in general, denotes the juncture of two or more things. The joints of the human body are cal- led by anatomists articulations. See ANATOMY, No. 2.

The suppleness to which the joints may be brought by long practice from the time of infancy, is very fur- nishing. Every common posture-master shows us a great deal of this; but one of the most wonderful in- stances we ever had of it, was in a person of the name of Clark, and famous for it in London, where he was commonly known by the name of Clark the posture- master. This man had found the way, by long prac- tice, to distort many of the bones, of which nobody before had every thought it possible to alter the posi- tion. He had such an absolute command of his muscles and joints, that he could almost disjoint his whole body; so that he once imposed on the famous Mullens by his distortions, in such a manner, that he refused to undertake his cure: but, to the amaze- ment of the physician, no sooner had he given over his patient, than he saw him restore himself to the fi- gure and condition of a proper man, with no distortion about him.