SECTION THIRD. 



PROPORTIONS. 



PART I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



PRELIMINARY IDEAS. 



Definition. The word proportions, in its most general accep- 

 tation, signifies agreement and correlation when it is applied to the 

 different parts of one whole. Considering it from the point of view 

 which concerns us, this meaning should still be preserved, and, in the 

 exterior, the study of the proportions endeavors to point out with pre- 

 cision the agreement of the regions with each other and with the body 

 as a whole. 



Agreement or Relation of the Regions. The bodies by 

 which we are surrounded are composed of elements, simple or complex, 

 possessing a kind of reciprocal connection with one another, from which 

 results the particular state in which these bodies appear to us. 



As to living beings, they are a collection of organs whose action 

 conspires to a sole end, the manifestation of that special mode of 

 activity which is called life. These organs, when we study only that 

 which is apparent to us from the exterior, show us relations of length, 

 width, thickness, direction, development, etc., which cause the animated 

 machine to present itself to us in a form always similar in its general 

 features, but, on the contrary, infinitely varied in its details. It is on 

 account of these general proportions, constantly the same and easily 

 recognized in each individual of the same species, that we distinguish, 



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