Skeleton [antikvár]

The human skeleton A SKELETON IS MANY THINGS: symbol of danger and death, a key that opens any door, a secret kept in a cupboard, the outhne of a novel or grand plan and the 200-odd bones that hold up each human body. Our skeleton supports, moves and protects. It is both rigid and flexible. Individual bones are stiff and unyielding, forming an internal framework that supports the rest of the body and stops it collapsing into -a jelly-like heap. Bones together, linked by moveable joints and worked ' by muscles, form a system of girders, levers and pincers that can pick an apple from a tree or propel the whole body at 35 kph (20 mph). The skeleton protects our most delicate and vital organs: the skull shields the brain, and the ribs guard the heart and lungs. The human skeleton follows the basic me human skuifhTO« design found in the 40,000 or biggest brams, in O . ' relation to body size, in the so species or backboned " ^ animal world (p. 2«. animals. But the endless variety of animals has a correspondingly endless variety of skeletons, as this book sets out to show. EARLY IMPRESSION abme Medical textbooks of the 18th and 19th centuries would have contained detailed illustrations such as this. ANATOMY LECTURE below A medieval lecture theatre populated by human and animal skeletons. MEDIEVAL MEDICINE The surgeon points out details of the rib cage to a 15th-century student. FOOD PROCESSORS Human teeth chop their way through about 500 kg (half a tonne) of food each year (p. 27) MEASURING THE SKULL The craniometer, a device for measuring skull size - and, by deduction,