So THE HUMAN BODY. 



the praises of Pollux defending his own life and that of his 

 companions with the arms which nature gave him ; but if we 

 admire Pollux battling with the Sicilian giant, we turn our 

 eyes from the arena ensanguined by the gauntlet of Enteilus. 

 The soldier considers it an honour to employ with skill in 

 the defence of his country the sword which she has intrusted 

 to him; but he despises the arms and the trade of the 

 gladiator. 



The principal function of the upper limb is to remove 

 objects from the body, and to draw them to it; but it can 

 also remove the body from a fixed point, or approach it to 

 one. It is in this way that the sailor raises himself on the 

 rigging, or the gymnast on the trapeze ; but the weight of the 

 body is not in proportion to the strength of the limbs which 

 raise it, and although exercise renders this effort less difficult 

 by increasing the power of the muscles, it is evident that 

 here the arm performs a function which does not devolve 

 upon it chiefly, and which belongs to a more powerful mem- 

 ber, of which we will now speak. 



Lower or abdominal limb. It is composed, like the upper 

 limb, of four parts the hip, thigh, leg, and foot. The two 

 bones of the hip, or pelvic bones, articulate together and with 

 the sacrum; this last, placed between the two like a wedge, 

 transmits by their means the weight of the body to the lower 

 limbs, which are the pillars of the human edifice. On the 

 external face of each pelvic bone we see a deep, hemispheri- 

 cal, articular cavity. This is the cotyloid cavity, which receives 

 the head of the thigh-bone, and forms with it the articulation 

 of the hip. The femur or thigh-bone is the longest and 

 strongest bone in the skeleton ; it is almost cylindrical, and 

 is curved outward, which gives it greater strength. At its 

 upper extremity we see the head of the femur, supported by 

 a neck which is united to the body of the bone at an ob- 

 tuse "angle.' This obliquity has the effect of increasing the 

 distance between the two femurs, and in consequence be- 

 tween the two lower extremities, thus giving to the body a 

 larger base and greater stability. Another result is, that the 

 weight of the. body is transferred to the femur, but not 

 directly and in a right line; the necks of the two femurs 



