DESIGN OF THE HEAD. 211 



III. 



DESIGN OR MECHANieAL CONTRIVANCE AS EXHIB- 

 ITED IN THE BONES OF THE HEAD AND THEIR 

 JOININGS. 



We have elsewhere spoken of the " architec- 

 ture " of the skull, which, though at first a start- 

 ling term, has been acquiesced in from the re- 

 markable instances that we have given of design, 

 in comparing the texture and connexion of the 

 bones with the art of the builder and carpenter. 

 The more important the part is to life — the more 

 vital the organ, we find the texture or fabric which 

 protects it the more perfect. The human skull 

 presents us with many curious proofs that the 

 forces or injuries to which it is exposed are cal- 

 culated and provided against. But we shall take 

 our first examples from the skulls of animals ; and 

 here we see that the brain is not covered in the 

 same manner in all, but that in each variety there 

 is a provision against the forces to which the skull 

 is subjected. The skull of a dog is hardly in any 

 respect like the skull of a ram ; the bones of the 

 former are thin ; the line of union, which is called 

 the suture, is simplb ; it is not provided to with- 

 stand percussion : but in the latter animal there is 

 reared over the proper brain-case a series of archr 



