United States or New Zealand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Her right thigh was smaller than the left and showed signs of curvature, a curious hereditary result of the brutality which her mother had to endure during her fierce drunken brawls with Macquart. But the poor child became still more emaciated. She was a tall, lank girl, whose frocks, invariably too large, hung round her as if they had nothing under them.
Before raising the kite, the string, which hangs from K', is made fast at K in such a way as to cause the bow to curve backward. This curvature is increased or diminished according to the force of the wind. Nothing remains to be done but to attach the cord to the balance, and raise the kite. La Nature.
A left 'ilium', almost perfect, and belonging to the femur: a fragment of the right 'scapula'; the anterior extremity of a rib of the right side; and the same part of a rib of the left side; the hinder part of a rib of the right side; and lastly, two hinder portions and one middle portion of ribs, which from their unusually rounded shape, and abrupt curvature, more resemble the ribs of a carnivorous animal than those of a man.
They were hanging in all possible positions; some with their heads down, some by the claws upon either wing, and some by both, while a great many had merely hooked over the branch the little horny curvature of their tails. Some hung down along the trunk, suspended by a crack in the bark, while others were far out upon the branches.
This curvature corresponds with the projection of the curious incurved claw-like lobe that proceeds from thc central portion of the lower lip. Towards the base of the aperture is a second and similar but smaller lobe, below which is the short but broad and well-marked canal. The entire lip is marginated by the thickened and reflected peristome.
All tendrils are sensitive, but in various degrees, to contact with an object, and curve towards the touched side. With several plants a single touch, so slight as only just to move the highly flexible tendril, is enough to induce curvature. The point of a tendril of Passiflora gracilis began to move distinctly in 25 seconds after a touch, and in many cases after 30 seconds.
Most of the men are tattooed, and the ornaments follow the curvature of the body so gracefully, that they have a very elegant effect. One common pattern, varying in its details, is somewhat like the crown of a palm-tree. It springs from the central line of the back, and gracefully curls round both sides.
Sixthly, and lastly, tendrils, soon after clasping a support, but not after a mere temporary curvature, contract spirally. If they have not come into contact with any object, they ultimately contract spirally, after ceasing to revolve; but in this case the movement is useless, and occurs only after a considerable lapse of time.
Bearing such facts in mind, I can see no reason to doubt that an accidental deviation in the size and form of the body, or in the curvature and length of the proboscis, etc., far too slight to be appreciated by us, might profit a bee or other insect, so that an individual so characterised would be able to obtain its food more quickly, and so have a better chance of living and leaving descendants.
In "the French figure" or straight-front corset now in vogue the pelvis is tilted forward, producing a sinking in of the abdomen and a marked prominence of the hips and sacrum, necessitating a compensatory curve of the spine which increases the curvature forward at the small of the back a deformity which, a few years ago, women were going to orthopedic surgeons to have corrected.
Word Of The Day