DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0282
LEC. VIII.] PROPORTIONS OP THE FIGURE, 1Q3
That the natural attitude of man is ere61, and riot
prone, may be sati-fatten!y inferred from the fol-
lowing considerations: His neck is shorter than the
same part in most animals, but not so contracted as
that of the monkey kind ; therefore, while erect,
h:> head (which may be termed his observatory) is so
elevated by situation, that it is not necessary for him
to extend his neck in order to look around him : be-
side this advantage, his neck, while eredt, is much-
better fitted to sustain in equipoise the very great
weight of his head, (chiefly occasioned by the mag-
nitude of his brain) which, were he prone, would
undoubtedly impede, his movements, by giving an
injurious preponderance to that member. . The same
moderate proportion of neck, would prevent his
mouth from being capable of gathering his food on
the surface of the earth : I decline insisting on the
manner in which the verteb?'<e of his neck, and of the
spinal column in general, are locked together ; but
this is demonstrative on inspection of the skeleton.
The breast, or chest, as it is termed, of man3 is
much larger, and broader, more expanded, in pro-
portion to his size, than that of animals. Where the
neck unites with the trunk of the body, or chest, is
placed the cla-vicula, or collar-bone, a bone found
only in man, and in such animals as are designed to
sustain themselves erect without inconvenience ;
that is to saVj in certain species of the monkey tribe :
nor has any animal, at the union of the trunk to the
lower members, what we call Buttocks; every ap-
pearance of that kind being nothing more than, pro-
perly speaking, their thighs.
Edit. 7- C c The
That the natural attitude of man is ere61, and riot
prone, may be sati-fatten!y inferred from the fol-
lowing considerations: His neck is shorter than the
same part in most animals, but not so contracted as
that of the monkey kind ; therefore, while erect,
h:> head (which may be termed his observatory) is so
elevated by situation, that it is not necessary for him
to extend his neck in order to look around him : be-
side this advantage, his neck, while eredt, is much-
better fitted to sustain in equipoise the very great
weight of his head, (chiefly occasioned by the mag-
nitude of his brain) which, were he prone, would
undoubtedly impede, his movements, by giving an
injurious preponderance to that member. . The same
moderate proportion of neck, would prevent his
mouth from being capable of gathering his food on
the surface of the earth : I decline insisting on the
manner in which the verteb?'<e of his neck, and of the
spinal column in general, are locked together ; but
this is demonstrative on inspection of the skeleton.
The breast, or chest, as it is termed, of man3 is
much larger, and broader, more expanded, in pro-
portion to his size, than that of animals. Where the
neck unites with the trunk of the body, or chest, is
placed the cla-vicula, or collar-bone, a bone found
only in man, and in such animals as are designed to
sustain themselves erect without inconvenience ;
that is to saVj in certain species of the monkey tribe :
nor has any animal, at the union of the trunk to the
lower members, what we call Buttocks; every ap-
pearance of that kind being nothing more than, pro-
perly speaking, their thighs.
Edit. 7- C c The