Part 3

The bones are usually surrounded by flesh. This consists of a number of different pieces united together by a delicate, elastic, fibrous mass (connective tissue). The different pieces are termed _muscles_, each of which is again made up of a large number of muscle-fibres, all taking a longitudinal direction. Each fibre can contract, and a muscle becomes shorter and thicker by simultaneous contraction of all its fibres. The contraction and subsequent relaxation of muscles move other parts. There are some muscles, the _hollow muscles_, which surround a cavity, and by their contraction propel the liquid or solid substances found in their cavity. The heart, for example, is a large muscle of this sort, serving to propel the blood, while the hollow muscular coat of the gut moves on the contained food. Other muscles are fixed by their ends to other parts of the body, which they move by their contraction. We distinguish between _dermal muscles_ and _skeletal muscles_, attached respectively to the skin or by one end to an integumentary structure (hair, feather, scale), and to parts of the skeleton. The animals which are devoid of any internal skeleton, the _invertebrates_ (_i.e._ all animals except vertebrates), naturally possess no skeletal muscles. Examples of _dermal muscles_ are those by means of which a bird erects its feathers (tail-coverts of peacock!), and those which enable a hedgehog to roll itself into a ball and stick out its spines. Each end of a _skeletal muscle_ is connected with a bone. If such a muscle contracts the more easily movable bone is drawn towards the less easily movable one (Fig. 4). In order that the bones may be movable upon one another they are united together by joints.

According as muscular movements are, or are not, under the influence of the will, they are distinguished as _voluntary_ and _involuntary_. To the latter kind belong the movement of the heart, and the movements of the muscles in the wall of the gut by which the food is made to progress.

To destroy the contractile power of a muscle it is not necessary to injure the muscle itself. Every muscle is related to a nerve, which sends its fine branches to the fibres making up the muscle. If we cut the nerve, the corresponding muscle loses its power of contraction. But the nerve arises from the _central nervous system_, which in vertebrates principally consists of the brain and spinal cord. The muscle will therefore lose its contractile power if the connection with these central parts is broken. The true cause of movement resides in these parts. A sort of change, the essential nature of which is unknown to us, takes place in them, and is propagated along the nerve to the muscle, causing it to contract. The central nervous system is, therefore, the origin, the centre from which the order to contract proceeds; hence its name. The nerves which run from these central parts to the muscles are known as the _nerves of movement_ (motor nerves).

There is still, however, a second group of nerves, the _nerves of sensation_ (sensory nerves), which arise in the sense-organs (skin, mucous membrane of tongue, nose, ear, eye), and convey to the central nervous system the impressions they receive from the outer world by the aid of these sense-organs. In the appended diagram (Fig. 5), _C_ represents the central nervous system; _B.N._, a motor nerve, branching in the muscle _M_; _G.N._, a sensory nerve, which runs from the blood-bathed inner skin or dermis (_L.h._), underlying the outer skin or epidermis (_O.h._), to the central system. (The arrows indicate the direction in which impulses are conveyed along the corresponding nerve.)

Men or animals lose in weight if they take no food. The reason for this is that certain substances leave the body either as gases (through the lungs), or as liquids (by the kidneys and sweat-glands), without a corresponding compensation. An animal or human being could not live without taking in fresh substances, which, according as they are solid or liquid, are known as food or drink. The different kinds of food and drink, which, with few exceptions (salts, water), are taken from the animal and plant kingdoms, cannot, however, _as such_, replace the gradually diminishing body substance, for, to begin with, they contain useless matters, which pass out of the body in the _fæces_ (dung). And even the nutritious parts of the animal and vegetable substances taken into the stomach, are not always in a form in which they can be used _at once_. Digestion, which in all the higher animals takes place in a _food-tube_ (gut), serves to reduce them to a suitable condition, at the same time separating the useless matters. The action of several fluids (saliva, gastric juice, bile, etc.) secreted by glands, extracts the useful (nutritious) substances from the food and drink, converting them also into a suitable form. The smaller the pieces into which the food is separated, the better can this purpose be effected. In mammals the teeth serve to break down the food; in birds and many Invertebrates the same part is played by special secretions of the stomach or intestine provided with hard ridges.

