BIMANA. 04 



his body. The great indented muscle, which, in quadrupeds, suspends, 

 as in a girth, the body between the scapula;, is smaller in Man than in any 

 one among them. The head is also heavier, both from the magnitude of 

 the brain and the smallness of the sinuses or cavities of the bones ; and yet 

 the means of supporting it are weaker, for he has neither cervical ligament, 

 nor are his vertebrae so arranged as to prevent their flexure forwards ; the 

 result of this would be, that he could only keep his head in the same line 

 with the spine, and then his eyes and mouth being directed towards the 

 earth, he could not see before him ; — in the erect position, on the con- 

 trary, the arrangement of these organs is every way perfect. 



The arteries which iire sent to his brain, not being subdivided as in 

 many quadrupeds, and the blood requisite for so voluminous an organ being 

 carried into it with too much violence, frequent apoplexies would be the 

 consequence of a horizontal position. 



Man, then, is formed for an erect position only. He thus preserves the 

 entire use of his hands for the arts, while his organs of sense are most 

 favourably situated for observation. 



These hands, which derive such advantages from their liberty, receive 

 as many more from their structure. The thumb, longer in proportion 

 than that of the Monkey, increases its facility of seizing small objects. 

 All the fingers, the annularis excepted, have separate movements, a fa- 

 culty possessed by no other animal, not even by the monkey. The nail, 

 covering one side only of the extremity of the finger, acts as a support to 

 the touch, without depriving it of an atom of its delicacy. The arms, to 

 which these hands are attached, are strongly and firmly connected by the 

 large scapula, the strong clavicle, &c. 



Man, so highly favoured as to dexterity, is not at all so with respect to 

 force. His swiftness in running is greatly inferior to that of other animals 

 of his size. Having neither projecting jaws, nor salient canine teeth, nor 

 clav/s, he is destitute of oiFensive weapons ; and the sides and upper parts 

 of his body being naked, unprovided even with hair, he is absolutely with- 

 out defensive ones. Of all animals, he is also the longest in attaining the 

 power necessary to provide for himself. 



This very weakness, however, is but one advantage more — it compels 

 him to have recourse to that intelligence within, for which he is so emi- 

 nently conspicuous. 



No quadruped approaches him in the magnitude and convolutions of the 

 hemispheres of the brain, that is, in the part of this organ which is the 

 principal instrument of the intellectual operations. The posterior portion 

 of the same organ extends backwards, so as to form a second covering to 

 the cerebellum ; the very form of his cranium announces this magnitude 

 of the brain, while the smallness of his face shews how slightly that por- 

 tion of the nervous system which influences the external senses predomi- 

 nates in him. 



These external sensations, moderate as they all are in Man, are never- 

 theless extremely delicate and well balanced. 



His two eyes are directed forwards ; he does not see on two sides at 

 once, like many quadrupeds ; which produces more unity in the result of 

 his sight, and concentrates his attention more closely on sensations of this 

 kind. The ball and iris of his eye vary but little ; this restrains the ac- 

 tivity of his sight to a limited distance, and a determined degree of light. 



