The hand, its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design. / by Sir Charles Bell.

  • Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hand, its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design. / by Sir Charles Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    mouth, he forms a conception of the figure of the skull. From that point he may set out anew; for from the form of the teeth, he may deduce the nature of the stomach, the length of the in- testines, and all the peculiarities which mark a vegetable feeder, as contrasted with one of the carnivora. Thus the whole parts of the animal system are so connected with one another, that from one single bone or fragment of bone, be it of the jaw, or of the spine, or of the extremity, a reaUy Accurate conception of the shape, motions, and habits of the animal may be formed. It will readily be understood that by the same process of rea- soning, we may ascertain, from a small portion of a skeleton, the existence of a carnivorous animal, or of a fowl, or of a bat, or of a lizard, or of a fish. And what a conviction is here brought home to us of the extent of that plan, which, pervading the whole range of animated beings whose motions are conducted by the operation of muscles and bones, yet adapts the members of every creature to their proper office ! After all, this is but a part of the wonders disclosed through the knowledge of an object so despised as a fragment of bone. It carries us into another science. The knowledge of the skele- ton not only teaches us the classification of animals now alive, but affords proofs of the former existence of animated beings which are no longer found on the surface of the earth. We are thus led from such premises to an unexpected conclusion. Not merely do we learn that individual animals, or races of animals, now extinct, existed at those distant periods : but even the changes which the globe has undergone, in time before all existing records, and before the creation of human beings to inhabit the earth, are opened to our contemplation. To return to our particular subject,—we readily comprehend how, if the geologist should find the head of a radius, resembling this sketch, and see a smooth depression (a), on its extremity, where it bears against the hu- Upper End of a Radius. merus, and a polished circle (b), where it turns on the cavity of the ulna, he would say,—this animal had a paw—it had a motion