TELEOLOGY OF PALEY, ETC. 19 



were, to the frame ; added, as it should almost seem, 

 afterwards; not quite necessary, but very convenient. 

 It is separate from the other bones; that is, it is not 

 connected with any other bones by the common mode 

 of union. It is soft, or hardly formed in infancy ; and 

 is produced by an ossification, of the inception or pro- 

 gress of which no account can be given from the struc- 

 ture or exercise of the part." * 



It is positively painful to me to pass over Paley's 

 description of the joints, but I must content myself 

 with a single passage from this admirable chapter. 



" The joints, or rather the ends of the bones which 

 form them, display also in their configuration another 

 use. The nerves, blood-vessels, and tendons which are 

 necessary to the life, or for the motion of the limbs, 

 must, it is evident in their way from the trunk of the 

 body to the place of their destination, travel over the 

 moveable joints ; and it is no less evident that in this 

 part of their course they will have from sudden motions, 

 and from abrupt changes of curvature, to encounter the 

 danger of compression, attrition, or laceration. To 

 guard fibres so tender against consequences so injurious, 

 their path is in those parts protected with peculiar care ; 

 and that by a provision in the figure of the bones them- 

 selves. The nerves which supply the fore arm, espe- 

 cially the inferior cubital nerves, are at the elbow 

 conducted by a kind of covered way, between the con- 

 dyle, or rather under the inner extuberances, of the 

 bone which composes the upper part of the arm. At 

 the knee the extremity of the thigh-bone is divided by 

 * * Natural Theology,' ch. via. 



c 2 