So long as the nutritious food-stuffs remain in the food-canal, even though in a completely suitable form, they cannot nourish the body. And since waste of the substance of the body everywhere takes place, it is absolutely necessary that the food-stuffs should pass after digestion into a system of organs going to all parts of the body. This system is the _circulatory_, or _vascular system_. Food-stuffs enter it from the gut directly or indirectly, reaching it in the latter case through the _lymphatic_ (lacteal) system.

The _blood_ is the fluid into which the food-stuffs are taken up. It consists of an almost colourless liquid, together with an innumerable number of exceedingly minute blood-corpuscles.

The blood flows through the body in a system of tubes, or _blood-vessels_, which branch repeatedly, and at last become merged in the microscopic _capillary blood-vessels_. These capillaries are present in nearly all parts of the body except the epidermis and epidermal structures (hairs, feathers, scales, etc.). They have exceedingly thin walls, which present no resistance to the passage of the nutritious substances contained in the blood, so that these can be absorbed by those parts of the body which lie between the individual capillary vessels. The central organ of the circulation is the _heart_, an enlarged part of the vascular system, possessing thick muscular walls. By contraction of these, the blood is driven out of the heart (Fig. 6, _H_); and its exit is possible on one side only (_a_), as at the other side (_b_) there is a valve, which closes when the heart contracts. The vessel into which the blood leaving the heart enters is termed an _artery_ (_S.A._) It divides into several branches, also known as arteries, and the smallest arteries pass into capillaries, which again are connected with _veins_, which join larger and larger veins, until finally one or a few open into the heart (_A_).

Since the blood in the course of its circulation gives up some of its nutriment to the various parts of the body, it would in the end become useless for the purposes of nutrition if it did not receive a fresh supply of food-stuffs from the gut, either directly or indirectly (through the lacteal system). But apart from this, the blood would ultimately become useless, and that very quickly, if it did not traverse the lungs, kidneys, and sweat-glands. It is well known to every one that a man or animal cannot live without air, or at any rate without a certain gas, _oxygen_, that is contained in air. This oxygen must be able to penetrate into the minutest particles of the body, and the blood, in the corpuscles of which it is contained, carries it everywhere. In the smallest particles (molecules) of the body an oxidation (combustion) of body substance takes place, which not only causes an evolution of heat, but also renders the body capable of doing work. But if now the blood passes from the capillaries into the veins, it contains too little oxygen. And besides, it has taken up from the molecules of the body several substances, developed in those molecules, which would be fatal to the animal if they were not removed from the body. Now, when the blood streams through the lungs, it gets rid of the poisonous gaseous matter, and when it traverses the kidneys and sweat-glands it parts with the injurious liquid and solid substances. But in the lungs the blood takes up at the same time fresh oxygen; and since in this way the air in the lungs becomes poor in oxygen, the _movements of breathing_ (respiration) provide for the passage of a fresh supply of oxygen into the lungs. Only the higher Vertebrates breathe by means of lungs; fishes and numerous aquatic Invertebrates breathe by gills, and insects by air-tubes (tracheæ).

While _Nutrition_ is the life-process which shields the _individual_ from death, Reproduction serves to maintain the _species_. It is familiarly known that the offspring generally resemble their parents. But it is also a fact recognized by the stock-breeder, that a particular animal will not only transmit several of its _own_ characteristics to its offspring, but perhaps also various characteristics of the grandparents or of animals belonging to still more remote generations, although these characteristics are not visible in the animal which is actually breeding (_Reversion_, _Atavism_). Among insects and the lower animals there are species which, as adult animals, appear not in _one_ form, but two or several. In this case, as a regular thing, the offspring does not resemble the parents, but the grandparents, great-grandparents, or a still earlier generation. The older observers have placed the offspring and the parents, and sometimes the grandparents too, of the same animal species in different species, or even genera or families, until newer researches on the reproduction and development of these animals have proved them to belong to one and the same species (see Fig. 7 and explanation). The method of reproduction by which a species appears in two or several forms is distinguished as _heterogeny_ and _metagenesis_, or _alternation of generations_. In the first (Fig. 7) sexually reproducing animals alternate with other sexual animals. It may be that these are of separate sexes, or else they may possess both male and female organs (_hermaphrodite_). In metagenesis a sexual generation regularly alternates with one or several generations reproducing asexually.

The animal kingdom falls (cf. p. 2) into sub-kingdoms or main divisions. Seven of these are commonly distinguished: I. Backboned animals; II. Jointed-limbed animals; III. Worms; IV. Molluscs; V. Echinoderms; VI. Cœlenterates; VII. Protozoa.

