Secondly, the “Shoulder-joint” is so made as to permit a great variety and extensive range of movements to take place. We can move the arm forwards or backwards, as in throwing a ball, or, in sword exercise; we can raise it so that the limb points straight upwards; and we can swing it round in any direction. It is owing to the free movement in this joint that we are able to apply the hand to every part of the body, so as to remove sources of irritation. It is interesting to observe how other animals get on without hands, though they are much exposed to what we should consider great annoyance, as from flies, &c. The Cow, for instance, lashes its hide with its tail. The Cat licks itself with its tongue. The Sparrow dusts itself by the road-side. The Pig and the Donkey roll in the mud. And many of them, as the Horse and the Ox, have a thin muscle, called “panniculus carnosus,” spread out under the skin, which effects those sudden twitchings of the skin whereby they are enabled to jerk off anything that troubles them. In Man the hand answers better than all these methods combined; and it is necessary that it should do so, because his skin is more sensitive and less protected by natural covering than that of any other animal. [Illustration: Fig. 55. Chest and shoulders of man.] For this freedom of movement of the arms, so important to the usefulness of the hand, we are much indebted to the “Collar-bones.” These bones, so called because they are placed at the lower part of the _collum_ or neck, extend, horizontally, from the upper edge of the breast-bone, to the processes of the blade-bones which overhang the shoulder-joint. Thus they hold the shoulders apart, and give width to the upper part of the chest. They also steady the shoulder-blades, and afford a _point d’appui_ to the muscles which effect the lateral movements of the arms,--for instance, to the muscles which tend to draw the arms together, as when we hold anything, between the hands, in front of us; and to those which separate the arms from one another, as when we stretch them out at right angles with the body. [Illustration: Fig. 56. Chest and shoulders of bird.]