1871.] 



Animal Mechanics. 399 



bodies. All these things placed many difficulties in his path. At last 

 a brilliant idea flashed across his mind, which he was compelled reluctantly to 

 set aside, namely, to take a farm in Westmeatrv, refuse to pay his rent, shoot 

 his landlord, and dissect him at his leisure. He believed, upon his honour, 

 that public opinion in Ireland would not sanction the shooting of a landlord 

 in order to obtain the coefficient of muscular force. But he had overcome the 

 difficulties in his investigation, and had hoped to show that the tendons of the 

 legs and arms of animals were constructed on the principle of least action in 

 nature, as if every one of the muscular organs were itself instinct with 

 life and reason. He added, " It is not the instinct of the planet, or of the 

 oyster woman, or of the bee, that guides them in their path. There is 

 instinct, there is knowledge, there is foresight, there is calculation ; it is 

 the wisdom, the knowledge, the foresight, and the calculation, of the great 

 Architect and Geometrician of the Universe." 



Dr. Haughton next called attention to the amount of friction in the hands 

 and feet of various animals, and the strength of the various tendons. He said 

 that the animals whose tendons suffer least from friction at the wrist and ankle 

 are the goat and kangaroo. In the wrist of the goat no force whatever is 

 lost, and the most perfect organ of locomotion he was acquainted with among 

 animals was the hind leg of the boomer kangaroo. He also explained why, in 

 certain cases, there must be friction, and how this friction was utilised in the 

 animal economy. He also described the powers and forms of the various 

 muscles, and gave special attention to the most wonderful triangular muscle in 

 the world, the biceps femoris muscle, or the flexor of the thigh of the tiger. 

 While speaking of the strength of tigers, he narrated how he cut the claws of 

 a tiger in the Zoological Gardens of Dublin, because the claws were growing 

 into the body of the foot. Eight men held the tiger close to the bars of the 

 cage by means of ropes. They kept one foot of the tiger off the ground, and 

 this was a great point in the operation, because then the tiger was obliged to 

 keep the other foot on the floor to keep from falling, so could not use it 

 very offensively. As Dr. Haughton was on the point of cutting the claws, the 

 tigress came up to see what was going on. She put out her paw, laid hold of 

 Dr. Haughton by the hat, and in doing so, lifted up the door of the cage, 

 leaving him face to face with the animals. The eight men resolved themselves 

 into their component elements ; all of them but one ran away. The tiger 

 bent itself for a spring, Dr. Haughton pulled down the door of the cage, and 

 the animal broke its teeth against the bars. The seven cowards were 

 then collected, and the claws of the tiger were cut, after which the animal 

 began to purr, and licked the hand of the operator. 



The muscle in the leg of a man is like a rope of parallel prismatic fibres ; 

 in most other animals it is arranged as a prismatic muscle. He asked, 

 " Why has nature deliberately sacrificed a certain amount of force by putting 

 a triangular muscle into the leg of a tiger to do the work which she 

 does so effectively in my leg by a straight rope or muscle ? " The answer was 

 that the weight of muscle necessary to enable the tiger to make his great 

 springs' was so enormous, that if it had been placed as a straight rope 

 from point to point, it would not only be a great deformity in his appearance, 

 but would seriously impede him in his progress through the jungle. " No, 

 I cannot do that," says Nature, " I must preserve beauty of form," making the 

 tiger the most beautiful creature which God has created. Therefore the 

 tiger was given a triangular muscle, with a certain amount of loss of force; 

 but there is a gain by spreading the muscle over a great surface — a gain in the 

 packing and shape of the leg. The lecturer added that he was sorry to upset 

 the superstitions of childhood, but the tiger is a much more powerful 

 animal than the lion, and will always beat the latter in a fight. The lion had 

 a great mane and looked big; still he was a humbug, like a good many people 

 he knew. 



Dr. Haughton said much about the wings of birds, and the muscles which 

 govern their motions, after which he spoke of the force with which the 

 muscles of the heart pump the blood through the veins of animals. He said that 

 it had been proved in the early part of this century, that the muscular force 



