The servants of the stomach / by Jean Macé.

  • Jean Macé
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The servants of the stomach / by Jean Macé. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    57/324 page 51
    CHAPTER VI. THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN. Hitherto we have only occupied ourselves with what is common to all bones ; or general anatomy, as it is called. Now we pass on to a description of the bones taken separately—descriptive anatomy, as it is called— and you cannot imagine how many pages might be tilled if I should attempt to lay before you all that could be said of them. The body of a man is certainly not very large, and yet those who would seriously study it must spend years at it to know even a little about it. So many, so various are the details in this admirable ma¬ chine, of which each atom is worthy of attention, that a lifetime would not suffice to discover all that is to be learned. Still, as we have no desire to become physi¬ cians, we will proceed more rapidly. It is a little satis¬ faction to get a general idea of a subject of which we knew nothing before. Let us begin with the vertebral column • it is the foundation of the structure, and to it all the other parts are attached • and you will understand when we come to the history of animals, why I give it the post of honor. You all eady know, moreover, that this column has given its name to the whole .class of vertebrate animals, begin¬ ning with fish, and ending with man. The most impor¬ tant and marked distinction which can be established in the animal kingdom is that of vertebrate or invertebrate animals ; that is to say, they all belong to the one or the other, according as they have or have not a vertebral
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