BIMANA. 



35 



and but slightly flexible; the great 



toe, longer and larger than the rest, is 



placed on the same line with, and 



cannot be opposed to them. This 



foot, then, is peculiarly well adapted 



to support the body ; but cannot be 



used for seizing or climbing, and as the hands are not calculated for walking, 



man is the only true bimanous and biped animal. 



The whole body of man is arranged with a view to a vertical position. 

 Were he to desire it, man could not, with convenience, walk on all-fours ; his 

 short and nearly inflexible feet, and his long thigh, would bring the knee to the 

 ground ; his widely separated shoulders and his arms, too far extended from 

 the median line, would ill support the upper portion of his body. The great 

 indented muscle, which, in quadrupeds, suspends the body between the sca- 

 pulae, as in a girth, is smaller in man than in any other animal. The 

 head is also heavier, both from the magnitude of the brain and the small- 

 ness of the sinuses or cavities of the bones ; and yet the means of supporting 

 it are weaker, for he has neither a cervical ligament, nor are his vertebrae so 

 arranged as to prevent their flexure forwards ; the result of this would be, 

 that he could only keep his head in the same line with the spine, and then his 

 eyes and mouth being directed towards the earth, he could not see before 

 him; in the erect position, on the contrary, the arrangement of these organs 

 is every way perfect. 



The arteries which are sent to his brain, not being subdivided as in many 

 quadrupeds, if the blood requisite for so voluminous an organ were carried 



into it with too much violence, frequent apoplexies would be the consequence 



of a horizontal position. 



Man, then, is formed for an erect position only. He thus preserves the 



entire use of his hands for the arts, while his organs of sense are most favour- 

 ably situated for observation. 

 These hands, which derive such advantages from their liberty, receive as 



many more from their structure. The thumb, longer in proportion than that 



of the monkey, increases 



its facility of seizing 



small objects. All the 



fingers, the annularis 



excepted, have separate 



movements, a faculty 



possessed by no other 



animal, not even by the 



monkey. The nail, co- 

 vering one side only of 



the extremity of the represents the os burner!; b the ulna ; c the radius ; d a 



finger, acts as a support flexible cord or muscle, which by contraction from e elevates 



to the touch, without the weight in the hand. 



depriving it of an atom of its delicacy. The arms to which these hands are 



D 2 



