72 NATURAL THEOLOC-Y. 



supply to every part of the body. The same spine was also 

 to serve another use not less wanted than the precedmg, 

 namely, to afford a fulcrum, stay, or basis — or, more proper- 

 ly speaking, a series of these — for the insertion of the mus- 

 cles which are spread over the trunk of the body ; in which 

 trunk there are not, as in the limbs, cylindrical bones to 

 which they can be fastened : and likewise, which is a similar 

 use, to furnish a support for the ends of the ribs to rest upon. 

 Bespeak of a workman a piece of mechanism which shall 

 comprise all these purposes, and let him set about to con- 

 trive it ; let him try his skill upon it ; let him feel the diffi- 

 culty of accomplishing the task, before he be told how the 

 same thing is effected in the animal frame. Nothing will 

 enable him to judge so well of the wisdom which has been 

 employed — ^nothing will dispose him to think of it so truly 

 First, for the firmness, yet flexibihty of the spine : it is com- 

 posed of a great number of bones — in the human subject, ol 

 twenty-four — joined to one another, and compacted by broad 

 bases. The breadth of the bases upon which the parts sev- 

 erally rest, and the closeness of the junction, give to the 

 chain its firmness and stability ; the number of parts, and 

 consequent frequency of joints, its flexibility. Which flexi- 

 bility, we may also observe, varies in different parts of the 

 chain : is least in the back, where strength more than flex- 

 ure is wanted ; greater in the loins, which it was necessary 

 should be more supple than the back ; and greatest of all in 

 the neck, for the free motion of the head. Then, secondly, 

 in order to afford a passage for the descent of the medullary 

 substance, each of these bones is bored through in the mid- 

 dle, in such a manner as that, when put together, the hole 

 in one bone falls into a line and corresponds with the holes 

 in the two bones contiguous to it. By which means the per- 

 forated pieces, when jomed, form an entire, close, unint^.'r- 

 mpted channel, at least while the spine is upright and at 

 rest. But as a settled posture is inconsistent with its use, 

 a great difficulty still remained, Avhich was to prevent the 



