Body shape

“ It is remarkable too, that each distinct form is, at the same time, a complex one; since, whether we regard the head, or the foot, or the hand, or the fingers of which it is composed, we discover in each a combination of various constituent particulars, such as bones, muscles, nerves, skin, &c. all arranged in the most exact order, and all tending to make one form, whilst an indefinite variety of these one forms constitute the grand total or the form of the human body. ”

“ Colour, hair, skin, bone, stature—all [24] these are points of physical conformation or structure; material and anatomical; points which the callipers or the scalpel investigates. But colour, hair, skin, bone, and stature, are not the only characteristics of man; nor yet the only points wherein the members of his species differ from each other. There is the function as well as the organ; and the parts of our body must be considered in regard to what they do as well as with reference to what they are. ”

“ This representation rests on evidence that may be termed demonstrative. Many persons destitute of the upper or lower extremities, or both, have strong characters and well-marked temperaments. But the extremities, if deprived of the influence of any one group of the ruling organs, are converted not only into useless but lifeless masses. Of the skin, muscles, and bones, which compose the head, neck, and trunk of the body, the same is true. Of themselves they possess no character, and can therefore bestow none. ”

“ If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the head, we shall immediately conceive it would only deform—if to the hands or feet, we are sensible of something gross and ungenteel—if to the whole lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dangling and awkward—if, by an addition of length or breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy and clumsy—there remains then only the neck, with the legs and thighs to speak of ”

“ One whose hands, feet, sides, back, nipples, teeth, shoulders, mouth, and forehead are large ; whose arms, fingers, breath, and eyesight are long, brows and chest are broad ; legs, genital organ, and neck short, voice and navel are deep ; whose vigour is great, whose head protrudes backward, whose joints, veins, and arteries are buried in flesh, whose limbs are strongly built ; who is cool and collected, free from disease, and has hair growing on the ears ; whose body, intellect, and experience grow gradually, — such a man is expected to enjoy long life. ”

“ It is claimed that this work has been examined by learned scientific men, skilled in anatomy and physiology, and not a line or lineament of the skin surface of the human body has been omitted in this delicate, intricate carving. ”

“ For the body itself is "fearfully and wonderfully made." Supported by over two hundred bones, which are welded together by ligaments and ten­dons, and again overlaid by hundreds of muscles—the bands and pulleys by which action and locomotion become possible—permeated by thousands of nerves which give sensibility and vitality to the living mass, and clothed by a soft and flexible skin which charms at once the eye and the touch. ”

“ It is not unusual to consider the body as being divided into the head, the trunk, and the extremities; but, in consequence of the hitherto universal neglect of the natural arrangement of the organs and functions into locomotive, nutritive, and thinking, the beauty and interest which may be attached to this division, have equally escaped the notice of anatomists. ”

“ When you look at any person you quickly discern whether fat, bone or muscle predominates in his construction. If fat predominates he leans toward the Alimentive, no matter what other types he may have in combination; if firm, well-defined muscles are conspicuous, he is largely Muscular; but if his bones are proportionately large for his body he has much of the Osseous type in his makeup. ”

“ These parts being expanded, furnish the arms, the hands, the fingers, the nails, and the hair; the other gives the thighs, the legs, the feet, etc., which form the support and balance of the body. All this is surprising, but not more so in man than in any other animal, or even in vegetation; the same luxury of Nature shines throughout. ”

“ Those who copy every­thing else that we do let us alone in this, and make their corsets now with as little regard to the anatomical structure of the body and the requirements of the vital organs, as if science had made no progress nor art any advancement. ”

“ In like manner, it is easy to see that the roundness and the hardness are forms of our consciousness, belonging to the groups which we call sensations of sight and touch. If the surface of the cornea were cylindrical, we should have a very different notion of a round body from that which we possess now; and if the strength of the fabric, and the force of the muscles, of the body were increased a hundredfold, our marble would seem to be as soft as a pellet of bread crumbs. ”

“ Those parts of our body, which, like the hand, are divided into many flexible and moveable parts, and can apply themselves at one time upon different sides of a foreign body, are those only which can give us the ideas of their form and size. ”

“ Every movement of every portion of the body has significance. Picking up a glass, a cup, or tools and other habits reflect the mind and its superiority to the physical. There is no surer way to judge people.
Every face tells a tale and we read character from the physical form—the head, the backbone, the eye, the mouth, the chin, or hand. The uplifted eye, the corners of the mouth, the manner in which one eats or stands, in fact every movement has a special meaning, which may be easily read. ”

“ For these organs, whose activity is in an outward direction, have still, and precisely by the nature of their pose and movement, for the most part the expression of a spiritual deliverance. The other members of the body, on the contrary, are and remain solely productive of a sensuous beauty; and the distinguishing features which are visible on them can only be bodily vigour, development of muscle, or degrees of delicacy and softness, such as characterize respectively the two sexes, age, youth, and childhood. ”

“ That the construction and organization of the human frame is in all men essentially the same. They have similar solids and fluids, viz., bones, cartilages, tendons, nerves, muscles, veins, arteries, flesh, blood, and other juices, body and parts, or members. ”

“ Their close curls, their elegantly set heads, column-like necks, straight noses, short, curled lips, firm chins, deep chests, light flanks, large muscles, small joints, were finer than anything we ever see. It may well be questioned whether the human shape will ever present itself again in a race of such perfect symmetry. ”

“ In the same way the bodily forms and their motion are devoid of life, the arms, for example, are glued to the body, the legs are not divided, or are clumsily moved, or in angular and constrained modes ”

