14 The Rev. P. Keith on the Structure of Animals, 



cumference of the body lies within a line encircling the breast; 

 but in a high state of corpulency, or embonpoint, the greatest 

 circumference may lie within a line encircling the abdomen, 

 as in the case of Falstaff's waist, according to Shakspeare; 



" Fat, My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about 



'* Pist, Two yards and more. 



" Fal, No quips now. Pistol ; indeed I am in the waist two 

 yards about, but I am now about no waste. I am about 

 thrift *." — A rare thing for Falstaff to be about, and worthy of 

 special notice ! 



In the body, as also in the head and neck, you may readily 

 trace a medial line, having similar parts or organs on each side, 

 on the right and on the left, — the two eyes, the two nostrils, 

 the two ears, the two shoulders, the two breasts, the two sides. 

 The medial line of the trunk is displayed most conspicuously 

 in the back, following the course of the backbone, and in most 

 of the Mammalia terminating in a tail, of which men and some 

 monkeys are destitute. In men the surface is covered with a 

 naked skin, which gives the body a quick and susceptible tact 

 throughout, but requires the aid of clothing. 



The fourth and last portion of the fabric is that of the 

 limbs. In the Mammalia, and indeed in all vertebrate animals, 

 where limbs are present, they are almost always four in num- 

 ber; and upon the principle of duality, and of a right and left 

 side, which we have just recognised, they go in pairs, — two 

 fore limbs, and two hind limbs. In man the two fore limbs are 

 composed of the arms, the fore arms, and the hands. The 

 arms extend from the shoulder to the elbow, the fore arms 

 from the elbow to the wrist, and the hands from the wrist to 

 the tips of the fingers. Each hand is composed of a metacarpus, 

 or body, which constitutes what we call the back and hollow 

 of the hand, together with four fingers and a thumb, the thumb 

 being so placed as to stand in opposition to the fingers, and 

 thus greatly to facilitate the grasping or holding of small bodies. 

 The palms of the hands, and particularly the ends of the fin- 

 gers, are the peculiar seat of touch ; to which the nail, placed 

 only on the one side of the extremity, affords a kind of sup- 

 port. No other animal possesses an organ of touch so perfect 

 as that of man. The hand of apes makes the nearest approach 

 to it, but is far from reaching to its perfection of form. Even 

 the hand of the ourang-outang, the most perfect of apes, is too 

 long in proportion to its width, and the thumb, which scarcely 

 reaches to the root-joint of the forefingerf, too short, and too 



♦ Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. Sc. 3. 



t Dr. Abel. Griffith's Suppl. Hist, of Man. [On the hand of the ourang- 

 outang, see also Dr. Jeffi-ies's paper in Phil. Mag. vol. Ixvii. p. 183, 188. 

 — Edit.J 



