84 ANIMAL MECHANICS 



resistance diminished, for when the weight is 

 raised to CAD, it becomes the measure of the 

 lever of resistance. 



A more admirable thing is witnessed by the 

 anatomist, we mean the manner in which the 

 lever, rising or falling, is carried beyond the 

 sphere of action of one class of muscles, and 

 enters the sphere of activity of others. And this 

 adaptation of the organs of motion is finely ad- 

 justed to the mechanical resistance which may 

 arise from the form or motion of the bones. In 

 short, whether we contemplate the million of 

 fibres which constitute one muscle, or the many 

 muscles which combine to the movement of the 

 limb, nothing is more surprising and admirable 

 than the adjustment of their power so as to bal- 

 ance mechanical resistance, arising from the 

 change of position of the levers. 



In the animal body, there is a perfect relation 

 preserved betwixt the parts of the same organ. 

 The muscular fibres forming what is termed the 

 belly of the muscle, and the tendon through 

 which the muscle pulls, are two parts of one 

 organ ; and the condition of the tendon indicates 

 the state of the muscle. Thus jockeys discover 

 the qualities of a horse by its sinews or tendons. 

 The most approved form in the leg of the hunter, 

 or hackney, is that in which three convexities can 

 be distinguished, the bone ; the prominence of 



