STRUCTURE, ACTION, AND THOUGHT. 755 



of muscles, and, as Prof. Goodsir used to point out, the muscles of 

 the back, so perplexing at first, are really quite simple in their 

 arrangement. For each of the spinal vertebrae has to be bent and 

 straightened and has also to rotate more or less upon its neigh- 

 bors, so as to allow the upper part of the body to swing round 

 upon the lower. We have, therefore, muscles going from the 

 spine of one vertebra to the spine of the next, and then muscular 

 strips stretching over a few and then over many vertebra?, so as 

 to straighten the spine either in part or whole, as the movements 

 may require. A similar arrangement 

 holds good for the muscles passing 

 from the spines to the lateral processes 

 and which rotate the vertebrae on one 

 another. 



But if we are to group the muscles 

 and nerves of the body into one easily 

 remembered whole, we must see what 

 is the chief function to be subserved 



-1 ,i i , • ,1 n ii •... Fig. 8.- — Diagram of the Ligaments 



by them, what is the center of the lit- or CarpuSi as seen from behind 



tie universe which they Compose. The Besides these there are ligaments 



function of most imperious necessity v™f*s™ various directions, so 



* J as to bind the bones more firmly 



is respiration. A man may starve him- to each other, 

 self to death, but he can not kill him- 

 self by holding his breath. He may refuse food, but can not 

 refuse air. In the child the function of respiration is the first 

 which evidences itself after birth, and the muscles which subserve 

 it are more fully developed and more perfectly innervated than 

 others. The nerve channels which supply them are, as it might 

 be termed, more deeply grooved than others, and it is along these 

 channels that superabundant energy overflows in the movements 

 of laughter which evidence joy. This has been very fully and 

 wisely explained by Herbert Spencer in his essay on Laughter. 

 But the great poet, whose recent death the whole civilized world 

 is now deploring, has classed together in a few pregnant words 

 the channels through which the overflow of energy may run in 

 their proper order. In describing the joy evinced by a baby on 

 seeing its mother, Tennyson says it 



A blind and babbling laughter, and to dance 

 Its body, and reach its failing innocent arms 

 And lazy lingering fingers." 



The very parts which attain to the highest development in adult 

 age, and are capable of the finest and most dexterous movements, 

 are the last to develop, and in infancy they are well described as 

 " lazy lingering fingers." They take no part in the function of 



