The armed extremities of a variety of animals give them great advantages. But if man possessed similar provisions, he would

forfeit his sovereignty over all. As Galen, long since, observed, "did man possess the natural armour of the brutes, he would no longer work as an artificer, nor protect himself with a breastplate, nor fashion a sword or spear, nor invent a bridle to mount the horse and hunt the lion. Neither could he follow the arts of peace, construct the pipe and lyre, erect houses, place altars, inscribe laws, and through letters and the ingenuity of the hand, hold communion with the wisdom of antiquity, at one time to converse with Plato, at another with Aristotle, or Hippocrates."

But the hand is not a distinct instrument; nor is it properly

pared it to the proboscis of the Elephant. They have assured us that they fish with their tail.

The most interesting use of the tail is seen in the Opossum. The

young of that animal mount upon her back, and entwine their tails around their mother's tail, by which they sit secure, while she escapes from her enemies.

a superadded part.. The whole frame must conform to the hand, and act with reference to it. Our purpose will not be answered by examining it alone; we must extend our views to all those parts of the body which are in strict connexion with the hand. For example, from the shoulder to the finger ends, such a relation is established amongst the whole chain of bones, that it is essential to embrace the whole extremity in the inquiry. And in order to comprehend fully the fine arrangement of the parts necessary to the motions of the fingers, we must compare the structure of the human body with that of other animals.

Were we to limit our examination to the bones of the arm and hand in man alone, no doubt we should soon discover the provisions in them for easy, varied, and powerful action; and conclude that nothing could be more perfectly suited to their purposes. But we must extend our views to comprehend a great deal more- -a larger design.

By a Skeleton, is understood the system of bones, constructed within, which gives firmness and characteristic form to the animal, and receives the action of the exterior muscles. This osseous system belongs, however, to one part only of the animal kingdom; that higher division - the Animalia Vertebrata * -which includes the chain of beings from man down to fishes.

To life, the most essential function is Respiration; and on the mode in which that is performed, or in which the decarbonisation of the blood is effected by its exposure to the atmosphere, depends a remarkable change, in the animal kingdom, of the whole framework of the body. As man, the mammalia, birds, reptiles, and fishes have the mechanism of respiration much in common, so, through them all, a resemblance can be traced in the structure of their bones, in the action of their muscles, and in the arrangement of their nerves. They all possess the Vertebral Column or Spine; and the existence of that column not only implies an internal skeleton, but that particular framework of ribs which is suited to move the lungs in breathing.

But the ribs do not move of themselves; they must have name given to one of the bones of the spine, or backbone.

* See the first of the ADDITIONAL Vertebra is the

ILLUSTRATIONS.

appropriate muscles. These muscles must have their appropriate nerves and for supplying these nerves, there must be a Spinal Marrow. The spinal canal formed within the vertebral column, is to the spinal marrow as necessary as the skull to the Brain. So that we come round to understand the necessity of a vertebra to the formation of a spinal marrow; and the reader may comprehend how much enters into the conception of the anatomist or naturalist, when the term, a vertebrated animal, is used, viz.,—an internal skeleton, a particular arrangement of respiratory organs, and a conformity in the Nervous System.

In making a review of the bones of the upper extremity, I shall limit myself to this superior division of Vertebrated animals.

If in commencing this subject, and indulging in the admiration which naturally arises out of it, I were to point, in the upper extremity, to the strength and freedom of motion at the ball and socket joint of the shoulder, to the firmness of the articulation at the elbow, with its admirable combination of mobility suited to the co-operation of the hands,—to the latitude of motion at the wrist, with its strength,—and to the fineness of the movements of the hand itself, divided among the joints of twenty-nine distinct bones-some, objecting with a show of reason, might say—The bones and forms of joints you are thus admiring, so far from being peculiarly suited to the hand of man, may be found in any other vertebrated animal! But that remark would not abate our admiration; it would only remind us that we erred in looking at a part only, instead of embracing a comprehensive system; where by slight, hardlyperceptible changes and gradations in the forms, the analogous bones were adjusted to every condition of animal existence.

