A History of Science — Volume 4Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 4
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
"To enable the animal to carry off its prey when seized, a corresponding
force is requisite in the muscles which elevate the head, and this
necessarily gives rise to a determinate form of the vertebrae to which
these muscles are attached and of the occiput into which they are
inserted. In order that the teeth of a carnivorous animal may be able to
cut the flesh, they require to be sharp, more or less so in proportion
to the greater or less quantity of flesh that they have to cut. It is
requisite that their roots should be solid and strong, in proportion to
the quantity and size of the bones which they have to break to pieces.
The whole of these circumstances must necessarily influence the
development and form of all the parts which contribute to move the
jaws...."
After these observations, it will be easily seen that similar
conclusions may be drawn with respect to the limbs of carnivorous
animals, which require particular conformations to fit them for rapidity
of motion in general; and that similar considerations must influence the
forms and connections of the vertebrae and other bones constituting the
trunk of the body, to fit them for flexibility and readiness of motion
in all directions. The bones also of the nose, of the orbit, and of
the ears require certain forms and structures to fit them for giving
perfection to the senses of smell, sight, and hearing, so necessary to
animals of prey. In short, the shape and structure of the teeth regulate
the forms of the condyle, of the shoulder-blade, and of the claws,
in the same manner as the equation of a curve regulates all its other
properties; and as in regard to any particular curve all its properties
may be ascertained by assuming each separate property as the foundation
of a particular equation, in the same manner a claw, a shoulder-blade,
a condyle, a leg or arm bone, or any other bone separately considered,
enables us to discover the description of teeth to which they have
belonged; and so also reciprocally we may determine the forms of the
other bones from the teeth. Thus commencing our investigations by a
careful survey of any one bone by itself, a person who is sufficiently
master of the laws of organic structure may, as it were, reconstruct the
whole animal to which that bone belonged."(1)
We have already pointed out that no one is quite able to perform the
necromantic feat suggested in the last sentence; but the exaggeration is
pardonable in the enthusiast to whom the principle meant so much and in
whose hands it extended so far.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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