Elongation

“ Fig. 239.
If we imagine growth to act in a perpendicular direction, as for example the upward force of growth in a growing stem (OA) , then, in the absence of other forces, elongation will as a matter of course proceed in an unchanging direction, that is to say the stem will grow straight upwards. Suppose now that there be some constant external force, such as the wind, impinging on the growing stem; and suppose (for simplicity’s sake) that this external force be in a constant direction (AB) perpendicular to the intrinsic force of growth. ”

“ Thus, when we say, lift, expand, and let go, we mean lift from the hips, the center of gravity, in an easy, flexible manner; expand the body with a free movement without conscious thought of any part of it; have the sensation of letting go all contraction or rigidity, and absolutely release the muscles of the throat and face. The let go is in reality more a negative than a positive condition, and virtually means, when you lift and expand, do not locally grip, harden, or set any muscle of the body, throat, or face. ”

“ Over and over we went into the thickest mass of bodies, making a way through the people, until at last we came to a stop in a perfect mound of writhing forms and waving legs and arms. When we had done the mass disentangled itself and I was able to raise my head from the shoulder of someone on whom I had fallen, lifting him, or her—which was it?—into a sitting posture alongside of me at the same time, while the others rose about us like wheat-stalks after a storm, and edged shyly off, as well as they might. ”

“ But the moving body, ever tending to fall, needs constant support, if it is to move in a true horizontal line. 'What, then,' he asked himself, 'will give constant support to a moving body?' And his answer was 'Human legs!' That was the discovery that immortalised his name! ”

“ Under unilateral stimulus, the proximal side is found to become concave and the distal side convex; the organ thus moves towards stimulus, exhibiting a positive curvature. This movement may be due: (1) to the diminution of turgor, contraction or retardation of rate of growth of the proximal side, (2) to the increase of turgor, expansion or acceleration of rate of growth on the distal side, or (3) to the joint effects of contraction of the proximal and expansion of the distal side. ”

“ From the earliest ancestors of ours which had feet, down to the present day, the movement of the feet must always have accompanied the contraction of the muscles; and here, if anywhere, habit's hereditary consequences ought to be found, if the principle that habits are transmitted from one generation to another is sound at all. [11] No sooner then should the brain-centres for perceiving muscular contractions be excited, than those other centres functionally consolidated with them ought to share the excitement, and produce a consciousness that the foot has moved. ”

“ A lever of given strength will raise a given weight; so far does the Motion of Liberty prevail over that of the Greater Congregation; but if the weight be increased, it is overcome. Leather stretches to a certain extent without breaking; so far does the Motion of Continuity prevail over the Motion of Tension; but if the tension be increased, the leather breaks, and the Motion of Continuity is overcome. ”

“ We see nature has placed its manufacturies above a given line in the breast, and grows the crude material below said line. Now as growth means motion and supply, we must combine in a friendly way, and conduct the force from above to the region below the septum or diaphragm, that we may use the powers as needed. ”

“ Mind directs the motion of the body by directing the motion of the organs of locomotion, and these are directed by the device of opposing muscles—the one being contracted and the other relaxed. So the choice of the animal is delegated to the choice of the organ, and the choice of the organ is delegated to the choice of the muscles. ”

“ All the great motions of the body are caused by the movement of some of the bones which form the framework of the system; but these, independently of themselves, have not the power of motion, and only change their position through the action of other organs attached to them, which, by contracting, draw the bones after them. In some of the slight movements, as the winking of the eye, no bones are displaced. ”

“ Then there was a movement, a movement that blanched the watching faces to a more pallid white—that dangling, wobbling leg drew inward slowly, very slowly, and hip and knee, as though guided by some mighty power, immutable, supreme, came deliberately into normal form. ”

“ The equilibrium of nature is constantly preserved; for in walking, leaping, running, &c., similar precautions are taken. By the flexibility of our bodies in striking, according to the proportionate force meant to be employed, the body is first drawn back, then the limb propelled forward, bringing with it the weight of the body. ”

“ There are three phases in this natural development: Angular, circular and spiral. The human form poised squarely on both feet is the spiral, the head a convexed curve, the body a concave curve, and the legs a convexed curve, like a wave line. To preserve this spiral line of changing curves, the weight is always thrown against the strong side so as to develop the weak side and maintain an equilibrium. Standing should be principally upon the balls of the feet, and the exercise should be to incline the body to and from the opposite curves. ”

“ As to gait, that progression which advances, unmodified by any lateral movement of the body, or any perpendicular rising of the head, and which belongs exclusively to the locomotive system—or that soft lateral rolling of the body, which belongs exclusively to the vital system—or that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to step, which belongs exclusively to the mental system—these reciprocally indicate a corresponding locomotive, or vital, or mental character, which will be found also indicated by the features of the face. ”

“ This easy experiment shows us, at the same time, that simple paralysis, or the loss of function of one side, does not occasion the movements of rotation. If we swim with one arm and one leg of the same side, we do not deviate, but advance in a right line; but, if we contract the muscles of the thorax of one side, at once we lean in the water on that side. ”

“ Show that walking is a process of falling. Describe the process of running. What causes the swinging of the hand in walking? Why are we shorter when walking? [Footnote: Stand a boy erect against a wall. Mark his height with a stick. Now have him step off a part of a pace, and then several whole paces. Next, let him close his eyes, and walk to the wall again. He will be perceptibly lower than the stick, until he straightens up once more from a walking position.] Why does a person when lost often go in a circle? ”