“ Hence the whole muscular system may be considered as one organ of sense, and the various attitudes of the body, as ideas belonging to this organ, of many of which we are hourly conscious, while many others, like the irritative ideas of the other senses, are performed without our attention. ”

“ The body is a mansion, with bones for its rafters and beams, with nerves and tendons for cords, with muscles and blood for mortar, with skin for its outward covering, and filled with no sweet perfumes, but loaded with refuse. ”

“ The existence of our bodies, and of external objects, is however held in uncertainty by every unprejudiced reasoner; for what is that extension of length, breadth, and thickness, which we call our body, and which seems to be so much our own, but as it relates to our senses? What are even the material organs of those senses, but so many conformities with the objects that affect them? ”

“ They differ in the color of the hair or eyes, in the shape of the head, or in such details as size and shape of the ear, size and shape of the nose, chin, mouth, teeth, feet, hands, fingers, toes, nails, etc. The anatomist tells us that we differ internally just as we do externally. While the internal structure of one person has the same general plan as that of another, there being the same number of bones, muscles, organs, etc., there are always differences in detail. We are built on the same plan, i.e. we are made after a common type. We vary, above and below this type or central tendency. ”

“ Would it shock our nervous sensibilities, if our next-door neighbor the philosopher, or some near-by grave and reverend doctor of divinity, or even the learned judge himself, should give unmistakable evidence that he had in his body the two hundred and odd bones and the five hundred and more muscles, with all their fit accompaniments of joints and sinews, of which the anatomists tell us? ”

“ The whole of the body, at first, can be broken up into "cells," which become in one place metamorphosed into muscle,—in another place into gristle and bone,—in another place into fibrous tissue,—and in another into hair ”

“ Strength of Body is shown by stiff hair, large bones, firm and robust limbs, short muscular neck, firm and erect carriage, head broad and high, forehead short and peaked, bristly hair, large feet, harsh unequal voice and florid complexion. ”

“ Some of his organs are exceedingly old, while others are but of yesterday; yet all are highly developed in due proportion, knit and harmonized in a marvellously tough, vigorous, adaptable body, the instrument of a thinking and willing mind. ”

“ But I think that we are more averse to assent on false grounds than to anything else which is contrary to nature. Now of the limbs, that is to say, of the parts of the body, some appear to have been given to us by nature because of the use which, they are of to us, as, for instance, the hands, legs, and feet, and also those internal organs of the body, of which I may leave it to the physicians to explain the exceeding usefulness ”

“ They consist in a well-adjusted proportion between the sizes of the head, thorax, and abdomen. If the limbs are in harmony, the symmetry of the entire person is complete. Although individuals, in whom this temperament prevails, are usually above the middle height, and well-formed, they are not necessarily so. They may be of any stature, and any shape, straight or crooked, provided the three great cavities and their contents be accurately balanced. ”

“ If one line, proceeding from a central particle, be understood, every line, which can proceed from it, is also understood. If that central point be a part 36 of the human body, it is plain that as the hand, passing along a line in a certain direction from that centre, has certain muscular actions, passing along in another direction, it has muscular actions somewhat different. When we say muscular actions somewhat different, we say muscular feelings somewhat different. ”

“ EVER since the study of human anatomy has attracted any attention, variations in the arrangement of the different structures of the body have been noticed. For many centuries, the signification of these variations was not understood ”

“ The dimensions of the limbs and body alter in the course of growth and decay; the colour, quantity, and quality of the hair, the tint and quality of the skin, the number and set of the teeth, the expression of the features, the gestures, the handwriting, even the eye-colour, change after many years. There seems no persistence in the visible parts of the body, except in these minute and hitherto too much disregarded ridges. ”

“ He says that one might assign as "the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see ”

“ The skin becomes firm, clear, and wholesome. Hence, every part of the surface of the body rapidly takes on a change in contour, and soon assumes that appearance of vigor and soundness which marks those of firm physical condition. The delicate, ruddy aspect of the complexion, the swing about the body and the bearing of the head and shoulders, of young women whose physical training has been efficient, are in marked contrast with those characteristics in persons whose education in this respect has been neglected. ”

“ Again having seen human bodies dissected one knows how the bones lie, and the muscles and sinews, and all the order and conditions of anatomy, so that it is possible with greater security and more correctness to place the limbs and arrange the muscles of the body in the figures we draw. ”

“ As, however, we trace out the gradual development of the more complex animal forms, we see coming forward into greater and greater prominence the arrangement of the tissues in definite ways to secure mechanical ends. Thus the entire body acquires particular shapes, and parts of the body are built up into mechanisms, the actions of which are to the advantage of the individual. ”

“ Although what is called my Body is shown to be a group of qualities which are feelings—its color, form, solidity, position, motion—all its physical attributes being what is felt by us in consequence of the laws of our organization ”

“ The principal components of the body will naturally indicate and classify the topics for discussion in dealing with the subject of physical education. The body may be roughly described as an organisation of bones and muscles, permeated by blood, covered with skin, and containing a breathing and digestive apparatus.
The chief process by which life is maintained, and health and strength developed, is the receiving of food. That over-feeding and under-feeding are both bad is a truism. ”

“ We once read of a celebrated anatomist, who, far from admiring human beauty, regarded the skin, as an impertinent obstacle to the acquisition of science, concealing, as it does, the play of the muscles. ”

“ Within the body itself we have sense organs also, particularly in the joints and tendons and in the muscles. These give us the sensations which are the basis of our perception of motion, and of the position of the body and its members. ”