Human locomotion : how we stand, walk and run / by Burt G. Wilder.

  • Wilder, Burt G. (Burt Green), 1841-1925.
Date:
[1871?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Human locomotion : how we stand, walk and run / by Burt G. Wilder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    r\ (pf HUMAN LOCOMOTION; HOW WE STAND, WALK AND RUN, By Burt G. Wilder, S. B., M. D., ProfeBSor of Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in Cornell University. The second of the course of scientific lectures before the American Institute was delivered Tuesday evening, December 2lth, 1870, in the Academy of Music, by Prof. Burt G. Wilder, of Cornell Univer- sity. It was very profusely illustrated, and interesting practical experiments attested the truth of the lecturer’s statements. Prof. Wilder said: Ladies and Gentlemen.—During the past year I have spoken four times upon the subject of this evening’s lecture; twice in Bos- ton before the Lowell Institute,* and twice before my classes in the Cornell University. The first time, I thought I understood the subject very well; but at each repetition I perceived more clearly the existence of matters which I could not explain, and to-night I freely admit that the points which are perfectly clear to me are vastly fewer than those whicli remain to be investigated. You are incredulous as to there being anything abstruse or difficult to understand in the subject of human locomotion. “Anybody can stand; a very Hottentot can walk about; and the beasts themselves get ovei the earth after their fashion, occasionally even upon twu legs like ourselves.” Very true, but no one has heard a gorilla or a bear or an ostrich lecture upon the subject of bipedal progression; yet they employ it constantly or upon occasion ; we all see and hear ^ 5 Ic^iadcd savage, even better than ourselves ; and yet, at the present time, the most learned physiologists are in doubt respecting the exact nature and functions of certain ♦ In a course of lectures upon Hands and Poet of the Mammalia. .Tan. and Fob. 1870.