when the fins cease to play, the belly turns upwards. The use of the same parts for motion is seen in the following observation upon them when put in action. The pectoral, and more particularly the ventral fins, serve to raise and depress the fish: when the fish desires to have a retrogade motion, a stroke forward with the pectoral fin effectually produces it if the fish desire to turn either way, a single blow with the tail the opposite way, sends it round at once: if the tail strike, both ways, the motion produced by the double lash is progressive; and enables the fish to dart forwards with an astonishing velocity. The result is, not only, in some cases, the most rapid, but, in all cases, the most gentle, pliant, easy, animal motion, with which we are acquainted. However, when the tail is cut off, the fish loses all motion, and gives itself up to where the water impels it. The rest of the fins, therefore, so far as respects motion, seems to be merely subsidiary to this. In their

mechanical use, the anal fin may be reckoned the keel, the ventral fins, out-riggers; the pectoral fins, the oars and if there be any similitude between these parts of a boat and a fish, observe, that it is not the resemblance of imitation, but the likeness which arises from applying similar mechanical means to the same purpose.

We have seen that the tail in the fish is the great instrument of motion. Now in cetaceous or warm-blooded fish, which are obliged to rise every two or three minutes to the surface to take breath, the tail, unlike what it is in other fish, is horizontal; its stroke, consequently, perpendicular to the horizon, which is the right direction for sending the fish to the top, or carrying it down to the bottom.

Regarding animals in their instruments of motion, we have only followed the comparison through the first great division of animals into beasts, birds, and fishes If it were our intention to pursue the consideration further, I should take in that generic distinction among birds, the web foot of water fowl. It is an instance which may be pointed out to a child. The utility of the web to water fowl, the inutility to land fowl, are so obvious, that it seems impossible to notice the difference without acknowledging the design. I am at a loss to know, how those who deny the agency of an intelligent Creator, dispose of this example. There is

*Goldsmith's Hist. of An. Nat. vol. vi. p. 154.

nothing in the action of swimming, as carried on by a bird upon the surface of the water, that should generate a membrane between the toes: As to that membrane, it is an exercise of constant resistance. The only supposition I can think of is, that all birds have been originally water fowl, and web footed; that sparrows, hawks, linnets, &c. which frequent the land, have, in process of time, and in the course of many generations, had this part worn away by treading upon hard ground. To such evasive assumptions must atheisin always have recourse; and, after all, it confesses that the structure of the feet of birds, in' their original form, was critically adapted to their original destination. The web feet of amphibious quadrupeds, seals, otters, &c. fall under the same observation.

IX. The five-senses are common to most large animals: nor have we much difference to remark in their constitution; or much however which is referable to mechanism.

The superior sagacity of animals which hunt their prey, and which consequently, depend for their livelihood upon their nose, is well known, in its use ; but not at all known in the organization which produces it.

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The external ears of beasts of prey, of lions, tigers, wolves, have their trumpet part or concavity standing forwards, to sieze the sounds which are before them, viz. the sounds of the animals, which they pursue or watch. The ears of animals of flight are turned backward, to give notice of the approach of their enemy from behind, when he may steal upon them unseen. This is a critical distinction; and is mechanical: but it may be suggested, and, I think, not without probability, that it is the effect of continued habit.

The eyes of animals which follow their prey by night, as cats, owls, &c. possess a faculty, not given to those of other species, namely, of closing the pupil entirely. The final cause of which seems to be this: It was necessary for such animals to be able to descry objects with very small degrees of light. This capacity depended upon the superior sensibility of the retina; that is, upon its being effected by the most feeble impulses. But that tenderness of structure, which rendered the membrane thus exquisitely sensible, rendered it also liable to be offended by the access of stronger degrees of light. The contractile range therefore of the pupil is increased in these animals,

so as to enable them to close the aperture entirely; which includes the power of diminishing it in every degree; whereby at all times such portions, and only such portions of light are adinitted, as may be received without injury

to the sense.

There appears to be also in the figure, and in some properties of the pupil of the eye, an appropriate relation to the wants of different animals. In horses, oxen, goats, sheep, the pupil of the eye is elliptical; the transverse axis being horizontal: by which structure, although the eye be placed on the side of the head, the anterior elongation of the pupil catches the forward rays, or those which come from objects immediately in front of the animal's face.

CHAP. XIII.

PECULIAR ORGANIZATIONS.

