126 



NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



the ball capped with it. The smooth surface, the 

 elastic and uiifriable nature of cartilage, render it 

 of all substances the most proper for the place and 

 purpose. I should, therefore, have pointed this 

 out amongst the foremost of the provisions which 

 have been made in the joints for the facilitating 

 of their action, had it not been alleged, that car- 

 tilage in truth is only nascent or imperfect bone; 

 and that the bone in these places is kept soft and 

 imperfect, in consequence of a more complete 

 and rigid ossification being prevented from taking 

 place by the continual motion and rubbing of the 

 surfaces: which being so, what we represent as a 

 designed advantage is an unavoidable effect. I 

 am far from being convinced that this is a true 

 account of the fact ; or that, if it were so, it an- 

 swers the argument."' To me the surmounting of 

 the bones with gristle looks more like a plating 

 with a different metal, than like the same metal 



^^ As the Archdeacon had been a pupil of Dr. WilUam Hun- 

 ter's, which we gather from the tenor of many of liis observations, 

 it is surprising that he has not spoken v.ith more decision upon 

 this point. The cartilage, which is the substitute for the bone in 

 infancy, is very different from that which tips the ends of the ar- 

 ticulating extrerrxities of the bones. In a valuable paper of Dr. 

 Hunter's, it is shown that tliis articulating cartilage consists of 

 fibres, placed together like the hairs of a brush, but more com- 

 pactly, and perpendicularly to the ends of the bones ; and that on 

 liiis arrangement chiefly depends the elasticity of the material. 

 Its use is best proved by what takes place when it is deficient : 

 for then the articulation creaks like an old hinge, and the patient 

 suffers aches. 



