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ANATOMY. 



pan through caustic potash, when the latter alone 

 passes into a bell jar, where its amount is determin- 

 ed ; some dispense with the exhaustion of the air, 

 and receive the nitrogen in a bell jar containing some 

 air, which stands inverted over mercury. The ad- 

 dition of gas in this bell jar after the combustion, 

 indicates the proportion of nitrogen in the com- 

 pound. The other mode consiits in collecting the 

 mixed carbonic acid and nitrogen gases, in several 

 narrow graduated tuhes, and successively examin- 

 ing those for their relative proportion of the two 

 gases. This is done by adding to each of them a 

 little caustic potash, which absorbs the carbonic 

 acid and leaves the nitrogen. The amount of car- 

 bon in the compound having been ascertained by 

 a previous experiment, with the apparatus for this 

 purpose before described, and the relative propor- 

 tions of the carbonic acid and nitrogen being 

 afforded by the present experiment, we have here all 

 the data necessary for calculating the composition 

 of the substance that has been submitted to analysis. 



It has been with the help of the modes of ana- 

 lysis now described, that organic chemistry has 

 made in the last ten years such immense progress. 

 Without a correct and speedily-executed process for 

 analysing the different substances as they occur in 

 investigations in organic chemistry, it has been 

 impossible to explore the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms in their chemical relations, as had been 

 done, and is still doing. The present mode of 

 analysis is all but perfect. It is in good hands; so 

 accurate as in this respect to rival, indeed to sur- 

 pass, the analytical processes of inorganic chemis- 

 try ; and an analysis may often be commenced and 

 ended within three hours. 



ANATOMY, (a.) like every other branch of use- 

 ful knowledge, has of late become a study of more 

 general interest, and is not now confined, as for- 

 merly, to scientific and professional men. The 

 numerous treatises that have been published on 

 Natural Theology, Phrenology, Physiology, and 

 Natural History, especially on the Physical His- 

 tory of man, and on Animal Mechanics, in con- 

 junction with popular lectures on the structure and 

 functions of animal life, have all contributed to 

 awaken a laudable curiosity among almost every 

 class of society, to become more thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the structure and composition of 

 living animal bodies, and especially of the struc- 

 ture of the human body, and of those laws by 

 which the animal economy is governed and di- 

 rected in its progress from its conception to its 

 birth, and from its birth till its death, or dissolu- 

 tion, as a living and animated being. From the 

 short space, therefore, which was allotted to Ana- 

 tomy in the body of the work, it is now certainly 

 due to the spirit of the age, that we should pre- 

 sent to the general reader a condensed, yet more 

 extended, view of the present state of our know- 

 ledge of Human Anatomy. 



A. catalogue of the bones of the skeleton in 

 their relative positions, with a plate presenting an 

 anterior and posterior view of the hard parts, or 

 pillars, of the human frame, accompanies the short 

 history of the science to which we have alluded. 

 The outer layer of muscles, or those brought into 

 view when the body is stripped of its external 

 envelopes, have likewise been enumerated, which 

 if attentively examined and studied, in connection 

 with the following sketch, and those other ana- 

 tomical and physiological articles which have al- 

 ready found a place in the body of the work, and 



others to be met with in this Supplement, will, we 

 have no doubt, tend to enhance the value of this 

 publication, and furnish muny an inquirer with a 

 mass of anatomical and even physiological facts, 

 which are seldom to be met with in works of this 

 description. 



The late revered Mr John Bell well observes, 

 that it is a matter of little consequence at what 

 point of the human body the anatomist begins to 

 unfold its structure, so that he performs the route, 

 and circumnavigates the whole. It has been com- 

 mon, however, to begin with osteology, or, in other 

 words, the anatomy of the bones, then proceed to 

 myology, or a description of the muscles. We 

 should be at no difficulty to find arguments in fa- 

 vour of pursuing a different course ; but as we are 

 by no means partial to innovations, we :-liiill fol- 

 low the arrangement of that distinguished anato- 

 mist, Bichat, and observe the following order 

 as the most simple analysis, or division of the 

 body into its elementary parts, and the knowledge 

 and adoption of which has been of the utmost 

 importance, not only in the investigation and 

 treatment of diseases, but has proved of the great- 

 est convenience in anatomical arrangement. The 

 principles upon which this order is founded, 

 rests on the fact that the different organs which 

 constitute the body, are of a more simple or com- 

 plex structure, as they are made up of one or more 

 tissues or textures, which are the original materials 

 performing the same function, in whatever part of 

 the body they exist. Even the solid parts of our 

 fabric, when minutely examined, are found to con- 

 sist ultimately of layers of minute fibres or fila- 

 ments, varied in appearance and texture, according 

 to the use and offices of the part they compose. 

 It is likewise known that most of the organs of the 

 body are composed of a variety of these elemen- 

 tary textures, and are spread out in the form of 

 membranes, collected into cords or hollowed out 

 into canals, and by their diversity of combination, 

 figure and colour, they produce all the modifications 

 of structure and functions which different organs 

 possess. In adopting these views, we shall consider 

 the systems of tissues or textures in the following 

 order. 1. The bony system, including the medul- 

 lary. 2. The cartilaginous, including the fibro- 

 cartilaginous. 3. The fibrous. 4. The muscular. 

 5. The vascular, divided into the arterial, venous 

 lymphatic, &c. 6. The nervous. 7. The mucous. 

 8. The serous. 9. The glandular. 10. Adipose. 

 11. The cellular. 12. The dermoid : Which twelve 

 divisions will comprehend a general view of the 

 whole animal structures. 



As already stated, an enumeration of the bones, 

 with their names, will be found under the article 

 on anatomy, in the body of the work : we shall 

 therefore, under this head, confine our attention to 

 the General Anatomy of Bone, or Osseous Sub- 

 stance, which in the human body resembles the 

 corresponding texture in the bodies of quadrupeds. 

 The fabric of the skeleton alone, of which almost 

 every person has a general notion, is sufficient to 

 show the great varietyof forms under which it exists. 

 (See Anatomy, Plate III. vol. I). In some parts 

 innumerable fibres or plates of it may be found 

 nearly as fine as a hair, in others it occurs in solid 

 pieces, fully half an inch thick. Its structure is 

 exceedingly simple. If we divide it, and examine 

 its surfaces with a common magnifying glass, or 

 cut off slender films of it, and inspect them in n 

 powerful microscope, it will appear to be a uni- 





