Extremity

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ The erect posture, figure, stature, use of every part, and symmetry of the whole, cannot but excite admiration. The fabric of the eye, the texture of the brain, the configuration of the muscles, the disposition of the nerves, the construction of the bones; the veins and arteries, spread throughout 351 the system, the former to return the blood to the heart, and keep that mysterious engine playing, which throws the vital fluid through the latter with prodigious force, to animate and invigorate every part ”

“ Look, for example, at the arm, or any of the limbs, or [Pg 253] the chest of a young man who has never had any physical training, and what do you behold? Nothing in true shape; nothing full of life or resistance; everything soft and flabby and girlish; in short, a frame incapable of the slightest endurance, and a hot bed ready to receive and force at any moment the seeds of disease. On the other hand, take in at a glance the limbs and form of the man of trained muscles, and who is accustomed to the exercise necessary to their perfection. ”

“ Minute anatomy has not yet attained a degree of perfection competent to settle a point of such subtility.”
Dr. C. afterward goes on to prove that no single nerve, or organ, can perform two distinct functions, but that each is capable of one mode of action, and no more; that between a nerve, a muscle, and a gland, the only difference known to exist, is that of organization; and that if they are organized alike, and endowed with life, their properties will be similar, and they will act in the same way. ”

“ In the human body they are found in great numbers in connection with the nerves of the hand, also in those of the foot. Why should they not be in the feet? Let us remember the rythmical structure of the human body, particularly the feet, and it becomes clear why they are there; the ecstatic dances of the enthusiasts and the not-sinking of somnambulists in water or their ability to use the soles of their feet as organs of perception and the ancient art of healing by the soles of the feet—all these facts explain the mystery. ”

“ He observed, that the fashion of turning them outwards was contrary to the intent of nature, as might be seen from the structure of the bones, and from the weakness that proceeded from that manner of standing. To this we may add the erect position of the head, the projection of the chest, the walking with straight knees, and many such actions, which we know to be merely the result of fashion, and what nature never warranted, as we are sure that we have been taught them when children. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are sensible of the position of our limbs; we know that the arms hang by the sides, or that they are raised and held out, although we touch nothing and see nothing. It must be a property internal to the frame by which we thus know the position of the members of our body; and what can it be but a [140] consciousness of the degree of action, and of the adjustment of the muscles? ”

“ The principal constituents of the skeleton, and the changes of form of contracting muscles, may be felt through one's own skin. The beating of one's heart, and its connection with the pulse, may be noted; the influence of the valves of one's own veins may be shown; the movements of respiration may be observed; while the wonderful phenomena of sensation afford an endless field for curious and interesting self-study. ”

“ The effect, to us, is not particularly pretty, more especially after the remark of an observer when you are admiring it that it suggests an anatomist’s model of a human leg or arm, made to indicate the positions of the sinews and muscles, the veins and the arteries. ”

“ But within the arm are numerous muscles, and back of these are myriads of nerves, fibers, and fibrillæ, and back of these are thoughts and affections with their countless forms; yet all these successively higher degrees act as one with every movement of the arm. Numerous as they are, superior as they are to the unit that the eye sees, they subsist simultaneously in it, and act as one by it. The arm can not move until the central point, the desire, acts. ”

“ All the parts united present a man, from whom the skin only has been taken. One half of the subject is represented entire; all the parts which constitute the other half may be detached; every muscle, every organ may be removed, one by one, from the skin to the bone, with the greatest facility, and replaced in the same manner. ”

“ The hand, fixed to the end of a long articulated column of bones, and, through its skin-covering, particularly in the cavity, endowed with high sensibility, raises itself to the importance of an organ of feeling, which, moveable in all directions, [Pg 17] apprizes us of the extent of matter, and of its physical qualities. ”

“ The terminal division of the fore-limb presents no difficulty—bone for bone, and muscle for muscle, are found to be arranged precisely as in Man, or with such minute differences as are found as varieties in Man. ”

“ Among those which grow lean which is that which grows leanest?
In very strong men which are the muscles which are thickest and most prominent?
In your anatomy you must represent all the stages of the limbs from man's creation to his death, and then till the death of the bone; and which part of him is first decayed and which is preserved the longest.
And in the same way of extreme leanness and extreme fatness.
The divisions of the head (812. 813) .
812.
ANATOMY. There are eleven elementary tissues:— Cartilage, bones, nerves, veins, arteries, fascia, ligament and sinews, skin, muscle and fat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We will to perform an act within our power of achievement, and by the complicated action of muscles, nerves, vessels, and bones, we accomplish our object, at the same time, perchance, we know not the origin and insertion of a single muscle, the direction of a single nerve, the course of a single artery. ”

