The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design.

  • Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    this subject, we may observe that there must be an accurate correspondence between the form of the young offspring and the bones of the mother through which it must be expelled. The head and anterior part of the young animal must be large: but in the kangaroo, the anterior part bears no proportion to the magnitude of the parts behind. Again, the bones called pelvis are ne- cessarily formed to sustain the viscera, if the animal be provided for the perpendicular po- sition ; and this is the case with the kangaroo. Nature has, therefore, accomplished the produc- tion of the young safely and by the simplest means,—that of anticipating the period of the separation of the young animal, and providing for its growth exteriorly, after it has passed through the circle of bones called the pelvis. For these reasons we conclude that there is a relation between the mode of producing the offspring and the form of the skeleton. I hope that I have gone far enough to prove that where there is uniformity in the shape of any part of the skeleton, it depends on the per- manence of the function of the organ to which it stands related. The head- and spine are, in certain respects, permanent in their forms; because the brain and spinal marrow vary only in size: but as far as regards their application as instruments for obtaining food, for attack, or defence, they are very curiously changed in