130 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



which, like some shell-fish, hardly know enough 

 to change their place. 



But with the hundreds of muscles which we 

 now possess, how multiplied are our motions! 

 For you must recollect that not only the move- 

 ments of the head, arms, hands, fingers, back, 

 legs, toes, &tc. are performed by these means, 

 but also the movements of the very chest it- 

 self in breathing, unless, as is the case with 

 some unwise or ignorant mothers, we confine 

 the latter by tight clothing. More than all 

 this, the curious processes of chewing and swal- 

 lowing our food, and of speaking, singing, cry- 

 ing and laughing, are chiefly done not without 

 the aid of the teeth, it is true by means of 

 the muscles. 



The muscles have other uses still, besides 

 those of beauty and motion ; but the reader is 

 not prepared to understand what they are, 

 till he knows more about the blood and the 

 circulation. In describing the circulation of 

 the blood, I shall be likely to make the matter 

 plainer, by far and with fewer words than I 

 could possibly do it in this chapter. 



