OF THE MUSCLES. 
87 
the force of the tendon perpendicularly resists the fibre 
which confines it, and is constantly endeavouring, not to 
form, but to rupture and displace, the threads of which the 
ligament is composed. 
Keill has reckoned up, in the human body, four hundred 
and forty-six muscles, [See note, p. 77,] dissectible and de- 
scribable; and hath assigned a use to every one of the num¬ 
ber. This cannot be all imagination. 
Bishop Wilkins hath observed from Galen, that there are, 
at least, ten several qualifications to be attended to in each 
particular muscle; viz. its proper figure; its just magni¬ 
tude; its fulcrum; its point of action, supposing the figure 
to be fixed; its collocation, with respect to its two ends, the 
upper and the lower; the place; the position of the whole 
muscle; the introduction into it of nerves, arteries, and 
veins. How are things, including so many adjustments, to 
be made; or, when made, how are they to be put together, 
without intelligence ? 
I have sometimes wondered, why we are not struck 
with mechanism in animal bodies, as readily and as strong¬ 
ly as we are struck with it, at first sight, in a watch or a 
mill. One reason of the difference may be, that animal 
bodies are, in a great measure, made up of soft, flabby, 
substances, such as muscles and membranes; whereas we 
have been accustomed to trace mechanism in sharp lines, 
in the configuration of hard materials, in the moulding, 
chiseling, and filing into shapes, such articles as metals or 
wood. There is something, therefore, of habit in the case; 
but it is sufficiently evident, that there can be no proper 
reason for any distinction of the sort. Mechanism may 
be displayed in one kind of substance, as well as in the 
other. 
Although the few instances we have selected, even as 
they stand in our description, are nothing short perhaps 
of logical proofs of design, yet it must not be forgotten, 
that, in every part of anatomy, description is a poor sub¬ 
stitute for inspection. It is well said by an able anato¬ 
mist,* and said in reference to the very part of the sub¬ 
ject which w r e have been treating of:—“ Imperfecta haec 
musculorum descriptio, non minus arida est legentibus, 
quam inspectantibus fuerit jucunda eorundem praeparatio. 
Elegantissima enim mechanices artificia, creberrime in 
illis obvia, verbis nonnisi obscure exprimuntur: carnium 
* Sterno in Bias. Anat. Animal, p. 2. c. 4. 
