ginous spring, it raises itself a little, as soon as the food is passed, thereby allowing a free inlet and outlet for the respiration of air by the lungs. And we may here remark the almost complete success of the expedient, viz. how seldom it fails of its purpose, compared with the number of instances in which it fulfils it. Reflect, how frequently we swallow, how constantly we breathe. In a city feast, for example, what deglutition what anhelation! yet does this little cartilage, the epiglottis, so effectually interpose its office, so securely guard the entrance of the wind-pipe, that, whilst morsel after morsel, draught after draught, are Coursing one another over it, an accident of a crumb or a drop slipping into this passage, (which nevertheless must be opened for the breath every second of time,) excites, in the whole company, not only alarm by its danger, but surprise by its novelty. Not two guests are choked in a century. There is no room for pretending, that the action of the parts may have gradually formed the epiglottis : I do not inean in the same individual, but in a succession of generations. Not only the action of the parts has no such tendency, but the animal could not live, nor consequently the parts act, either without it, or with it in a half formed state. The species was not to wait for the gradual formation or expansion of a part, which was, from the first,. necessary to the life of the individual. Not only is the larynx curious, but the whole windpipe possesses a structure, adapted to its peculiar office. It is made up, (as any one may perceive by putting his fingers to his throat,) of stout cartilaginous ringlets, placed at small and equal distances from one another. Now this is not the case with any other of the numerous conduits of the body. The use of these cartilages is to keep the passage for the air constantly open; which they do mechanically. A pipe with soft membranous coats, liable to collapse and close when empty, would not have answered here; although this be the general vascular structure, and a structure which serves very well for those tubes, which are kept in a state of perpetual distention by the fluid they inclose, or which afford a passage to solid and protruding substances. Nevertheless, (which is another particularity well worthy of notice,) these rings are not complete, that is, are not cartilaginous and stiff all round; but their hinder part, which is contiguous to the gullet, is membranous and soft, easily yielding to the distensions of that organ accasioned by the descent of solid food. These same rings are also bevelled off at the upper and lower edges, the better to close upon one another, when the trachea is compressed or shortened. The constitution of the trachea may suggest likewise another reflection. The membrane which lines its inside, is, perhaps, the most sensible, irritable, membrane of the body. It rejects the touch of a crumb of bread, or a drop of water, with a spasm which convulses the whole frame; yet, left to itself, and its proper office, the intromission of air alone, nothing can be so quiet. It does not even make itself felt a man does not know that he has a trachea. This capacity of perceiving with such acuteness; this impatience of offence, yet perfect rest and ease when let alone; are properties, one would have thought, not likely to reside in the same subject. It is to the junction however of these almost inconsistent qualities, in this as well as in some other delicate parts of the body, that we owe our safety, and our comfort; our safety to their sensibility, our comfort to their repose. The larynx, or rather the whole windpipe taken together, (for the larynx is only the upper part of the windpipe,) beside its other uses, is also a musical instru ment, that is to say, it is mechanism expressly adapted to the modulation of sound; for it has been found upon trial, that, by relaxing or tightening the tendinous bands at the extremity of the windpipe, and blowing in at the other end, all the cries and notes might be produced, of which the living animal was capable. It can be sounded, just as a pipe or flute is sounded. Birds, says Bonnet, have, at the lower end of the windpipe, a conformation like the reed of a hautboy, for the modulation of their notes A tuneful bird is a ventriloquist. The seat of the song is in the breast. The use of the lungs in the system has been said to be obscure one use however is plain, though, in some sense, external to the system, and that is, the formation, in conjunction with the larynx, of voice and speech. They are, to animal utterance, what the bellows are to the organ. For the sake of method, we have considered animal bodies under three divisions, their bones, their muscles, and their vessels: and we have stated our observations upon these parts separately. But this is to diminish the strength of the argument. The wisdom of the Creator is seen, not in their separate, but their collective action; in their mutual subserviency and dependence; in their contributing together to one effect, and one use. It has been said, that a man cannot lift his hand to his head without finding enough to convince him of the existence of a God. And it is well said; for he has only to reflect, familiar as this action is, and simple as it seems to be, how many things are requisite for the performing of it; how many things which we understand, to say nothing of many more, probably, which we do not; viz. first, a long, hard, strong cylinder, in order to give to the arm its firmness and tension; but which, being rigid, and, in its substance, inflexible, can only turn upon joints; secondly therefore, joints for this purpose, one at the shoulder to raise the arm, another at the elbow to bend it; these joints continually fed with a soft