I BELIEVE that all the instances which I shall collect under this title, might, consistently enough with technical language, have been placed under the head of Compara tive Anatomy. But there appears to me an impropriety in the use which that term hath obtained: it being, in some sort, absurd, to call that a case of comparative anatomy, in which there is nothing to "compare ;" in which a conformation is found in one animal, which hath nothing properly answering to it in another. Of this kind are the examples which I have to propose in the present chapter; and the reader will see, that though some of them be the strongest, perhaps, he will meet with under any division of our subject, they must necessarily be of an unconnected and miscellaneous nature. To dispose them however into some sort of order, we will notice, first, particularities of structure which belong to quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, as such, or to many of the kinds included in these classes of animals; and then, such particularities as are confined to one or two species.

I. Along each side of the neck of large quadrupeds, runs a stiff robust cartilage, which butchers call the pax wax. No person can carve the upper end of a crop of beef with out driving his knife against it. It is a tough, strong,

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tendinous substance, braced from the head to the middle of the back; its office is to assist in supporting the weight of the head. It is a mechanical provision, of which this is thie undisputed use; and it is suficient, and not more than sufficient, for the purpose which it has to execute. The head of an ox or a horse is a heavy weight, acting at the end of a long lever, (consequently with a great purchase,) and in a direction nearly perpendicular to the joints of the supporting neck. From such a force, so advantageously applied, the bones of the neck would be in constant danger of dislocation, if they were not fortified by this strong tape. No such organ is found in the human subject, because, from the erect position of the head, (the pressure of it acting nearly in the direction of the spine,) the junction of the vertebræ appears to be sufficiently secure without it. The care of the Creator is seen where it is wanted. This cautionary expedient is limited to quadrupeds.

II. The oil with which birds prune their feathers, and the organ which supplies it, is a specific provision for the winged creation. On one side of the rump of birds, is observed a small nipple, vielding upon pressure, a butterlike substance, which the bird extracts by pinching the pap with its bill. With this oil or ointment, thus procured, the bird dresses its coat; and repeats the action as often as its own sensations teach it that it is in any part wanted, or as the excretion may be sufficient for the expense. The gland, the pap, the nature and quality of the excreted substance, the manner of obtaining it from its lodgment in the body, the application of it when obtained, form, collectively, an evidence of intention, which it is not easy to withstand. Nothing similar to it is found in unfeathered animals. What blind conatus of nature, should produce it in birds? should not produce it in beasts?

III. The air bladder also of a fish, affords a plain and direct instance, not only of contrivance, but strictly of that species of contrivance, which we denominate mechanical. It is a philosophical apparatus in the body of an animal. The principle of the contrivance is clear: the application of the principle is also clear. The use of the organ to sustain, and, at will, also to elevate, the body of the fish in the water, is proved by observing, what has been tried, that, when the bladder is burst, the fish grovels

at the bottom; and also, that flounders, soles, skaits, which are without the air bladder, seldom rise in the water, and that with effort. The manner in which the purpose is attained, and the suitableness of the means to the end, are not difficult to be apprehended. The rising and sinking of a fish in water, so far as it is independent of the stroke of the fins and tail, can only be regulated by the specific gravity of the body. When the bladder, contained in the body of the fish, is contracted, which the fish probably possesses a muscular power of doing, the bulk of the fish is contracted along with it; whereby, since the absolute weight remains the same, the specific gravity, which is the sinking force, is increased, and the fish descends; on the contrary, when, in consequence of the relaxation of the muscles, the elasticity of the inclosed, and now compressed air, restores the dimensions of the bladder, the tendency downwards becomes proportionably less than it was before, or is turned into a contrary tendency. These are known properties of bodies immersed in a fluid. The enamelled figures, or little glass bubbles, in a jar of water, are made to rise and fall by the same artifice. A diving machine might be made to ascend and descend upon the like principle; namely, by introducing into the inside of it an air vessel, which by its contraction would diminish, and by its distention enlarge the bulk of the machine itself, and thus render it specifically heavier, or specifically lighter, than the water which surrounds it. Suppose this to be done; and the artist to solicit a patent for his invention. The inspectors of the model, whatever they might think of the use or value of the contrivance, could, by no possibility, entertain a question in their minds, whether it were a contrivance or not. No reason has ever been assigned, no reason can be assigned, why the conclusion is not as certain in the fish, as in the machine; why the argument is not as firm, in one case as the other.

It would be very worthy of inquiry, if it were possible to discover, by what method an animal, which lives constantly in water, is enabled to supply a repository of air.The expedient, whatever it be. forms part. and perhaps the most curious part, of the provision. Nothing similar to the air bladder is found in land animals; and a life in the water has no natural tendency to produce a bag of air. Nothing can be further from an acquired organization than this is.