File:The hand - its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design, and illustrating the power, wisdom, and goodness of God (1874) (14782142065).jpg

Identifier: handitsmechanism1874bell (find matches)
Title: The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design, and illustrating the power, wisdom, and goodness of God
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842 Shaw, Alexander, 1804-1890
Subjects: Hand Intelligent design (Teleology) Hand Religious Philosophies Biological Evolution Evolution
Publisher: London : G. Bell
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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o the action of the muscles of thewings, it is necessary that all the bones of the trunkto which they are attached, should be united firmlytogether.^ From the vertebrae of the bird being thus fixed, andthe pelvis reaching high, no motion can take place inthe body; indeed, if there were any mobility in theback, it would be interrupted by the sternum, orbreastbone. We cannot but admire, therefore, thestructure of the neck and head; how the length andphabLlity of the vertebrae of the neck not only give tothe bill the extent of motion and office of a hand,but, by enabling the bird to preserve its balance, instanding, running, or flying, become a substitute for * The ostrich and cassowary, which are runners, have the spine loose. 80 STRUCTURE OF BIRDS. the loss of flexibility in the body. Is it not curious toobserve how the whole skeleton is adapted to this oneobject, the power of the wings ! Whilst the ostrich and other runners have notgot a keel in their breast-bone, birds of passage are
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recognisable by the depth of the ridge of the sternum.The reason is, that the angular space formed by thatprocess and the body of the bone affords lodgmentfor the pectoral muscle, the powerful muscle of thewing. In this sketch of the dissection of the swallow,there is a curious resemblance to the human arm;and we cannot fail to observe that the pectoral muscle CHAP. III. STRlCTURE of birds. 81 constitutes the greater part of the bulk of the body.*Ar.d here we perceive the correspondence between thestrength of this muscle and the rate of flj^ig, of theswallow, which is a mile in a minute, for ten hoursevery day, or six hundred miles a da3^t If it betrue that birds, in migi-ating, require a Tvind that blowsagainst them,J it implies an extraordinary power, aswell as continuance, of muscular exertion. We thus see how nature completes her work, whenthe animal is destined to rise buoyant and powerful inthe air :—the whole texture of the frame is altered, andmade Hght in a manner consisten

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