,88 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



Rev. S. Haughton, D.C.L., F.R.S., a divine, mathe- 

 matician and medical man, investigated this subject, and 

 he found " that in every arrangement of bones, muscles, 

 joints and parts of animals the motion must be such as 

 it would be on the hypothesis that the muscle were a 

 living intelligent thing, trying to save itself trouble. 

 We can calculate with a certainty as perfect as we can 

 calculate the path of a planet the positions of bones and 

 sockets as we find them in Nature ".^ 



The law is familiar to every one on a little reflection. 

 Thus no one, not even a dog, would go round two sides 

 of a triangular field to get to another corner. Though 

 Euclid took the trouble to prove that any two sides of 

 a triangle are together longer than the third yet it is 

 practically axiomatic. With all people there exists the 

 universal habit of abbreviating words. We say, for 

 example, " won't " and " can't " for " will not " and " can- 

 not," and many other instances will occur to the reader. 



The bee supplies a good instance in making its honey- 

 comb. The cells are constructed on strictly mathematical 

 principles. It has been ascertained by mathematical 

 calculations that no other form of cells in combination 

 could give the maximum capacity with the minimum of 

 material ; yet the bee is quite unconscious of the fact. 

 All that it does is to build cells on opposite sides of 

 a sheet of wax, only taking care that each cell stands 

 over the space between three cells on the other side. 

 The cells being then erected on both sides result in the 

 usual hexagonal form. 



Similarly with regard to muscles, Dr. Haughton ob- 

 serves, " Nature aims at producing a given quantity of 



^ The Principle of Least Action in Nature, illustrated by Animal 

 Mechanics ; being three lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain, 1871. 



