they availed themselves; and being furnished with qualifications by the agency of religion, with singular ingratitude they turned the force of their talents against her, like the impious son who has been nourished and supported by the assiduous attention of an excellent mother, but repays her kindness with desertion and positive abuse. Religion has very much contributed to exalt the character of poetry. Here again we must refer to the Bible as furnishing the most lofty specimens of poetry. Where else do we find thought so bold, language so sublime, figures so well chosen and grand, or fire that flashes with so much vividness? Strip poetry of the inspirations of religion, and it is no longer poetry. The measure of the verse, the clatter of words, and the jingle of the rhyme may remain, but the soul and spirit no longer exist. What excellence or interest would remain to the poems of Homer or Virgil but for the connection they have with the religion of their country, and the doings of their gods? It is this which gives them their sublimity and fire; it is this which gives such overpowering majesty to the poems of Milton and Young, and such incomparable sweetness and irresistible eloquence to the numbers of Pollok. This fact has been acknowledged by poets who neither in theory nor practice have recognized the force of religious obligation. As if conscious of the superior inspiration of the sacred muse, they have frequently courted her influence, and when they have touched the sacred lyre, though with unhallowed hands, they have seemed to be sustained by an inspiration nobler than their own. In conclusion, let us inquire who now are the patrons of sciencewhat great source is it from which education receives its protection and encouragement? Do you say it is a liberal and enlightened government? We add, Christianity has rendered that government liberal and enlightened. Do you say the public mind appreciates the benefits of education, and that this circumstance secures patronage for the cause of science? We add, it is the influence of religion which has produced this favorable state of public feeling. But to answer this question more directly, we say the Christian world is education's great patron-not the infidel or heathen, but the Christian world. That there are learned infidels and heathens we pretend not to deny; but their peculiar creeds, if creeds they have, render them too selfish to institute measures for the general diffusion of intelligence. This is the appropriate work of the Christian world in general, and of the church in particular. By her influence, directly or indirectly, nearly all the literary institutions now in operation in the civilized world have been brought into being, and are now supported, guarded, and controlled. If governments have, by their liberality and protection, contributed to extend the blessings of science, or if their provisions have prepared the way for the diffusion of education among all classes of the population, Christianity has been the inducing cause; and where her influence is most felt, there these institutions are most valued and best supported; and there these provisions are received with the greatest approbation, and attended to with the most promptness and success. As the influence of the Christian religion is most powerfully felt in America and Europe, so it is there we are to look for the most liberal and enlightened forms of government, and for the greatest amount of science and general intelligence. He who makes the comparison between America and some parts of Europe, and Asia, and Africa, cannot fail to perceive the marked difference. To what is this difference to be attributed? Egotism would perhaps say, to a superiority of mind. But this is a conclusion which the past history of our race, and existing facts, by no means warrant. It is the Christian religion which gives us those blessings that elevate us so high above those nations who are destitute of her influence; -it is the Christian religion which, rising upon us like the genial warmth of summer, has quickened moral and literary vegetation, and replenished Europe and America with talents, virtues, and exploits, which have made them a paradise, the delight and wonder of the world. Annihilate the Bible, extinguish the light of evangelical truth, and overturn the institutions of Christianity, and moral and intellectual night, with their thickribbed darkness, would sit brooding over the world. For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review. ΑΝ ΕΡΙΤΟME OF HUMAN ORGANIZATION, Being the substance of a popular Lecture delivered in New-York, Albany, Troy, &c., before Young Men's Literary Associations, in 1839. BY DAVID M. REESE, A. M., M D., OF NEW-YORK, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic in the Albany Medical College. Human anatomy, or that science which discloses to man his own strucure, reveals the mysteries of his own intricate and complicated organization, is one in which every individual of our race has a direct and immediate interest. It is a species of the genus self-knowledge which should be acquired first in the order of time, because it is of invaluable