124 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



locomotion, — firmness was to be consulted as well 

 as action. With a capacity for motion, in all di- 

 rections indeed, as at the shoulder, but not in any 

 direction to the same extent as in the arm, was 

 to be united stability, or resistance to dislocation. 

 Hence the deeper excavation of the socket, and 

 the presence of a less proportion of cartilage upon 

 the edge. 



The suppleness and pliability of the joints we 

 every moment experience ; and the firmness of 

 animal articulation, the property we have hitherto 

 been considering, may be judged of from this 

 single observation, that, at any given moment of 

 time, there are millions of animal joints in com- 

 plete repair and use, for one that is dislocated; 

 and this, notwithstanding the contortions and 

 wrenches to which the limbs of animals are con- 

 tinually subject. 



II. The joints, or rather the ends of the bones 

 which form them, display also, in their configura- 

 tion, another use. The nerves, blood-vessels, and 

 tendons, which are necessary to the life, or for 

 the motion, of the limbs, must, it is evident, in 

 their way from the trunk of the body to the place 

 of their destination, travel over the movable 

 joints; and it is no less evident that, in this part 

 of their course, they will have, from sudden mo- 

 tions, and from abrupt changes of curvature, to 

 encounter the danger of compression, attrition, or 

 laceration. To guard fibres so tender against 

 consequences so injurious, their path is in those 



