STUDYING THE STRUCTURE OF ACHICKEN LEG
Materials: One leg from an uncookedchicken, a handlens, a sharp
paringknife.
Follow this procedure: Observe theouterskin coveringofthe entire leg.
Use ahandlens to help you identify the variousparts. Later,tease off the
skin with aparingknife and observe the tissues lyingbeneaththe skin.
You will observe:Mostlikely, the chicken willnothave its feathers but
you can see with your hand lens the hole in each bump in the skin from which
a featheronce grew.
Undertheprotectiveouterskin, you will see the"meat"of the chicken
leg, arranged in bundles and attached to the bones by bands of tissue
resembling elastic. You will see blood vesselsamongthese bundlesof"meat."
There is a shiny, slippery covering at the ends of the leg bones.
The legofthe chicken is anorganofits body. Itis made up of many
tissues all workingtogetherto do a job. Naturally,thejobofthe pairoflegs
is to hold up the rest of the body and to enable the chicken to walk and run.
The skin bears the feathers and alsoprotectsthe softer, inner tissues.
Whatwe call the "meat"of the leg is really a set of muscles. The thick
bandsattachingthe muscles to the bones are known asligaments. Itis the
musclesthatcause the leg to move.
The blood vessels supply the cells of the muscles with the food and oxygen
thatthey need to give them energy to causemotion.
The ends ofthe bones are covered with gristle or cartilage sothatthe
jointscan move easily. Theyoperatein the samemanneras hinges on adoor.