114 
ORDER BIMANA.— GENUS HOMO. 
favorable to equilibrium. The necks of the thigh-bones form, with 
the bodies of these bones, an angle, which increases the separation 
of the feet, and enlarges the base of the entire body. Finally, the 
head, by this upright posture, is balanced upon the trunk, from its ar- 
ticulation being placed above the centre of gravity of the entire mass. 
When a Man makes the attempt, he cannot walk conveniently on 
all-fours. His feet being short and inflexible, and his thigh too 
long, the knees are thrown against the ground. His broad 
shoulders and arms, placed far apart from the medial line, are 
but ill adapted for sustaining the fore part of the body. The 
rhomboid muscle which, like a girth in quadrupeds, suspends the 
trunk between the shoulder-blades, is smaller in Man than among 
any of them. His head is heavier on account of the size of the 
brain, and the smallness of the sinuses or cavities in the bones of 
the skull, yet the means of supporting it are most feeble ; for 
Man has not the cervical ligament of quadrupeds, and the verte- 
brai of his neck are not disposed so as to prevent it from bending 
forwards. At the very most, he can but sustain his head on a 
level with the spine, and then his eyes and mouth are directed 
downwards to the earth, so that he cannot see before him. On 
the contrary, the arrangement of these organs is perfect when he 
returns to the upright posture. 
The arteries which serve to convey the blood to the brain are 
not subdivided, as in many quadrupeds, and the blood necessary for 
so large an organ would be poured into it with too great a velocity, 
so that frequent apoplexies would be the consequence of his persist- 
ing in a horizontal position. 
Man is, therefore, formed for resting on his feet only in an up- 
right posture. He thus preserves the entire freedom of his hands 
for the arts and occupations of life, and his organs of sense are 
placed in the most favorable position for receiving external im- 
pressions. 
His hands, which derive so many advantages from their freedom 
of movement, are not less favored in respect to their structure. 
The thumbs, which are longer in proportion than those of the Apes, 
impart in consequence a greater facility for holding small objects ; 
while every finger, excepting the third or ring-finger, is capable of 
moving separately — a peculiarity which cannot be found in any 
other animal, not even in the Apes. As the nails protect one side 
only of the extremity of each finger, they supply a point of attach- 
ment to the organs of touch, without depriving them of any portion 
of their delicacy. Again, the arms which support these hands 
possess a solid point of attachment in their broad shoulder-blades, 
their strong clavicles, and the general disposition of the shoulder- 
joint. 
Man is thus highly favored in respect to his fitness for dexterous 
or skilful movements, but these qualities have been assigned at the 
expense of his strength. His speed in running is much less than 
that of other animals of the same size. He is likewise without 
offensive arms ; his jaws are flat, his canine teeth do not project, 
and his nails are not crooked ; while his body, destitute of hair on 
the back and sides, is absolutely unprotected from the inclemencies 
of the atmosphere. Finally, he is a longer period of time than any 
other animal in acquiring that degree of strength necessary to en- 
able him to provide for his own maintenance and defence. 
This natural feebleness has, however, one important advantage, 
that of compelling him to resort to the resources within himself, 
and particularly to that intelligence which has been assigned to 
him in a supereminent degree. 
No quadruped approaches to Man, in respect to the size and the 
number of convolutions in the hemispheres of his brain, that is to 
say, in that portion of the organ which serves as the principal in- 
strument to his intellectual operations, and the hinder part of that 
organ even extends backwards so as to cover the cerebellum. The 
very shape of the skull proclaims the magnitude of the brain, while 
the smallness of his face announces how little that part of the 
nervous system, influenced by the external senses, is predominant 
in the human species. 
The external senses of Man are all of medium power, yet they 
are at the same time of great delicacy, and in due proportion to 
each other. His eyes are directed forwards, and he cannot see on 
both sides at once like many quadrupeds, yet their position imparts 
more unity to the results of his vision, and serves to direct his atten- 
tion more especially to sensations of this kind. The eye-ball and iris 
can vary their dimensions but slightly, and this confines the sphere 
of his vision to a limited distance and a determinate intensity of 
light. His external ear cannot move to any great extent, and its 
small size scarcely augments the intensity of sounds ; yet he is better 
able than any other animal to appreciate minute differences of tone. 
