The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design, and illustrating the power, wisdom, and goodness of God . ^, and never longpursue it; they attain their object in a few boimds, and,failing, sulkily resume their watch. When we look tothe claws, we see a correspondence with those claws of the dog and wolf are coarse and strong,and bear the pressure and friction incident to a longchase; they are calculated to sustain and protect the THE LIONS CLAW. io:i foot. But the tiger leaps on liis prey, and fastens liissharj) and. crooked claws in the flesh. Now we mustadmire th
The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design, and illustrating the power, wisdom, and goodness of God . ^, and never longpursue it; they attain their object in a few boimds, and,failing, sulkily resume their watch. When we look tothe claws, we see a correspondence with those claws of the dog and wolf are coarse and strong,and bear the pressure and friction incident to a longchase; they are calculated to sustain and protect the THE LIONS CLAW. io:i foot. But the tiger leaps on liis prey, and fastens liissharj) and. crooked claws in the flesh. Now we mustadmire the mechanism by which they are preserved, thuscurved and sharp at their points. The last bone, thatwhich supports the claw, is placed laterally to the next. APPARATUS OF LIOX S CLAW bone, and is so articulated with it that an elastic liga-ment (a) draws it back and to one side, and thus raisesthe sharp extremity of the. claw upwards, and preservesit in that position. Whilst, therefore, the claw isretracted as into a sheath between the toes, the nearerextremity of the furthest bone presses the gTound, inthe ordinary running of the animal. But when hemakes his spring and strikes, the claws are uncased bythe action of the flexor tendons; and in the Bengaltiger, tJiey are so sharp and strong, and the stroke of i04 PRESIDENT JEFFERSON AND CUVIER. his paw is so powerful, that they have been known tofracture a mans skull by a touch, in the act of leapingover him.* To proceed to the observation of President Jeffersonon the Megalonix. Having found a bone which, by itsarticulating surface and general form, he recognised tobe one of the finger bones of an animal of great size,he thought he had discovered that it must have carrieda claw; and
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjecthand, bookyear1874
