destroyed. With respect to the superiority of man being in his mind, and not merely in the provisions of his body, it is no doubt true; but as we proceed, we shall find how the Hand supplies all instruments, and by its correspondence with the intellect, gives him universal dominion. It presents the last and best proof in the order of creation, of that principle of adaptation which evinces design.

Another opinion requires to be noticed. It is alleged that the variety of animals existing in the world is not a proof of design, or of there being a relation between the formation of their organs and the necessity for their exercise; but it is supposed that the circumstances in which the animals have been placed are the cause of the variety. It is pretended, that, in the long progress of time, the influence of these circumstances has produced a complication of structure out of an animal which was at first simple. We shall reserve the discussion of this theory until we have the data before us; which alone, without much argument, will suffice, we think, to overthrow it.

I may notice shortly another idea entertained by some naturalists, who are pleased to reduce these differences in the structure of animals, to general laws. It is affirmed that in the centre of the animal body, no disposition to change is manifested; whilst in the extremities, on the contrary, surprising variations of form are exhibited. If this be a law, there is no more to be said about it; the inquiry is terminated. But I contend that the term is quite inapplicable, and worse than useless, as tending to check inquiry. Why is the variation in the form most common in the extremities, whilst towards the centre of the skeleton there is comparative permanence? I conceive the rationale to be this: that the central parts, by which in fact we mean the skull, spine, and ribs, are in their offices permanent; whilst the extremities are adapted to every exterior circumstance. In all animals, the office of the cranial part of the skull is to protect the brain, that of the spine to contain the spinal marrow, and that of the ribs to perform respiration; why should we expect these parts to vary in shape, while their offices remain the same? But the shoulder, on the contrary, must vary in form, as it does in motion, in different animals; so must the shape of the bones and of the joints more distant from the centre be adapted to their various actions;

and the carpus, tarsus, and phalanges,* must change more than all the rest, to accommodate the extremities to their diversified offices. Is it not more pleasing to see the reason of this most surprising adjustment, than merely to say it is a law? +

There is yet another opinion, which after perusing the following chapter, will suggest itself to those who have read the more modern works on Natural History. It is supposed that the same elementary parts belong to all animals; and that it is to the transposition of these elementary parts that the varieties in their structure are attributable. I find it utterly impossible to follow up that theory to the extent which its abettors would persuade us to be practicable. I object to it as a means of engaging us in very trifling pursuits-and of diverting the mind from the truth; from that conclusion, indeed, to which I may avow it to be my intention to carry the reader. But this discussion also must follow the examples; and we shall resume it in a latter part of the volume.

In this inquiry, we have before us what in the strictest sense of the word is a System. Of the extensive division of the animal kingdom which we are about to review, viz., the vertebrated animals, all the individuals possess a cranium for the protection of the brain, a heart, implying a peculiar circulation, and five distinguishable organs of sense; but the grand peculiarity, whence the term vertebrated is derived, is to be found in the Spine that chain of bones which connects the head and body, and, like a keel, serves as the foundation of the ribs, or as the basis of the fabric through which respiration is performed.

We are to confine ourselves, as we have said, to a portion only of this combined structure; to examine separately the Anterior Extremity, and to observe the adaptation of its parts, through the whole range of the vertebrated animals. We shall view it as it exists in Man, and in the higher division of animals which give suck, the mammalia; and in those which propagate by eggs, the oviparous animals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. In so doing, we shall find the bones composing it identified by certain common features, and yet in all the series, from the arm to the fin, adjusted to various purposes. We shall recognise the same bones formed, in the mole, into a powerful apparatus for digging, by which the animal soon covers itself, and burrows its way under ground; in the wing of the eagle we shall count every

bone, and find that although adapted to a new element, they are as powerful to rise in the air, as the fin of the salmon is to strike through the water; the solid hoof of the horse, the cleft foot of the ruminant, the paw with retractile claws of the feline tribe, and that with long folding nails of the sloth, are among the many changes in the adjustment of the same chain of bones, which ministers in man to the compound motions of the Hand.

Were it my purpose to teach the elements of this subject, I should commence by examining, in the lowest vertebrated animals, the earliest traces of the bones of the anterior extremity, with the gradually-increasing resemblance to the human arm, as we ascended in the scale; and I should then point out the greater variety of uses served by them in the higher animals. But since my present object is illustration only, I shall begin with the human arm; and dividing it into the Shoulder, Arm, and Hand, treat each subdivision with a reference to its structure in inferior animals.

In viewing the human figure, or human skeleton, in connexion with our present subject, we cannot fail to remark the strength and solidity which belong to the lower extremities, in contrast with those of the superior. Not only are the lower limbs proportionably longer and larger in man than in any other animal, but the haunch-bones (pelvis) are wider. The distances of the large processes on the upper ends of the thigh-bones (the trochanters), from the sockets of the hips, are also greater than in any of the vertebrata. Altogether, the strength of the bones of the lower extremities, the size and prominence of their processes, the great mass of the muscles of the loins and hips, distinguish man from every other animal; they secure to him the upright posture, and give him the perfect freedom of the arms, for purposes of ingenuity and art. At the head of this chapter is a sketch of the Chimpanzee,*

* Simia troglodytes, from the coast of Guinea, more human in its form, and more easily domesticated, than the ouran-outang. We would do well to consider the abode of these creatures in a state of nature -that they reside in vast forests, extending in impenetrable shade below, whilst above and exposed to the light, there is a scene of verdure and beauty. Such is the home of the monkeys and lemurs, that possess extremities like hands.

In

many of them the hinder extremity has a more perfect resemblance to a hand than the anterior; in the Coaita (p. 13), we see the great toe assuming the characters of a thumb, whilst in the fore-paw the thumb is not distinguishable, but is hid in the skin. In short, these paws are not approximations to the hand, corresponding with a higher ingenuity, but are adaptations of the feet to the branches on which the animals climb and walk.

an ape which stands high in the order of quadrumana. Yet we cannot mistake his capacities; that the lower extremities and pelvis, or hips, were never intended to give him the erect posture, or only for a moment; but for swinging, or for a vigorous pull, who can deny the power in these long and sinewy arms?

The full, prominent shoulders, and consequent squareness of the trunk, are equally distinctive of man with the strength of his loins; they indicate free motion of the arm and hand.

The bones of the shoulder, which form the centre of motion of the upper extremity, and afford origins of attachment to the .muscles of the arm, are simple in structure as they appear in man, or in any single animal; but if viewed in reference to their analogies in the different classes of the Vertebrata, they present remarkable varieties in shape, and assume an extraordinary degree of intricacy. In all their modifications of form, however, and notwithstanding the strange variations in the neighbouring parts, they retain their proper offices. In man, these bones lie supported on the ribs, and are directly connected with the great apparatus of respiration; but in certain animals, as in the frog, we shall see the ribs, as it were, withdrawn, and the bones of the shoulder curiously and mechanically adapted to perform their office, of giving a firm foundation to the extremity, without the support of the thorax. We shall not, however, anticipate the difficulties of the subject; but look first upon what is more familiar and easy, the shoulder in man, as compared with some of its varieties in the mammalia.