48 ANIMAL MECHANICS 



died there ; but the anatomist can, by that single 

 bone, estimate, not merely the size of the animal, 

 as well as if he saw the print of its foot, but the 

 form and joints of the skeleton, the structure of 

 its jaws and teeth, the nature of its food, and its 

 internal economy. This, to one ignorant of the 

 subject, must appear wonderful, but it is after 

 this manner that the anatomist proceeds : let us 

 suppose that he has taken up that portion of bone 

 in the limb of the quadruped which corresponds 

 to the human wrist ; and that he finds that the 

 form of the bone does not admit of free motion 

 in various directions, like the paw of the carnivo- 

 rous creature. It is obvious, by the structure of 

 the part, that the limb must have been merely for 

 supporting the animal, and for progression, and 

 not for seizing prey. This leads him to the fact 

 that there were no bones resembling those of the 

 hand and fingers, or those of the claws of the 

 tiger; for the motions which that conformation 

 of bones permits in the paw would be useless 

 without the rotation of the wrist he concludes 

 that these bones were formed in one mass, like 

 the cannon bone, pastern bone, and coffin bones 

 of the horse's foot. 1 



1 For these are solid bones, where it is difficult to recognize 

 any resemblance to the carpus, metacarpus, and bones of the 

 fingers ; and yet comparative anatomy proves that these movable 

 bones are of the same class with those in the solid hoof of the 

 belluce of Linnaeus. 



