348 



flexors over the extensors ceases to be in excess. The proportionate size 

 of the head and of the thoracic abdominal viscera diminishes. The cur- 

 vatures of the vertebral column begin to be distinguishable, the spinous 

 processes of the vertebrae are evolved; the breajdth of the pelvis is in- 

 creased, and its obliquity lessened; the patella becomes ossified, the os 

 calcis juts out backwards, the relative smallness of the feet ceases. By 

 degrees the child learns to stand, resting on both or only on one of his 

 feet; his eyes natu tally directed towards heaven, a noble prerogative, 

 which, if one might believe Ovid*, is possessed by man alone of all the 

 animals. 



Man is of all animals the only one that can stand upright and walk in 

 that attitude, when his organs are sufficiently evolved. Let us now point 

 out some of the principal causes to which that privilege is to be ascribed. 



CLXXXII. Though the articulation of the head to the cervical column 

 does not correspond either to its centre of magnitude, or to its centre of 

 gravity, and though it is nearer to the occiput than to the chin, its dis- 

 tance t from the latter is much smaller in man, than in the monkey and 

 other animals, whose foramen magnum is, according to Daubenton, 

 placed nearest to the posterior extremity of the head, when they resem- 

 ble man the least. The head, therefore, is very nearly in equilibrio on 

 the column which supports it; at least to keep it in that position, a very 

 slight power is required, while the head of a quadruped, which has a 

 constant tendency towards the ground, requires to be supported by a part 

 capable of a great and continued resistence. This purpose is answered 

 by the posterior cervical ligament, so remarkable in those animals, at- 

 tached to the spinous processes of the vertebrae, and to the protuberance 

 of the occipital bone, which projects much more in them than in the 

 human species, in whom instead of the posterior cervical ligament, there 

 is found a mere line of cellular substance, dividing the nape of the neck 

 into two equal parts. 



The alternate curvatures of the vertebral column, the breadth of the 

 pelvis and of the feet, the great power of the extensors of the foot and 

 thighf, all these favourable conditions, observable in man, are wanting in 

 animals; but, as in the latter, every thing concurs to prevent their be- 

 ing capable of standing on two feet, in man every thing is so disposed, 

 as to render it very difficult for him to rest on his four extremities. In 

 fact, independently of the great inequality which there is between his up* 

 per and lower limbs, a difference of length which, being less sensible in 

 early life, makes it less uneasy for a child to walk on his hands and feet, 

 these four limbs are far from affording the body an equally solid support. 

 The eyes being naturally forwards, are, in that attitude, directed towards 

 the earth, and do not embrace a sufficient space. 



We cannot, therefore, agree with Barthez, that man, during infancy, 

 is naturally a quadruped, since he is then but an imperfect biped ; 



* Os he-mini sublime dedit, calwnque tueri 

 Jnssi:, et ereclos ad sidtra toll-re vultus. 



These verses may be much more justly applied to the fish, called by naturalists Uran- 

 oscopus. Its eyes are turned \ip\vards, and constantly look towards the heavens. Au- 

 thor's JV0fe. 



j- These masses form the calf of the leg and the buttocks , in no animal are these 

 muscles more prominent than in man. 