“ Meanwhile the climbing and leaping from branch to branch, the measuring with the eye of distances and strength of branches, the power of grasping the right point at the right instant, and all the complicated series of movements combined in this form of locomotion furnished a marvellous set of exercises not only for the muscles but for the higher centres in the cortex of the brain. ”

“ Let the second motion be that which we term the motion of connection, by which bodies do not allow themselves to be separated at any point from the contact of another body, delighting, as it were, in the mutual connection and contact. This is called by the schools a motion to prevent a vacuum. It takes place when water is drawn up by suction or a syringe, the flesh by cupping, or when the water remains without escaping from perforated jars, unless the mouth be opened to admit the air, and innumerable instances of a like nature. ”

“ In this way we explain the movement in a circle, the side in relation with the wounded part being in the interior of the circle made by the animal. This also is the reason why such movements, particularly when the circumference is small, occur only when the animal can change his place, and very often commence only after the first moments of locomotion. ”

“ A lifeless structure is in stable equilibrium; the body, springing, poised, upon its fine ankles and narrow feet, never stands without implying and expressing life. It is the leg that first suggested the phantasy of flight. We imagine wings to the figure that is erect upon the vital and tense legs of man ”

“ But when walking, the center of each half body is in the center of each leg, for by each step one leg makes the whole body must throw itself upon the center of the other leg, or else the body would tumble over. ”

“ You begin to descend, and the strain of past difficulties begins to tell in aching muscles and over-active nerves. You have a choice of two methods, either of which are harder than ascending the same rocks would be. ”

“ For we move at will not only those members which are furnished with joints of solid bone, as the hands, feet, and fingers, but we move also at will those which are composed of slack and soft nerves: we can put them in motion, or stretch them out, or bend and twist them, or contract and stiffen them, as we do with the muscles of the mouth and face. ”

“ Though we may be inclined to consider the diminution in lateral expanse, and in backward growth of the posterior lobes, D, of which our figures speak, as an individual rather than as a specific peculiarity, we are compelled to assign greater importance to the curtailment in downward growth to which they, as well as other similar figures, testify. ”

“ Our only entrance will be a hole, about the size of a man’s body, low down, on the river side; and to use it, everybody will have to crawl in or out on his stomach, and cross the big ditch by means of a plank. ”

“ This subject belongs to a later chapter and is referred to here because the possession of an arch to his foot has caused man to escape, on the under surface of it, a vast propor­tion of the stimuli of pressure and friction involved in his mode of walking, and the extreme simplicity of his plantar papillary ridges, and relatively thin, soft skin under the plantar arches affords a fairly conclusive example of change of structure from disuse per se. ”

“ It, therefore, follows that this force must be put forth for a long time before the upward movement is entirely neutralised, and during this long time the body will have attained a correspondingly high elevation. ”

“ Hence we see that circumduction is a motion composed of all those of opposition, and in which the bone, instead of moving from one direction to an opposite one, as in the preceding case, moves from one direction to another nearest to it, describing thus by its extremity a circle which is the base of a cone of which I have spoken, and which is so much the greater as the bone is so much the longer. ”

“ Now, I have formed a habit of interpreting the passing of outside bodies as motion in myself and the coach, and when the trains outside move I infer that I and my coach move, and so strong is this inference that I am impelled to look for some verification before I can decide in which body the molar motion inheres, for the contradictory judgments are both intuited. ”

“ This impetuous motion is accompanied by an instantaneous extension of the body which had bent itself, like a spring or bow, along the back, the joints of the thighs, knees, and feet, and is let off obliquely, that is, upwards and forwards; so that the disposition of the body tending forwards and upwards, makes it describe a great arch when it springs up, which increases the leap. ”

“ The first thing a man does in mounting steps is to relieve the leg he is about to lift of the weight of the body which was resting on that leg; and besides this, he gives to the opposite leg all the rest of the bulk of the whole man, including [the weight of] the other leg; he then raises the other leg and sets the foot upon the step to which he wishes to raise himself. ”

“ It needs but a moment for the conversation to become general,—about roots under the shoulder, stubs in the back, a ridge on which it is impossible for the sleeper to balance, the non-elasticity of boughs, the hardness of the ground, the heat, the smoke, the chilly air. ”

“ The feature that seems to be emphasized is the stumbling, crawling, motion, which as seen in a flow, may be compared to the awkward, ataxic movement of one whose knees are dislocated and leg-bones broken. ”

“ It is by the mode of locomotion of the climber that the hand became, little by little, apt for the function of prehension, then for the function of manipulation, and it is by virtue of the complete emancipation here supposed of the superior member with reference to locomotion that the functions of prehension and of manipulation of the hand have been able to acquire adaptations the most varied. ”

“ What we want to do here is to group the bodily motions into a few classes, regardless of what joints are actually moved. First, and most important, comes locomotion; by that we mean any motions that move the body from one place to another. Under that head we have walking, running, swimming, jumping; in birds, flying. ”

“ Then the body can be rolled over, and carried as it were by the weight of the arm and leg. It must go over heavily and freely like a bag of loose bones, and it helps greatly to freedom to roll over and over in this way. ”

“ See how they stretch their shoulders up the slope toward the bridge, with all the more energy because they are so near home. Look at their grand shaggy feet that seem to grasp the firm earth, at the patient strength of their necks, bowed under the heavy collar, at the mighty muscles of their struggling haunches! ”

“ Every movement seemed to be natural, thoroughly unaffected and effortless. Sometimes only the arms were moved, sometimes only the legs, and sometimes a scarcely perceptible motion of a hand or a foot sufficed to give the needful impulse. ”