importance to every human being, and because it may be attained earlier in life, and to a greater extent, than any other form of self-knowledge. By a natural and consecutive order, an acquaintance with our physical natures might advantageously precede the investigation of our intellectual organization, and if these were both acquired, in some tolerable degree, we should then be adequately prepared for cultivating and improving our moral and social being, with the best possible advantage to ourselves and our fellow creatures. To inspire you with a just conception of the value of this study, and to enable you to appreciate what may follow in its commendation, I propose to present you with an epitome of human anatomy, a bare outline of which is all that the time and the occasion will allow of this extensive science. For obvious reasons I design to avoid the use of all technicalities, and proceed briefly to name the different structures which enter into the organization of every human body. And, first, of the BONES. It is probable that all of you have seen a human skeleton, or at least its pictorial representation. In the adult human skeleton, if complete, there are two hundred and fifty-two separate and distinct bones. I say in the adult; for in infancy there are many more, several VOL. XI.-Oct., 1840. 32 of the bones of the child being consolidated into one bone during its approach to adult years. For the convenience of study, it is usual to speak of the skeleton in three separate parts, viz., the HEAD, the TRUNK, and the EXTREMITIES. 1. In the head alone there are fifty-nine separate bones, which may be thus classified: 2. In the trunk will be found 54 bones, as follows: 59 bones. 3. In the extremities there are 124 distinct extremities, and 60 in the lower extremities. They will be found as bones, 64 in the upper follows, viz.: In the shoulders and arms In the wrists In the hands In the fingers and thumbs Making for the upper extremities While those of the lower extremities are found thus: 10 bones. 16 bones. 10 bones. 28 bones. 64 bones. 8 bones. 14 bones. 10 bones. 28 bones. 60 bones. Being in the lower extremities Thus far it will be perceived that we have only contemplated the solid frame work upon which the other portions of the body are constructed, and yet of these " dry bones" we might find topics of reflection and admiration so numerous and extensive, that our time is too limited even to indicate. Suffice it to say, that of this large number of separate bones in the body, there are many individual bones, the composition, form, structure, connections, and uses of which would furnish an ample theme for an entire lecture. And of the bones in general, of the shape and firmness they give to the body, of the support they give to its various parts, of the defense they furnish for the vital organs, of the levers they provide for the muscles to act upon, we cannot dwell for a moment, full of interest as are these several topics. Next to the bones, and closely attached to them, are found certain bands or straps, which are called LIGAMENTS, and by these the bones are firmly connected together, constituting the hinges, or other mechanism, by which the ends of the several bones are connected with each other, and the multiplied joints of the body are constructed. And for the facility of motion, and to guard against the effects of friction, upon the surfaces of the ligaments, covering the ends of each bone entering into the form of a joint, an oily fluid is poured out by vessels constructed for the purpose, which renders the motions of the joints easy in the performance of all the variety of action to which any part of the body may be subjected. This single topic of the ligaments and joints opens before us a wide field of instruction: their number, variety, offices, and durability. But we must dismiss it with barely remarking, in the language of Dr. Paley, that "a limb shall swing upon its hinge, or play in its socket, many hundred times in an hour, for sixty years together, without any diminution of agility." Where is to be found on earth a piece of mechanism the hinges or joints of which can be thus worn, without ever being out of repair: or of what material could joints be constructed, in any machine of human inven. tion, which would wear so long? We now pass to the consideration of the instruments of motion in human organization, which are called MUSCLES. There are found in the body five hundred and twenty-seven muscles; two hundred and fiftyseven of them are double, being found in pairs: and thirteen of them are single. In common language, the muscles of the body are called by the general name of flesh: but notwithstanding the large number of the muscles included in the fleshy portions of the body, each of them is found, on examination, not only distinct from every other, but made up of innumerable threads or fibres, invariably formed with reference to the motion they are destined to perform. They vary essentially in size, in shape, in length, and structure; and every muscle is inclosed in a sheath, like those which are seen to divide the inside layers of an orange, while each minute fibre or muscle is