138 LECTURE III. 



cavity of" tlie pelvis in the human subject, 

 is not placed as it is in brutes, in the same 

 direction with that of the belly. Were it 

 so, the contents of that cavity w^ould be 

 continually gravitating towards its inferior 

 aperture. Even the pelvic viscera cannot 

 be said to gravitate towards the inferior 

 aperture of the pelvis, in the ordinary posi- 

 tions of the body ; whatever presses in that 

 direction must be protruded. 



The weight of the whole upper part of 

 the body is transmitted from the arch de- 

 scribed by the bones of the pelvis, to a se- 

 cond arch, made by the form of the heads 

 and necks of the thigh-bones. Their heads, 

 which are very perfectly rounded, making 

 a considerable portion of a sphere, are 

 lodged in deep cups, the brims of which 

 are particularly high in the upper and outer 

 part, where the re-action of the ground 

 against our descending weight, would ordi- 

 narily tend to dislodge them, had not such 

 an occurrence been thus guarded against. 

 These cups are placed a little in front of a 

 perpendicular line let fall from the top of 

 the sacrum. As the weight of the greater 



