38 MAMMALIA. 



His external ear, possessing but little mobility or extent, does not increase 

 the intensity of sounds ; and yet, of all animals, he best distinguishes the 

 various degrees of intonation. His nostrils, more complicated than those 

 of the monkey, are less so than those of all other genera ; and yet he ap- 

 pears to be the only animal whose sense of smell is sufficiently delicate to 

 be affected by unpleasant odours. Delicacy of smell must have some in- 

 fluence on that of taste ; and, independently of this, Man must have some 

 advantage in this respect over other animals, those, at least, whose tongues 

 are covered with scales. Lastly, the nicety of his tact results both from 

 the delicacy of his teguments and the absence of all insensible parts, as 

 well as from the form of his hand, which is better adapted than that of 

 any other animal for suiting itself to every little superficial inequality. 



Man is pre-eminently distinguished in the organ of his voice ; of all the 

 Mammalia, he alone possesses the faculty of articulating sounds, its pro- 

 bable causes being the form of his mouth and the great mobility of his lips. 

 From this results his most invaluable mode of communication ; for, of all the 

 signs which can be conveniently employed for the transmission of ideas, 

 variations of sound are those which can be perceived at the greatest dis- 

 tance, and are the most extensive in their sphere of operation. 



The whole of his structure, even to the heart and great vessels, appears 

 to have been framed with a view to a vertical position. The heart is placed 

 obliquely on the diaphragm, and its point inclines to the left, thereby 

 occasioning a distribution of the aorta, differing from that of most quad- 

 rupeds. 



The natural food of man, judging from his structure, appears to consist 

 of the fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables : his hands of- 

 fer him every facility for gathering them ; his short, and but moderately 

 strong jaws on the one hand, and his canini being equal in length to the 

 remaining teeth, and his tubercular molares on the other, would allow him 

 neither to feed on grass nor to devour flesh, were these aliments not pre- 

 viously prepared by cooking. Once, however, possessed of fire, and those 

 arts by which he is aided in seizing animals or killing them at a distance, 

 every living being was rendered subservient to his nourishment, thereby 

 giving him the means of an infinite multiplication of his species. 



His organs of digestion are in conformity with those of manducation ; 

 his stomach is simple, his intestinal canal of moderate length, the great in- 

 testines well marked, his ccecum short and thick and augmented by a small 

 appendage, and his liver divided only into two large lobes and one small one ; 

 his epiploon hangs in front of the intestines, and extends into the pelvis. 



To complete the hasty sketch of the anatomical structure of Man requisite 

 for this introduction, we will add, that he has thirty-two vertebrae, of which 

 seven belong to the neck, twelve to the back, five to the loins, five to the 

 sacrum, and three to the coccyx. Seven pairs of his ribs are united with 

 the sternum by elongated cartilages, and are called true ribs ; the five fol- 

 lowing pairs are denominated false ones. His adult cranium is formed of 

 eight bones; an occipitalis, two ossa temporis, two parietalia, and tlie 

 frontal, ethmoidal and sphenoidal bones. The bones of his face are four- 

 teen in number, two maxillaries, two ossa mal*, each of which joins the 

 temporal to the maxillary bone of its own side by a kind of handle called 

 the zygomatic arch ; two nasal bones, two ossa palati behind the palate, a 

 vomer between the nostrils, two turbinated bones of tlie nose in the nos- 



