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(seq. 17)
5 Lect 1st
But here it may be asked why is the human Frame so complicated? In answer to this, Imagine to yourselves, what is necessary to form a Compleat Man, What is necessary to Contain an immatterial Mind, & Answer the most valuable Purposes. There is 1st the Organs of Sense to obtain the Knowledge of external Objects. 2dly The Nerves to be the Instruments of Conveying our Sensations. Man is intended for a social Being. He stands in Need of a Tongue to speak. He was designed to be an Active Being. How well are the Extremities contrived for this Use. The Bones are necessary to give Firmness & Shape to the Body to be Levers for the Museles to act upon, and to defend the Parts most necessary to Life from external Injuries; And the Bones are many for the Purpose of Motion? How proper are the Ligaments to unite them & preserve them in their proper Situation? How suitable are Cartilages & lubricating Glands to prevent their Abrasion & facilitate their Motion? How proper are the Muscles & Tendons to cover the Bones & perform the Office of Moving Powers? How suitable for Nourishment is the Blood, which is conveyed thro the Lungs & there attenuated & Cooled, that it may easily flow, & with a proper Degree of Heat. How suitable are the Arteries to carry the Blood to every Part of the Body to nourish & Warm it & the Veins to return the Blood to the Heart? How proper is the Thoracic Duct
(seq. 19)
6 Lect. 1st
to convey the Chyle to the Subclavian Vein, where it mixes with the Blood & becomes the Means of Nourishment? To recive Food the Mouth Lips &c are Necessary & the Stomach & the various Liquors to perform the Office of Digestion. The Glands to secrete several necessary Humours; & the intestinal Canal to carry off the Recrements. And how admirably calculated is the Cellular Membrane & Cuticle to evnelope, Warm & give Beauty to the Whole? From Childhood to Manhood, the Fluids predominate over the Solids, after this the contrary takes place. It may be asked, what stops our Growth, or why de do not still grow & become Palagonians. I answer the Action & Reaction of the Solids & Fluids, by which the former acquire such a Degree of firmness, as to admit of no further Oblongation of their Fibres, on which Growth depends. As Men are not to live here always the Organs of Generation & all the Apparatus are necessary to produce a new Race of Beings. And I may remark, that there are implanted sufficiently powerful Propensities in our Nature to indulge those pleasing Gratifications - Students usually desire to know what Books are to be read on the Subject. I may observe here, that there is no Way so proper to acquire a Knowledge of Anatomy, as by ocular Demonstration by seeing a Subject dissected. Students are apt from Books, which generally give but imperfect Notions, & often wrong Representations of the several parts of the human