First Sub-Kingdom: VERTEBRATA (BACKBONED ANIMALS).

The Vertebrate body possesses a bilateral or twosided symmetry; _i.e._ it can be separated into two exactly corresponding halves, by a plane of division. The bilateral symmetry is strictly carried out as regards the external parts of the body, a single exception to this being flat-fish (plaice, flounder, etc.); but, on the other hand, it is more or less obliterated in the arrangement of the internal organs. In the Vertebrate body we find, as an axis, a vertebral column (backbone) made up of vertebræ, and traversed by the vertebral canal. As soon as this canal widens out in the skull to the cranial cavity, the spinal cord, which it contains, merges into the brain. In addition to the cavity containing the central nervous system, and placed on the upper side (= dorsal side) of the animal, a cavity, the _body-cavity_, is found in the under side (= ventral side). It contains for the most part the organs of respiration, circulation, digestion, and excretion (Fig. 1), and in Mammals is divided by the diaphragm into _thoracic_ and _abdominal cavities_. In all the other subdivisions of the animal kingdom the central nervous system is situated in the same cavity as the above-mentioned organs.

Various bones are connected with the vertebral column, and they serve for the attachment of muscles. The bones collectively constitute the skeleton, which is one of the most distinctive features of a Vertebrate.

The animals of this sub-kingdom never have more than four limbs, and their blood is red, while that of most other animal groups is colourless.

The structure of the heart in the various Vertebrates must also be noticed. In no Vertebrate is this organ so simple in structure as in the scheme given in Fig. 6; such an arrangement, moreover, would involve great difficulties. One great difficulty would be that while the blood was leaving the heart at _a_ (Fig. 6), no fresh blood could enter, so that the blood in the veins would stand still. Even in the lowest Vertebrates (the Fishes) this difficulty is obviated, for where the main vein (or veins) opens into the heart an enlargement of this vein is found, where the blood can collect as long as the heart continues to contract. This expansion is also reckoned as part of the heart, and named the _auricle_ (Fig. 8, _V.K._), while the heart proper is termed the _ventricle_ (_K._). It is also easy to see that there must be a tolerably wide opening between the two chambers, so that as soon as the ventricle becomes flaccid the auricle can force blood into it. But there being such a wide aperture between auricle and ventricle, one valve is not enough to make it impossible for the blood to pass back into the auricle during the contraction of the ventricular walls. There are two or three valves there (Fig. 8, _Kl._) fixed by fibres to the wall of the ventricle. In order that the blood which is forced into the artery (_S.A._) may not pass into the ventricle during its relaxation, there is another valve (not indicated in Fig. 8), at the base of the artery.

An arrangement like that so far described is found in fishes. The heart consists in them of an auricle, into which is returned the blood that has traversed the body, and of a ventricle which moves it on again. But the blood that has traversed the body is on that account poor in oxygen, and consequently unfit to be circulated again when it is returned to the heart. It is necessary for it to take up fresh oxygen before being circulated again. In fishes this difficulty is met by the blood, poor in oxygen, which flows out of the ventricle, first going to the _gills_ and streaming through them. The gills consist of a very large number of small, thin-walled outgrowths arranged in regular rows on the firm gill-arches. The blood, poor in oxygen, passing out of the ventricle and through various arterial branches to the gill-filaments, takes up fresh oxygen as it streams through these from the oxygen dissolved in the water which constantly surrounds them. For this purpose a stream of pure water is regularly taken in by the mouth and expelled again, right and left, through the gill-slits. The blood, having become rich in oxygen in the gills, is now once more fit for circulation through the body, and therefore flows out of the gill-capillaries into larger vessels, which finally unite into a single large vessel that carries the purified blood to the various parts of the body. In the arrangement of the heart here described there is the disadvantageous condition that the blood is obliged to traverse two sets of capillaries (gill and body capillaries). This is not an easy matter, for there is a great deal of friction between the blood and the walls of the capillaries, constituting a hindrance to its progress. The circulation of the blood in fishes is consequently very slow, and since the blood contains the oxygen which is used by the various parts of the body, oxidation goes on slowly in the body of a fish; hence the small amount of heat developed there. Since fishes almost immediately give off to their surroundings the small amount of heat which they develop, they have no constant body temperature, varying in this respect with the temperature of the surrounding water. Such animals are termed _cold-blooded_.

