162 Human Physiology. 



the "human form divine." No animal form approaches it in 

 dignity and beauty. Compare the form of a beautiful woman 

 with all beasts, birds, and insects; and all together, graceful 

 and exquisite as they may be, fall far below its admirable 

 proportions. For the beauty and expression of the human 

 countenance there is no comparison. The finest and most 

 intelligent animals fall infinitely short of it; and those animals 

 supposed by some to be most nearly related to man are entirely 

 wanting in the characteristic expression of humanity. 



Every one has a more or less perfect ideal of the highest 

 masculine or feminine beauty. Such ideas may be perverted 

 by custom or fashion, as in respect to cramped feet in China, 

 or flattened heads among some tribes of savages. Flat noses 

 are said to be popular in Africa. These are exceptional eccen- 

 tricities of taste. Men generally know a handsome man or a 

 beautiful woman. In an assemblage of thousands there is 

 scarcely a dissenting voice to such general recognition. This 

 beauty consists of elegance of form and perfectness of propor- 

 tion. The head must have its proper size as well as shape, 

 and be well set upon a graceful neck, neither too large nor too 

 small, too long nor too short. The arms and legs must also 

 be of the exact length required to fit the body; tapering in 

 graceful curves to hands and feet, which must also be of exqui- 

 site proportions. Each part must fit every other; and the 

 standard is only to be found in nature, and our own concep- 

 tions of beauty and harmony in form. 



The human body is symmetrical, as are the bodies of beasts, 

 birds, and insects, but this symmetry does not extend to the 

 nutritive organs. The bony skeleton of man, his brain, spinal 

 chord, and the nerves which belong to it, and the muscles they 

 control, have two halves. In Fig. 16 the line may be seen 

 which separates the brain, cerebrum, and cerebellum, into two 

 hemispheres, and the same line divides the spinal column, and 

 the two halves of the body. We have therefore the organs of 



