The Sun.
London, England, 1816-12-10 00:00:00

ROYAL, ACADEMY.

Last night, at the Royal Acedeme, A NITII ONY
CAftetses, Ese F.R.S. delivered his tifth Lecture
on the Principles-of An'stomy, as applicable to the
Art of Painting.
The object of the Learned Professor's discourse
was, to explain to the Student the details of the
muscular parts of the human frame, and their par.
ticular iefluence on the action of the body. lie
eitplained, with his usual force and aceurriey, the
various materiels of which the muscles are coin.,
posed, the nature of the fleshy parts which cover
them, and the texture of the fibres, together with
the precise exposition,of their excellent arraege,
ment for the mechanical uses' of the limbs. 'pre
active exercise of the mascles was celled their
contractions. This exercise, through some un•
known physical cause, was perhirated without
mental agency. They had another ,i'etioe, which
was teelMically " voluntary," from their.
cumstanee of its belug.Morde.at will, in ,initablef
imitation of " Let it he, and it is "
After describing the local situations and action
of the two classes or human meselea, the
inntary and involuntary, lie proceeded sheaf
.that the former had three states—that of eon,
traction, relaZation, and a medium stai-e, that of
tone. The involuntety muscles were only relief -
eel by short intervals, of rest. The chief muscles
for pictorial use were, he observed, -those of tire
neck, trunk, and principel limbs. The tendrins
connected with. these "were' of peculiar strength
of. texture, indeed so tuna so, that iu Om** of
the lower animals, they were used by the ancients
as hoW-strings—the strength of thoSe ligameett
was such, that even the patella (knee-pan) was
sometime e broken be' their shock. The,Professor,
in drawing a, parallel between the order, a,strue.
lure of the human frame awl the ordinary rides
of mechanisM, Shelved that in the fora-ter ihe
fe-
vers ot ection are 'placed at acute anl;le~s, while in
'the latter,theyare at right angles. Theapparent
irregularity of arrangement in the human frame;
ibis respect, was essimrial for the due perform-
, ance'of the compheared uses which it reqUired.-
.The Professor then practically illustrated-:several
of his positions by a reference to diagrams, which
he' had prepared' for the oeeasiou, in which tic
ithewedllie .arrangenient of the muscular fibres iit
different situations, described:their influence, upon
the body, and explained the nature; uf,theireXteu-
"by activity and ekereise. Tiie influence of
the muscles on the front anti einiton‘r 'Of the ,
.figure.had Isten often, dwelled• upon iet prefel-• ,
Hal point of view ; important .as this principe
certainly was in this respect, it wee yet far hors
lici»e decisive where the delineation of intel
tectual character was bought for tty- the Artist
:might indeed eceord foe,the :Gladiator or Tif4ees,
'bet could never apply to the Yeaus nr dpnllo.--
What was often gained by the est4blishmeet of in-
tellectual character, was, in a corpoteithsense. last
by the exhaustiop of those: roger* nn W4ielk lits•
colar developement depended. What, for in,
Stance, could. he more -illf.plaeed than a heed of
Newton. or 'Newt,' on the body end with the' limbs
of the Farnese Wel:vacs? The Professor then'
poi9ted out, front prepared skeletons funned for
thk explanation of parts" of hi 4 discourse, the 'co.
operational the visible, mdseles: and their results.
The names. of those muscles were,geocrally taken
front their locality le the liu frame; aqsorne,
times from their reseMblance tti Oilier
'After describing- the innteles or the face, aritt:theie
.adaptation to the expteuiou e f the inissions,,he
pointed.orn the admirable arrengemeut of those
of the fingers, .which h pheed, as lit SOllle
thick over the surf-are Miele they: were ifitended
to operate, would destroy the exquisiteaction;,of
,the joints of ;he burnt!, which -wa%,utre of the
.niost
luished specimens of well-regillated 'MX114165111
that the mind was 'capable of efinceieing.-'
The Learned PrOfessor- concluded by notifying
that his next und concluding lecture would con-
sist of a.
recupit aition of the lea4ing parts of lits
foregoing distoures, -
The attendance of Academicians find Students
?same very consideratileiand-the tonclosioe of she
Lecture was marked with laud upplause.