In all other Vertebrates a more rapid movement of the blood is rendered possible by the insertion of a second heart, quite similar in every respect to the other heart, in the course of the blood between the respiratory organs and the body. The first heart drives the blood through the lung capillaries, and therefore corresponds to the fish-heart; from these capillaries the blood returns to the auricle of the second heart, and from the ventricle of that heart travels to the various parts of the body. When it has completed this course, it returns to the auricle of the first heart. Although these two structures work independently, they lie close together and make up a single organ. We do not therefore speak of two individual hearts, but of one heart with two halves. The first half, which receives the blood, poor in oxygen, that is returned from the body, and sends it on to the lungs, lies on the right, and is termed the _right_ half. The second half, which receives the richly oxygenated blood from the lungs, and pumps it to the various parts of the body, is termed the _left_ half (Fig. 9 and explanation).

In the arrangement just described, which is found in Mammals and Birds, the blood returning from the lungs is propelled with new force through the body, and therefore circulates very quickly, so that the various parts receive a relatively large amount of oxygen in a short time. It is therefore intelligible that Birds and Mammals develop more warmth than Fish. They possess a special, constant body temperature, somewhat different in different species, but usually lying between 98° and 104° Fhr., and they are called _warm-blooded_ animals.

In Reptiles (snakes, lizards, etc.), the two halves of the heart are not entirely distinct, since there is an opening in the partition-wall between the two ventricles. As a consequence of this, the poorly oxygenated blood of the right half of the heart mixes with the richly oxygenated blood of the left half, the extent to which this mixing takes place being proportional to the size of the aperture. In Reptiles, therefore, the blood supplied to the lungs is not so poor in oxygen as it might be, nor, on the other hand, is the blood supplied to the other parts of the body completely oxygenated. As consequences of this: (1) respiration is feebler, and (2) the development of heat less than in Mammals and Birds (_i.e._ reptiles are cold-blooded), and (3) the chemical changes taking place in the body (the metabolism) go on more slowly than in warm-blooded animals, and we can understand why reptiles execute fewer movements in a given space of time.

In Amphibians (_e.g._ frog) the two ventricles are similarly connected, but the opening is still larger than in Reptiles, and the partition-wall may even be altogether absent. It follows, therefore, that the mixing of the two kinds of blood is still more complete, and that Amphibians, too, are cold-blooded.

The vertebrate sub-kingdom embraces the classes of I. Mammals; II. Birds; III. Reptiles; IV. Amphibians; V. Fishes.

CLASS I.: =MAMMALIA= (SUCKLERS).

Warm-blooded Vertebrates (p. 16), usually covered with hair, and bringing forth living young, that suck for some time after birth. The female is provided with milk-glands on the thorax or abdomen, or both those regions.

Speaking quite broadly, the skeleton is like that of man, described on pp. 4–8. There are, however, great differences in detail. The cranium is relatively much smaller, and the bones of the face (especially of the jaws) are usually much larger than in the human skull. The number of the cervical vertebræ is seven in all Mammals, as in man; but the other kinds of vertebræ vary in number in the different species. The number of caudal vertebræ, for example, is very variable. As most Mammals go on all fours, their fore and hind limbs are much more similar than is the case in man. In many the thigh and upper-arm bones are drawn closely up to the body (horse, ox, pig). Mammals never have more than five fingers or toes, but may have fewer. The thumb or great toe is the first to disappear (hind foot of dog, fore and hind foot of pig). There may be only three (rhinoceros), two (ox, sheep), or one (horse) digit developed. In addition to fully developed digits, there are in many Mammals very small stunted ones (“dew-claws” of the stag).

There are also great differences in the way of resting the feet on the ground. Man and bear tread on the soles of the feet (plantigrade); dog and cat walk on the under side of the toes (digitigrade), not on the other parts of the feet. Ox, pig, horse, etc., rest while walking only on the tips of the toes, which are sheathed in hoofs (unguligrade).

The teeth of mammals are wedged into special sockets in the jaw-bones. The structure of a mammalian tooth is made clear by Fig. 12. We first distinguish a pulp-cavity (_p_), which in the living animal is filled with a substance supplied by a bloodvessel and nerve. This cavity is surrounded by the dentine (_d_), a hard substance which makes up the greater part of the tooth. Hard enamel (_s_) covers the whole of the crown in man and many animals, while in certain other forms it is found only on part of the crown. The root of the tooth is covered with cement (_z_), a bone-like substance.