obtain their food.

But this has been well said seventeen hundred years ago. Take," says Galen, "three eggs, one of an eagle, another of a goose, and a third of a viper: and place them favourably for hatching. When the shells are broken, the eaglet and the gosling will attempt to fly; while the young of the viper will coil and twist along the ground. If the experiment be protracted to a later period, the eagle will soar to the highest regions of the air, the goose betake itself to the marshy pool, and the viper will bury itself in the ground."

We have daily before us proofs of ingenuity in the arts not only surviving the loss of the hand, but excited and exercised,