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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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ba ] l of the eye to describe a complete circle . In speaking of the muscles of the eyes , Dr . Paley exclaims , " how many things must go right for us to be an hour at ease 1 How many more
to be \ igorous and active 1 Yet vigour and activity are in a vast plurality of instances preserved in human bodies , notwithstanding that they depend upon so great a number of instruments of motion , and notwithstanding that the defect or disorder of a very small instrument , of a single pair , for instance , out of 446 muscles which are
employed , may he attended with grievous inconvenience . " " Hence , " says the author of an old , but , in its day , excellent work , " with much compassion , as well as astonishment at the goodness of our Creator have I considered the sad state of a certain
gentleman who , as to the rest , was in good health , but only wanted the use of the two little muscles , that serve to ; lift up the eye-lids , and so had almost lost the use of his sight , being obliged , so long as this defect lasted , to lift his eye-lids up with his
hand . In general , how little do those who enjoy the perfect use of their organs , know the magnitude of the blessing , the variety of their obligation . They perceive a result without thinking of the multitude of concurrences which go to form it . "
On tThis same subject Mr . Home , in the Philosophical Transactions for 1800 , part i ., has observed , that the most important and the most delicate actions are performed in the body by the smallest muscles ; such , among others , are the muscles in the iris of the eye and the drum of the ear .
These are but microscopic hairs , and must be magnified by glasses to be visible ; yet they are real and effective muscles , and not only such , but among the grandest and most precious of our faculties : the sight and the hearing depend on their health and action .
The nose is affected by several of the muscles of the face , but one only on each side is proper to it . This muscle straightens the nostrils , aud corrugates the skin of tine nose .
The mouth and lips are moved by nine pair of muscles , which arise from the contiguous bones of the face , and are inserted into ' lips and angles of the mouth . It is from the ac-
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tion of these muscles on the mouth that emotions of the mind are expres - sed , and the predominance of particular feelings in characters is indelibly stamped . The distortion of the features produced by palsy , is owino- to the inaction of the muscles on one side , while those 011 the other contracting with their usual force , the mouth and other parts are drawn on one side .
The lower jaw has four pair of muscles for pulling it upwards , as in nianducatiorior eating . Of these two pair act powerfully in pulling the jaw upwards , and may be felt swelling out in the flat part of the tempi * -, and
upon the back part of the cheek . The ot her two pair enable the ja w 1 o move from side to bi-de , the more efiK-tuoily to-grind the food . The lower jaw is pulled downwards by muscle * which extend between it and the bone of
the tongue , and which serve also to raise the throat upwards in the act deglutition . The muscular motion of the jaw is mentioned by Dr . Paley as very curious and complicated . The problem is to pull the lower jaw down . The obvious method should seem to be to
place a straight muscle from the chin to the breast , the contraction of which would open the mouth , and produce the motion required at once . But the form of the neck forbids a muscle being laid in such a position , therefore some other method must be
looked for , and the mechanism is as follows : A muscle rises on the side o > f the face above the insertion of the lower jaw and comes down , being in its progress changed into a round tendon . Now the tendon while it
pursues a direction descending towards the jaw , must by its contraction pull the jaw vp instead of doun : to obviate this difficulty , the descending tendon , when it is low enough , is passed through a loop , or ring or awl
pulley , and then made to siscend ^ liaving thus changed its lii . e of direction , it is inserted into the inner part of the chin ; by this turn at flic loop , the action of the muscle necess ti ! y draws the jaw down . Thus the nictitn is opened by me < ius ~ ui this troclilea m
a most wonderful manner . Muscles of the JSWk . The net It » covered-with numerous and ^ onlU !" vatod muscles , the uses of which ar to bend the head forwards , !»<*'
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636 Natural Theology . No . X . —Of the Posture of the Human Body .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 636, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/36/
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