THE NECK. 17 



in the best proportion, or of such proportion as serves to compen- 

 sate for faulty dimensions in other parts. A part most faultlessly 

 fashioned and proportioned may — placed among certain other ill- 

 formed or out-of-proportioned parts — appear itself to be the faulty 

 piece in the fabric. In an animal body, as in machines made by 

 man's hands, the great object to be sought for is harmony between 

 the constituent members: at the instant, we are not hastily to con- 

 demn any apparent disproportion, lest, on critical examination, it 

 should turn out to have been given for the purpose of compen- 

 sation — to make amends for some defective structure elsewhere, 

 which may not at first sight have struck our attention. 



LECTURE IT. 

 THE NECK. 



" With neck like a rainbow, erecting his crest." 



THE neck being the part to which the head is affixed, and by 

 which it is attached to the body and supported, its shape and pro- 

 portions will necessarily admit of a good deal of variation, accord- 

 ing to the size and setting-on of that appendage. Viewed in the 

 skeleton, the neck appears a very slender and inadequate structure 

 to support such a formidable and bulky substance as the head ; and 

 truly inadequate to such a burden would it prove, were it not in the 

 living animal aided in its functions by two powers of considerable 

 influence and importance — one elastic, the other muscular, in its 

 nature. The striking difference in the aspect and volume of the 

 neck in the anatomized and living animals, will shew how great is 

 the proportion of soft parts — ligament and muscle — compared with 

 the abstract osseous materials or component vertebrce ; and when we 

 come to consider the nature and economy of these soft materials, we 

 shall find that hardly any of the weight of the head is actually 

 borne by the vertebrce of the neck ; although the bone here, as in 

 other parts, must still be regarded as the framework and basis of 

 the structure. So far, therefore, as the bone is concerned in the 

 support of the head, it matters little what the form and dimensions 

 of the neck may be ; its length and figure and substance having 

 reference chiefly to the operation of the muscular and elastic 

 powers. 



D 