mucilage to make the parts slip easily upon one another, and held together by strong braces to keep them in their position; then, thirdly, strings and wires, i. e. muscles and tendons, artificially inserted for the purpose of drawing the bones in the directions in which. the joints allow them to move. Hitherto we seem to understand the mechanism pretty well; and understanding this, we possess enough for our conclusion: nevertheless we have hitherto only a machine standing still; a dead organization; an apparatus. To put the system in a state of activity, (to set it at work,) a further provision is necessary, viz. a communication with the brain by means of nerves. We know the existence of this communication, because we can see the communicating threads, and can trace them to the brain: its necessity we also know, because, if the thread be cut, if the communication be intercepted, the muscle becomes paralytic: but beyond this we know little; the organization being too minute and subtile for our inspection. To what has been enumerated, as officiating in the single act of a man's raising his hand to his head, must be added likewise, all that is necessary, and all that contributes to the growth, nourishment, and sustentation of the limb, the repair of its waste, the preservation of its health; such as the circulation of the blood through every part of it; its lymphatics,exhalants, absorbents; its excretions and integu ments. All these share in the result; join in the effect = and how all these, or any of them, come together without a designing, disposing intelligence, it is impossible to conceive.. CHAP. XI. OF THE ANIMAL STRUCTURE REGARDED AS A MASS. CONTEMPLATING an animal body in its collective capacity, we cannot forget to notice, what a number of instruments are brought together, and often within how small a compass. In a canary bird, for instance, and in the ounce of matter which composes its body, (but which seems to be all employed.) we have instruments for eating, for digesting, for nourishment, for breathing, for generation, for running, for flying, for seeing, for hearing, for smelling; each appropriate; each entirely different from all the rest. The human, or indeed the animal frame, considered as a mass or assemblage, exhibits in its composition three properties which have long struck my mind, as indubitable evidences, not only of design, but of a great deal of attention and accuracy in prosecuting the design. I. The first is, the exact correspondency of the two sides of the same animal: the right hand answering to the left, leg to leg, eye to eye, one side of the counteDance to the other; and with a precision, to imitate which in any tolerable degree forms one of the difficulties of statuary, and requires, on the part of the artist, a constant attention to this property of his work, distinct from every other. It is the most difficult thing that can be, to get a wig made even; yet how seldom is the face awry? And what care is taken that it should not be so, the anatomy of its bones demonstrates. The upper part of the face is composed of thirteen bones, six on each side, answering each to each, and the thirteenth without a fellow, in the middle; the lower part of the face is in like manner composed of six bones, three on each side, respectively corresponding, and the lower jaw in the centre. In building an arch, could more be done in order to make the curve true, i: e. the parts equi-distant from the middle, alike in figure and position? The exact resemblance of the eyes, considering how compounded this organ is in its structure, how various and how delicate are the shades of color with which its iris is tinged, how differently, as to effect upon appearance, the eye may be mounted in its socket, and how differently in different heads eyes actually are set, is a property of animal bodies much to be admired. Of ten thousand eyes, I don't know that it would be possible to match one, except with its own fellow; or to distribute them into suitable pairs by any other selection than that which obtains. This regularity of the animal structure is rendered more remarkable by the three following considerations. First, the limbs, separately taken, have not this correlation of parts; but the contrary of it. A knife drawn down the chine cuts the human body into two parts, externally equal and alike; you cannot draw a straight line which will divide a hand, a foot, the leg, the thigh, the cheek, the eye, the ear, into two parts equal and alike. Those parts which are placed upon the middle, or partition line of the body, or which traverse that line, as the nose, the tongue, the lips, may be so divided, or, more properly speaking, are double organs; but other parts cannot. This shews that the correspondency which we have been describing does not arise by any necessity in the nature of the subject; for, if necessary, it would be universal, whereas it is observed only in the system or assemblage: it is not true of the separate parts: that is to say, it is found where it conduces to beauty or utility; it is not found, where it would subsist at the expense of both.—The two wings of a bird always correspond the twosides of a feather frequently do not. In centipedes, mil-lepedes, and that whole tribe of insects, no two legs on the same side are alike; yet there is the most exact parity between the legs opposite to one another. 2. The next circumstance to be remarked is, that whilst the cavities of the body are so configurated, as, externally, to exhibit the most exact correspondency of the opposite sides, the contents of these cavities have no such correspon dency. A line drawn down the middle of the breast divides the thorax into two sides exactly similar; yet these two sides inclose very different contents. The heart lies : |