“ If we take for comparison those that assimilate to our general form, anatomy shows us that our organs are the same as theirs; we find in them muscle for muscle, nerve for nerve, that is found in man himself. Physiology, in turn, has demonstrated that, in the body of man, the organs, the muscles, the nerves, have the same animal functions. ”

“ People who prefer this mode of philosophy are welcome to it. No wonder our author finds it ‘difficult to point out the seat of this organ;’ yet he assures us, that ‘it must be deep-seated in the brain.’ The organ of adhesiveness is evidently the same as the general faculty of attachment. The organ of combativeness I conceive to be nothing but strength of bone and muscle, and some projection arising from and indicating these. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first of these classes,—that which includes the various modifications of resistance,—I examined at great length, and showed, I trust, that it is not to our organ of touch we are indebted for these, but that they are feelings of another sense, of which our muscular frame is the organ,—the feelings, in short, of which every one must have been conscious, who has attempted to grasp any body, or to press against it, when the full contraction of the muscles must, of course, have been impeded. ”

“ ANATOMY. Which nerves or sinews of the hand are those which close and part the fingers and toes latteraly?
807.
Remove by degrees all the parts of the front of a man in making your dissection, till you come to the bones. Description of the parts of the bust and of their motions.
808.
Give the anatomy of the leg up to the hip, in all views and in every action and in every state; veins, arteries, nerves, sinews and muscles, skin and bones; then the bones in sections to show the thickness of the bones.
[Footnote: A straightened leg in profile is sketched by the side of this text.] ”

“ Everything in the structure of the fore-limbs indicates the animal's burrowing instinct,—the length of the bone, which corresponds to the human radius, or fore-arm,—the breadth of the hands,—and the bend of the arms, which are so fashioned that the elbows project outwardly. ”

“ The great group of the voluntary, or bone-moving muscles, which move "with the will" and are under our direct control, may be divided roughly into two divisions—those that move the trunk, or body proper, and run, for the most part, lengthwise of it; and those that move the limbs. ”

“ Muscle and bone, for instance, are inseparably associated and connected; they are moulded one with another; they come into being together, and act and react together636. We may study them apart, but it is as a concession to our weakness and to the narrow outlook of our minds. ”

“ The extremities, spine, and rest of the body, namely, are formed, grow, and acquire outline and complexion together; the extremities, comprising bones, muscles, tendons, and cartilages, all of which on their first appearance were similar and homogeneous, become distinguished in their progress, and, connected together, compose organs, by whose mutual continuity the whole body is constituted. In like manner, the membrane growing around the head, the brain is composed, and the lustrous eyes receive their polish out of a perfectly limpid fluid. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Figures intended to be in violent action are equally destitute of joints, and other anatomical form, as they are of the balance and spring of motion, the force of a blow, or the just variety of line in the turning figure. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Its peculiar characteristic is that the feet are no more active than any other part of the body; arms, shoulders, abdomen, head—all the parts and every muscle are set in motion, sometimes including even the eyes and the tongue. ”

“ Can he predict, with all his learning, that if a certain muscle is drawn up in a particular manner, it will present a particular appearance in a different part of the arm or leg, or bring out other muscles, which were before hid, with certain modifications? ”

“ In the attempt the skin gathers into thick folds on the back, shewing that the full expansion of the foot, as is necessary in walking, is unnatural. The natural position is on all fours, the body anteriorly resting upon the knuckles. ”

“ That there is pleasure attending those varied motions which depend upon the actions of different muscles in succession after intervals of rest in each, we know from our own consciousness as well as from that instinctive propensity to play which we observe in children and young animals. That the prolonged action of a muscle is painful, we may readily convince ourselves by endeavoring to hold the arm for some time at right angles with the erect trunk. ”

“ We may see in our own bodies how each limb serves another. The feet bear the whole body, and the eyes lead the feet, and the hands prepare the sustenance. Soon will the head lie down, if the feet bear it not ”

“ This sense accordingly might better be called the "muscle, tendon and joint sense", but the shorter term, "muscle sense", bids fair to stick. The Greek derivative, "kinesthesis", meaning "sense of movement", is sometimes used as an equivalent ”