144 LECTURE III. 



tripod: forms well known to be best adapted 

 for giving support and security of position. 

 Nature, however, gave us powers of grasp- 

 ing with our feet, and thus further securing 

 our position, but these we in general lose for 

 want of using them. They say, a Chinese 

 will sit perched upon a ship's boom when 

 it swings to leeward ; and it is recorded, 

 that Milo could stand with one foot on a 

 quoit, and no man in Greece could push or 

 pull him off. If this be true, he must have 

 been not only a very strong man, but a 

 very heavy one, and a most expert ba- 

 lancer. 



The arch of the tarsus, like that of the car- 

 pus, can also resist the effect of forces when 

 applied against it sideways. We can walk on 

 the ends of the metatarsal bones, and in that 

 case, the short toes do but seem to increase 

 the extent of surface on which we are sup- 

 ported. This security against injury in this 

 direction, is further manifested in qua- 

 drupeds ; for the tarsus is the structure of 

 the second apparent joints, in their pelvic or 

 hind limbs, joints which correspond to the 



