536 THE MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS. 



no large projection, as in other orders of mam- 

 malia ; nor are the muscles that are inserted 

 into the heel particularly powerful ; they hardly, 

 indeed, can be said to compose a calf as in the 

 human leg. 



12. Man. 



THE series of structures modelled on the charac- 

 teristic type of the Mammalia, after having ex- 

 hibited the successive developement of all its 

 elements, attains the highest perfection in the 

 human fabric : for even independently of those 

 prerogatives of intellect and of sensibility, by 

 which Man is so far exalted above the level of 

 the brute creation, both his physical structure 

 and his physiological constitution place him in- 

 contestibly at the summit of the scale of terres- 

 trial beings. Considered zoologically, indeed, 

 the human species must rank among the Mam- 

 malia, and it even makes a near approach to 

 the Quadrumana ; yet there exist many peculia- 

 rities of structure, which entitle Man to be placed 

 in a separate order, where disclaiming any close 

 alliance with inferior creatures, he proudly 

 stands alone, towering far above them all. 



It is not, however, on a pre-eminence in any 

 single physical quality or function that this title 



