THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 21 



tendons are very strong. Besides binding the 

 muscles very fiiiniy at their ends to the bones, they 

 are very usefal :n giving a graceful shape to many 

 parts of the body. For instance, if these (39 and 

 40) muscles of the forearm, which must have a con- 

 nection with the fingers, were all continued as mus- 

 cular bundles, through the wrist, hand and finger- 

 joints, the hand would have a very clumsy figure. 

 But these muscles reach out to the finger- joints by 

 means of their tendons, and these tendons are 

 neatly bound down, to run snugly along the bones, 

 by means of ligaments, Kke this (45), so that the 

 hand is really a very shapely organ. This (63) shows 

 the tendon of this (62) muscle of the leg, and here 

 (68) is the tendon of this (66) large muscle of the 

 thigh. 



The muscles have been very appropriately 

 the called "our servants," furnished us with 



Muscles. u the - house ^ which we liye They are 



indeed very faithful servants. It is their work to 

 move, in many ways, the different parts of the body ; 

 or, as in walking, to move the body as a whole. 

 There is no movement of any part of the body which 

 is not produced by the action of one or more mus- 

 cles. Every step we take, the slightest motion of a 

 finger, the movement of the lips in speaking, the 

 chest in breathing, or the eye in winking - all 

 these movements are produced by the muscles. 

 The rapidity with which these muscles work 

 is quite astonishing. To be convinced of this, 



