THE HUMAN SKELETON. 



89 



g t the ulna ; a, the radius. 



48. It has been remarked that the ulna has a hooked pro- 

 cess, the olecranon, e, which catches round the lower end of the 

 humerus; forming with it a hinge joint. The radius also, has 

 a neat, small, round head, &, bound to the ulna by ligaments, 

 which, as it turns, carries the hand, which is attached to its 

 lower extremity along with it. Now in animals that have 

 solid hoofs, such a motion would be useless and a source of 

 weakness, according!/ we find these bones united together 

 and consolidated in such animals. By an examination of 

 these bones alone^the anatomist is able to determine whether 

 the animal to which they belonged, perhaps thousands of 

 years ago, was carniverous or graminiverous, that is, 

 whether he was an animal or a vegetable feeder ; whether he 

 had claws or hoofs. If he finds merely the end of the radius, 

 and notices in it a smooth depression where it bears against 

 the humerus, and the smooth surface that turns on the cavity 

 of the ulna, he concludes at once, that the animal had a paw, 

 and a motion of the wrist which implies claws. It was in 

 this way that Cuvier and Buckland made those singular and 

 interesting discoveries in relation to antediluvian fossil 

 bones, which have given such importance to geological 

 researches. 



49. But let us examine this point a little further. If the 

 8* 