similarly enveloped, and over all the muscles is a stronger sheath covering the entire limb, or other division of the structure, which several sheaths not only serve to keep the action of one muscle or fibre from interfering with that of another, but, by their elasticity, they contract or expand with every use made of the muscles, and give support and security to the whole. These muscles are the instruments of motion, and are either voluntary or involuntary. The former are under the control of the will, but the latter act without the will, and in despite of the will being exerted to the contrary. To produce the contraction or relaxation of any voluntary muscle, or any limb, including the whole of its muscles, we have only to will it, and simultaneously the muscles obey the mandate. The muscular fibres of the stomach, the heart, and those concerned in respiration, as well as those of the internal ear, are examples of involuntary motion, performed nevertheless by muscles. Each muscle terminates in a hard white cord, called a tendon or sinew, which varies in shape and size according to the office it is to perform, and this tendon passes through a sheath, within which an oily fluid is secreted analogous to that found in the joints, to obviate friction, and permit the tendon to glide easily. It is to the tendons we are indebted for the symmetry of form, both in the body and limbs, the result of their beautiful structure and diminished size; the large fleshy muscles of the arm for example, having long, slender, and silvery tendons or cords passing down upon the fingers, and occupying very little space. Every muscle, with few exceptions, has an antagonist muscle; one bends the limb, the other extends it: one relaxes, while the opposite one contracts. It is by this mechanism that we have so much rapidity of motion in different and opposite directions. The irritability or contractility of muscular fibres remains, in numerous instances, after death for a considerable time, so that it is found that they will contract on the application of galvanism, or any powerful stimulant, and sometimes spontaneously. Hence the heart, and other muscular structure of reptiles, will move on being pricked with a needle, after they have been removed from the body for hours. Some have thence alleged that they possess a sensibility independent of the brain and nerves: but it only shows that the nervous influence communicated to the fibres during life has not been exhausted, but continues for a longer or shorter time after death. It is the interruption or loss of this nervous power or influence which causes cramps, spasms, and painful contractions of the muscles, which are found to be beyond the control of the will: and this happens from fatigue. It has been remarked as a subject of astonishment, that the muscles never become weary, even in the cases just named. In the simple act of breathing, not less than a hundred of these muscles are constantly acting, whether we are in motion or at rest, sleeping or waking, and this muscular motion is kept up from the moment of birth often for nearly a century, during all which time these one hundred muscles perform, on an average, twenty inspirations and expirations every minute. The muscular fibres of the heart, during the same protracted period, are in perpetual motion, propelling the blood into the arteries on the like average sixty times in a minute. And so also of numerous other examples in the body. Dr. Paley on this subject thus expresses himself: "Breathing with ease is a blessing of every moment, yet of all others we possess it with the least consciousness, though a hundred of our muscles are ever actively employed in the process. A man in an asthma is the only one who knows how to estimate it." The muscles, though composed of so slender threads or fibres, are so compacted together, by their sheaths, that they possess extraordinary power, as has been demonstrated by a variety of experiments and calculations. The heart is estimated to exert a force of above a thousand pounds in propelling the blood out of the arteries into the veins. A man weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, in leaping two feet into the air, exerts a force two thousand times greater, equal to three hundred thousand pounds. If the teeth be employed in lifting a weight of two hundred pounds, attached to a rope, as is sometimes done, the muscles of the temple, by which chewing is ordinarily performed, must exert a force equal to fifteen thousand pounds' weight. But I forbear to enlarge here, though very much more should be said in justice to this important department, if the occasion did not forbid any degree of amplification. Having commenced with the bones, and next contemplated the muscles, your attention is now directed to the SKIN, with which the entire surface of the body is covered. Between the muscles and the skin is deposited a layer of spongy, fatty structure, which is called cellular substance, which, though greatly increased in fat and corpulent persons, is found universally to greater or less extent, even during great emaciation. Next to this lies the true skin, enveloping the whole, |