INTRODUCTION. 



29 



anterior extremity of the elephant ; and fig. 8 the cast or mould 

 of the cavity of the left ventricle of the heart of the deer. 



It has been the almost invariable custom in teaching 

 anatomy, and such parts of physiology as pertain to animal 

 movements, to place much emphasis upon the configuration 

 of the bony skeleton as a whole, and the conformation of its 

 several articular surfaces in particular. This is very natural, 

 as the osseous system stands the wear and tear of time, while 

 all around it is in a great measure perishable. It is the link 

 which binds extinct forms to living ones, and we naturally 

 venerate and love what is enduring. It is no marvel that 

 Oken, Goethe, Owen, and others should have attempted such 

 splendid generalizations with regard to the osseous system — 

 should have proved with such cogency of argument that the 

 head is an expanded vertebra. The bony skeleton is a miracle 

 of design very wonderful and very beautiful in its way. But 

 when all has been said, the fact remains that the skeleton, 

 when it exists, forms only an adjunct of locomotion and 

 motion generally. All the really essential movements of an 

 animal occur in its soft parts. The osseous system is there- 

 fore to be regarded as secondary in importance to the mus- 

 cular, of which it may be considered a differentiation. Instead 

 of regarding the muscles as adapted to the bones, the bones 

 ought to be regarded as adapted to the muscles. Bones have 

 no power either of originating or perpetuating motion. This 

 begins and terminates in the muscles. Nor must it be over- 

 looked, that bone makes its appearance comparatively late in 

 the scale of being ; that innumerable creatures exist in which 

 no trace either of an external or internal skeleton is to be 

 found ; that these creatures move freely about, digest, circu- 

 late their nutritious juices and blood when present, multiply, 

 and perform all the functions incident to life. While the 

 skeleton is to be found in only a certain proportion of the 

 animals existing on our globe, the soft parts are to be met 



On the Muscular Arrangements of the Bladder and Prostate, and the 

 manner in which the Ureters and Urethra are closed," by the Author. — 

 Philosophical Transactions, 1867. 



" On the Muscular Tunics in the Stomach of Man and other Mammalia," 

 by the Author.— Proceedings Royal Society of London, 1867. 



