Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying: With a dissertation on aëronauticsPettigrew, James Bell
Science
Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying: With a dissertation on aëronautics
Pettigrew, James Bell
Aeronautics; Animal locomotion
“The enarthrodial joint has by far the most extensive power of
motion, and is therefore selected for uniting the limbs to the trunk.
It permits of the several motions of the limbs termed pronation,
supination, flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, and revolution
upon the axis of the limb or bone about a conical area, whose apex is
the axis of the head of the bone, and base circumscribed by the distal
extremity of the limb.”[12]
[12] Bishop, _op. cit._
The ginglymoid or hinge-joints are for the most part spiral in their
nature. They admit in certain cases of a limited degree of lateral
rocking. Much attention has been paid to the subject of joints
(particularly human ones) by the brothers Weber, Professor Meyer
of Zürich, and likewise by Langer, Henke, Meissner, and Goodsir.
Langer, Henke, and Meissner succeeded in demonstrating the “screw
configuration” of the articular surfaces of the elbow, ankle, and
calcaneo-astragaloid joints, and Goodsir showed that the articular
surface of the knee-joint consist of “a double conical screw
combination.” The last-named observer also expressed his belief “that
articular combinations with opposite windings on opposite sides of
the body, similar to those in the knee-joint, exist in the ankle and
tarsal, and in the elbow and carpal joints; and that the hip and
shoulder joints consist of single threaded couples, but also with
opposite windings on opposite sides of the body.” I have succeeded
in demonstrating a similar spiral configuration in the several bones
and joints of the wing of the bat and bird, and in the extremities of
most quadrupeds. The bones of animals, particularly the extremities,
are, as a rule, twisted levers, and act after the manner of screws.
This arrangement enables the higher animals to apply their travelling
surfaces to the media on which they are destined to operate at any
degree of obliquity so as to obtain a maximum of support or propulsion
with a minimum of slip. If the travelling surfaces of animals did not
form screws structurally and functionally, they could neither seize
nor let go the fulcra on which they act with the requisite rapidity to
secure speed, particularly in water and air.
“_Ligaments._--The office of the ligaments with respect to locomotion,
is to restrict the degree of flexion, extension, and other motions of
the limbs within definite limits.
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