TRE NORMAL POSITION. 21 



Food and drink are received at one end of the body, and the organs of 

 special sense are there located. Between one of the sides and the nervous 

 cord known as the myelon or spinal cord, there always intervenes a subcylin- 

 drical rod, usually of bone or cartilage, the Columna vertebralis, or spinal 

 column, while the opposite side is not so separated from the myelon. The 

 two remaining sides diiier less from one another, but distinctions have been 

 observed, some of which have been commented upon by the senior author 

 ill papers 13, 13, and 18. 



It is obvious that the comparison of the corresponding aspects in different 

 animals will be more easily made and more instructive, if the animals can be 

 placed, actually or ideally, in some common position, and if the aspects can 

 be called always by the same names. 



§ 35. The Normal Position of the Body. — Taking as the natural 

 attitude of an animal that which it assumes in ordinary locomotion, there 

 are wide differences among Vertebrates. The head of man points directly 

 away from the earth, and the longitudinal axis of the body forms a right 

 angle with its surface ; with the gorilla and some other apes the axis is 

 slightly inclined ; with birds it forms a smaller angle with the supporting 

 surface ; but with the larger number of vertebrates the body is nearly or 

 quite horizontal. 



As the question is entirely one of bodily organization, and has no refer- 

 ence to mental or spiritual preeminence, there never has been made any 

 serious objection to regarding the normal position of vertebrate animals 

 as that of the majority of them, in which the body axis is horizontal, and 

 the aspect nearer the earth is that which is separated from the myelon by 

 the Columna vertebralis. 



§ 36. Designation of the Aspects. — Instead, however, of applying 

 to the various aspects names naturally suggested by the parts themselves, 

 irrespective of the particular attitude assumed by the animal, anatomists, 

 probably influenced by the greater practical importance of the human bodj', 

 have almost universally employed terms which are strictly applicable only to 

 man in the erect attitude. In order, therefore, that a comparison might be 

 instituted between corresponding parts of man, a cat and a fish, it 

 was necessary, at least constructively, to erect the two latter upon their 

 tails. 



Notwithstanding the logical inconsistency of such a course, and the risk 

 of misunderstandings, no effort at reformation seems to have been made 

 until early in the present century, when Dr. Barclay, the anatomical pre- 

 ceptor of Professor Owen, published a little volume (A) entitled: "A New 

 Anatomical Nomenclature, relating to the Terms which are expressive of 

 Position and Aspect in the Animal System." 



§ 37. The key note of Barclay's view of the subject is struck in the 

 following paragraph : — 



