ANATOMY. 
may call it, of the country. He may be 
said to be master of the anatomy of the 
country, when he knows the figure, dimen- 
sion, situation, and connection, of all the 
principal constituent parts; such as the 
lakes, rivers, marshes, mountains, precipices, 
plains, woods, roads, passes, fords, towns, 
fortifications, &c. By the physiology of the 
country, which he ought likewise to under- 
stand, is meant all the variety of active in- 
fluence which is produced by the inhabi- 
tants. If the general be well instructed in 
all these points, he will find a hundred occa- 
sions of drawing advantages from them ; and 
without such knowledge, he will be for ever 
exposed to some fatal blunder. 
GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE COMPOSITION 
OF THE BODY. 
After having considered the rise and pro- 
gress of anatomy ; the various discoveries 
that have been made in it from time to 
time ; the great number of diligent obser- 
vers who have applied themselves to this 
art ; and, the importance of the study, not 
only for the prevention and cure of diseases, 
but in furnishing the liveliest proofs of divine 
wisdom; the following questions seem natu- 
rally to arise. For what purpose is there 
such a variety of parts in\ the human body ? 
Why such a complication of nice and tender 
machinery? Why was there not rather a 
more simple, less delicate, and less expen- 
sive frame ? 
That beginners in the study of anatomy 
may acquire a satisfactory, general, idea of 
these subjects, we shall furnish them with 
clear answers to all such questions. Let us 
then, in our imagination, make a man: in 
other words, let us suppose that the mind, 
or immaterial part, is to be placed in a cor- 
poreal fabric, to hold a correspondence with 
other material beings, by the intervention 
of the body; and then consider, a priori, 
what will be wanted for her accommodation. 
In this inquiry we shall plainly see the 
necessity, or advantage, and therefore the 
final cause of most of the parts, which we 
actually find in the human body. And if 
we consider, that in order to answer some of 
the requisites, human art and invention 
would be very insufficient ; we need not be 
surprised if we meet with some parts of the 
body the use of which we cannot yet make 
out ; and with some operations or functions 
which we cannot explain. We can see and 
comprehend that the whole bears the strong- 
est marks of excelling wisdom and ingenuity : 
but the imperfect senses and capacity of 
man cannot pretend to reach every part of 
a machine, which nothing less than the in- 
telligence and power of the Supreme Being 
could contrive and execute. 
To proceed then ; in the first place, the 
mind, the thinking immaterial agent, must 
be provided with a place of immediate re- 
sidence, which shall have all the requisites 
for the union of spirit and body ; accordingly 
she is provided with the brain, where she 
dwells as governor and superintendant of the 
whole fabric. 
In the second place, as she is to hold a 
correspondence with all the material beings 
whieh surround her, she must be supplied 
with organs fitted to receive the different 
kinds of impressions that they will make. 
In tact, therefore, we see that she is provided 
with the organs of sense, as we call them : 
the eye is adapted to light, the ear to sound, 
the nose to smell, the mouth to taste, and 
the skin to touch. 
In the third place, she must be provided 
with organs of communication between her- 
selfj in the brain, and those organs of sense, 
to give her information of all the impressions 
that are made upon them: and she -must 
have organs between herself, in the brain, 
and every other part of the body, fitted to 
convey her commands and influence over 
the whole. For these purposes the nerves 
are actually given. They are chords, which 
rise from the brain, the immediate residence 
of the mind, and disperse themselves in 
branches through all parts of the body. They 
are intended to be occasional monitors 
against all such impressions as might endan- 
ger the well-being of the whole, or of any 
particular part, which vindicates the Creator 
of all tilings in having actually subjected us 
to those many disagreeable and painful sen- 
sations which we are exposed to from a 
thousand accidents in life. 
Further, the mind, in this corporeal sys- 
tem, must be endued with the power of 
moving from place to place, that she may 
have intercourse with a variety of objects - 
that she may fly from such as are disagree- 
able, dangerous, or hurtful, and pursue Isuch 
as are pleasant or useful to her. And ac- 
cordingly she is furnished with limbs, and 
with muscles and tendons, the instruments of 
motion, which are found in every part of 
the fabric where motion is necessary. 
But to support, to give firmness and 
shape to the fabric, to keep the softer parts 
in their proper places, to give fixed points 
and the proper direction to its motions, as 
well as to protect some of the more inipor- 
