Note c — BOOK IV.

Quid dicam de Ossibus? quæ subjecta corpori mirabiles commissuras habent, & ad stabilitatem aptas, & ad artus finiendos accommodatas, & ad motum, & ad omnem corporis actionem. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 55.

By Reason it would be endless to mention all the Curiosities observable in the Bones, I shall for a Sample, single out only an Instance or two, to manifest that Design was used in the Structure of these Parts in Man.

The first shall be in the Back-Bone, which (among many others) hath these two Things remarkable. 1. Its different Articulations from the other Joynts of the Body. For here most of the Joynts are flat, and withal guarded with Asperities and Hollows, made for catching and holding; so as firmly to lock and keep the Joynts from Luxations, but withal to afford them such a Motion, as is necessary for the Incurvations of the Body. 2. The difference of its own Joynts in the Neck, Back and Loins. In the Neck, the Atlas, or upper Vertebra, as also the Dentata, are curiously made, and joynted (differently from the rest) for the commodious and easie bending and turning the Head every way. In the Thorax, or Back, the Joynts are more close and firm; and in the Loins, more lax and pliant; as also the Spines are different, and the Knobs and Sockets turned the quite contrary way, to answer the Occasions the Body hath to bend more there, than higher in the Back. I shall close this Remark with the ingenious Dr. Keil’s Observation.

The Structure of the Spine is the very best that can be contrived; for had it been all Bone, we could have had no Motion in our Backs; had it been of two or three Bones articulated for Motion, the Medulla Spinalis must have been necessarily bruised at every Angle or Joynt; besides, the whole would not have been so pliable for the several Postures we have occasion to put our selves in. If it had been made of several Bones without intervening Cartilages, we should have had no more Use of it, than if it had been but one Bone. If each Vertebra had had its own distinct Cartilages, it might have been easily dislocated. And lastly, The oblique Processes of each superior and inferior Vertebra, keep the middle one that it can neither be thrust backwards nor forwards to compress the Medulla Spinalis. Keil’s Anat. c. 5. §. 8.

Compare here what Galen saith of the Articulations, Ligaments, Perforation, &c. of the Spine, to prove the Wisdom and Providence of the Maker of animal Bodies, against such as found fault with Nature’s Works; among which he names Diagoras, Anaxagoras, Asclepiades and Epicurus. V. Galen. de Us. Part. L. 12. init. and Chap. 11, &c. also L. 13. init.

2. The next Instance shall be in one or two Things, wherein the Skeletons of Sexes differ. Thus the Pelvis made in the Belly by the Ilium, Ossa Coxendicis and Pubis, is larger in a Female than Male Skeleton, that there may be more room for the lying of the Viscera and Fœtus. So the Cartilage bracing together the two Ossa Pubis, or Sharebones, Bartholine saith, is twice thicker and laxer in Women than Men: As also is the Cartilage that tieth the Os Sacrum to its Vertebra; and all to give way to the Passage of the Fœtus.

Another considerable Difference is in the cartilaginous Production of the seven long Ribs, whereby they are braced to the Breast-Bone. These are harder and firmer in Women than in Men; the better to support the Weight of the Breasts, the sucking Infant, &c.