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. For without some such arrangement
these movements would be utterly impossible, or at any rate would be
performed with great difficulty. There are some joints, again, in
which the lower end of the one bone and the upper end of the other are
alike in shape. In these cases the bones are bound together by sinews,
and cartilaginous pieces are interposed in the joint, to serve as a
kind of padding, and prevent the two extremities from grating
against each other.
Round about the bones, and attached to them by thin fibrous bands,
grow the fleshy parts, for the sake of which the bones themselves
exist. For just as an artist, when he is moulding an animal out of
clay or other soft substance, takes first some solid body as a
basis, and round this moulds the clay, so also has nature acted in
fashioning the animal body out of flesh. Thus we find all the fleshy
parts, with one exception, supported by bones, which serve, when the
parts are organs of motion, to facilitate flexure, and, when the parts
are motionless, act as a protection. The ribs, for example, which
enclose the chest are intended to ensure the safety of the heart and
neighbouring viscera. The exception of which mention was made is the
belly. The walls of this are in all animals devoid of bones; in
order that there may be no hindrance to the expansion which
necessarily occurs in this part after a meal, nor, in females, any
interference with the growth of the foetus, which is lodged here
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