Page - 970 - in The Complete Aristotle

one another thus far, that, if the face be plump or meagre, the abdomen is plump or meagre to correspond; and that the legs correspond to the arms, and where the upper arm is short the thigh is usually short also, and where the feet are small the hands are small correspondingly. Of the limbs, one set, forming a pair, is ‘arms’. To the arm belong the ‘shoulder’, ‘upper-arm’, ‘elbow’, ‘fore-arm’, and ‘hand’. To the hand belong the ‘palm’, and the five ‘fingers’. The part of the finger that bends is termed ‘knuckle’, the part that is inflexible is termed the ‘phalanx’. The big finger or thumb is single-jointed, the other fingers are double jointed. The bending both of the arm and of the finger takes place from without inwards in all cases; and the arm bends at the elbow. The inner part of the hand is termed the palm’, and is fleshy and divided by joints or lines: in the case of long-lived people by one or two extending right across, in the case of the short-lived by two, not so extending. The joint between hand and arm is termed the ‘wrist’. The outside or back of the hand is sinewy, and has no specific designation. There is another duplicate limb, the ‘leg’. Of this limb the double-knobbed part is termed the ‘thigh-bone’, the sliding part of the ‘kneecap’, the double- boned part the ‘leg’; the front part of this latter is termed the ‘shin’, and the part behind it the ‘calf’, wherein the flesh is sinewy and venous, in some cases drawn upwards towards the hollow behind the knee, as in the case of people with large hips, and in other cases drawn downwards. The lower extremity of the shin is the ‘ankle’, duplicate in either leg. The part of the limb that contains a multiplicity of bones is the ‘foot’. The hinder part of the foot is the ‘heel’; at the front of it the divided part consists of ‘toes’, five in number; the fleshy part underneath is the ‘ball’; the upper part or back of the foot is sinewy and has no particular appellation; of the toe, one portion is the ‘nail’ and another the ‘joint’, and the nail is in all cases at the extremity; and toes are without exception single jointed. Men that have the inside or sole of the foot clumsy and not arched, that is, that walk resting on the entire under- surface of their feet, are prone to roguery. The joint common to thigh and shin is the ‘knee’. These, then, are the parts common to the male and the female sex. The relative position of the parts as to up and down, or to front and back, or to right and left, all this as regards externals might safely be left to mere ordinary perception. But for all that, we must treat of them for the same reason as the one previously brought forward; that is to say, we must refer to them in order that a due and regular sequence may be observed in our exposition, and in order that by the enumeration of these obvious facts due attention may be subsequently given to those parts in men and other animals that are diverse in any way from one another. 970