His nostrils, more complicated than those of the Apes, are less so 
than in any other genus, yet he appears to be the only animal whose 
sense of smell is sufficiently delicate to be affected by disagreeable 
odours. This delicacy of smell would lead us to expect a corre- 
sponding delicacy in his organs of taste, and Man must possess 
considerable advantages in this respect at least over those animals 
having the tongue covered with scales. Finally', the fineness of his 
touch results from the thinness of the skin, the absence of all insen- 
sible parts, as well as the form of a hand, better adapted than that 
of any other animal for accommodating itself to the minute inequa- 
lities of surfaces. 
Man enjoys a peculiar pre-eminence in respect to his organs of 
voice. He alone of all Mammalia can produce articulate sounds, 
to which the form of his mouth, and the great flexibility of his lips, 
alike contribute. This means of communicating his ideas is to him 
of the greatest value, the various modifications of sound being em- 
ployed most conveniently for this purpose, as they may be perceived 
at greater distances and in more directions at the same time than 
any other signs. 
It would appear that even the position of the heart and the larger 
vessels is suited to the upright posture. The heart is placed ob- 
liquely upon the diaphragm, and its point directed to the left side, 
which arrangement requires a disposition of the aorta ditferent 
from that in most quadrupeds. 
Man seems formed for feeding chiefly upon fruits, roots, and 
other succulent parts of plants. His hands enable him to gather 
them with ease ; while his short and comparatively weak jaws, his 
canine teeth not projecting beyond the tine of the remaining teeth, 
and his tuberculous molars would permit him neither to pasture 
upon grass, nor to devour flesh, did he not prepare his food by a 
culinary process. Once, however, in possession of fire, and a know- 
ledge of those arts which have enabled him to seize or kill at a dis- 
tance the other animals, all living beings can be made to contribute 
towards his maintenance. This circumstance has further enabled 
him to increase the numbers of his species without any apparent 
limit. 
The digestive organs of Man correspond with those of mastica- 
tion. His stomach is simple ; the intestinal canal of medium 
length ; the larger intestines well defined ; the ccecuni short, thick, 
and augmented with a narrow appendage ; the liver is divided 
only into two lobes and a lobule; and the epiploon hangs before 
the intestines even as far as the pelvis. 
To render this abridged statement of the anatomical structure of 
Man more complete, it may be sufficient to add, that he has thirty- 
two vertebrm, seven of which are cervical, twelve dorsal, five 
lumbar, five sacral, and three eoccygeal. Seven pairs of ribs are 
united to the sternum by cartilaginous appendages, and are termed 
true ribs, the five following pairs are called false ribs. The cranium 
of the adult has eight bones, namely, one occipital, forming tlie 
base of the skull, two temporal, two parietal, one frontal, the 
agthmoid, and the sphenoid. The bones of the face are fourteen in 
number ; two maxillary ; two jugal, each of which serves to connect 
the temporal and maxillary bones by a kind of bridge, called the 
zygomatic arch; two nasal ; two palatine behind the palate; n 
vomer between the nostrils ; two turbinated bones within the 
nostrils ; two lachrymal .at the nasal angles of the eyes ; and the 
single bone of the lower jaw. Each jaw contains sixteen teeth, 
four trenchant incisors in front, one pointed ciinine at each 
corner, and ten molars with tuberculous crowns, five on each 
side, making in all thirty-two teeth. His shoulder-blade has 
the end of its spine or projecting crest, a process called the 
arromion, to which the clavicle is attached, and, below its articu- 
lation, there is a point called the coracoid process, for the attach- 
ment of several muscles. The radius turns completely upon the 
ulna, on account of its peculiar mode of articulation with the 
humerus. The carpus has eight bones, four being in each row - 
the tarsus has seven ; the remaining bones of the hands an 
feet may be easily counted according to the number of 
fingers. 