Nothing can be adapted more correctly and appropriately for their object, than the bones by which the motions of the upper extremity are performed. We enjoy the power of bending and coiling the arm, extensively and freely-and of reaching the fingers to every part. Yet these bones, so truly admirable in man, are recognised in the fin of the whale, in the paddle of the turtle, and in the wing of the bird; we see the corresponding bones, perfectly suited to their purpose, in the paw of the lion, or the bear; and equally fitted for motion in the hoof of the

horse, or in the foot of the camel; or adjusted for climbing or digging, in the long-clawed feet of the sloth or bear.

It is obvious, then, that we should be unduly limiting our subject, if we did not consider the human hand in its relation to the corresponding organs of other animals: as exhibiting the bones and muscles, which in different animals are suited to particular purposes, so combined in the Hand as to perform, consistently with powerful exertion, actions the most minute and complicated. The wonder still is, that whether we examine the system in man, or in any of the inferior species of animals, nothing can be more curiously adjusted or appropriated; and whatever instance occupied our thoughts for the time, we should be inclined to say, that to that particular object it had been framed.

The view which the subject opens, is unbounded. It is upon a knowledge of the system of which we are speaking, that the curious synthesis, by which we ascertain the nature, condition, and habits of an extinct animal, from the examination of its fossil remains, is grounded. To make the proper use of that department, we must understand what a fossil bone is.

A bone consists of many parts; but for our present purpose it is necessary to observe only that the hard substance, which we familiarly recognise as bone, is formed of an earthy material, the phosphate of lime, everywhere penetrated by membranes and vessels, as delicate as those in any other structures of the body. Fossil bones are those found imbedded in the earth, and they may be in different conditions. They may either retain their natural structure, or may have become petrified; that is to say, the animal matter may have been decomposed and dissipated, with the phosphoric acid of the phosphate of lime; and then, silicious earth, or lime in composition with iron, or iron pyrites, may by solution and infiltration fill the interstices of the original matter of the bone. Thus bone will be converted into stone, and be as permanent as the rock which contains it; it will retain the form though not the internal structure of its original.

Now that form, in consequence of the perfect system which we have hinted at, becomes the proof of revolutions in the face of the earth the most extraordinary. By reasoning on such fossil bones, the mind of the inquirer is conducted back, not

merely to the contemplation of the structure of the animal of which they are the remains, but by inference from the animal organisation, to that of the changes in the globe itself.

In the highest mountains of the old and new world, remains of marine animals are found; and on turning up the surface of our fields, or in the beds of rivers, huge bones are discovered; not in the loose soil only, but under the solid limestone rock : now the bones thus exposed become naturally a subject of intense interest, and bear unexpectedly on the inquiry in which we are engaged. Among other important conclusions, they enforce this-that not only does a scheme or system of animal structure pervade all classes of animals which now inhabit the earth, but that the principle of the same great plan of creation was in operation, and governed the formation of those animals which existed previous to the revolutions that the earth has undergone that the excellence of form now visible in the human skeleton, was in the scheme of animal existence, long previous to the formation of man, before the surface of the earth was prepared for him, or suited to his constitution, structure, or capacities.

A skeleton is dug up, which has lain under many fathoms of rock, being the bones of an animal which lived antecedent to that formation of rock, and at a time when the earth's surface must have been very different from what it now is. These remains prove that the animal must have been formed of the same constituent elements as those of the present day; that it had analogous organs-received new matter by digestion, and was nourished by means of a circulating fluid-possessed feeling through a nervous system, and was moved by the action of muscles. With regard also to other animals of the same period, we may infer that, as in those now alive, the organs of digestion, circulation, and respiration, would be modified by circumstances, in accordance with their habits and modes of living; and that such changes, being but variations in the system by which new matter is assimilated to the animal body, would always, however remarkable they were, bear a relation to the original type, as parts of one great design.

In examining these bones of the ancient world, so regularly are they constituted on the same principle evinced in animals which now inhabit the earth, that by observing their shape, and

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