of the Peruvian Lama* 485 



ral economy. The habits even of genera closely resembling each 

 other occasionally do not accord. Antelopes live in pairs, in small 

 families, or congregated in thousands ; the zebra is seen in 

 groups only of two or three ; whilst the quagga, resembling it so 

 closely as to be often confounded with it, feeds in flocks on the 

 wide extended plains of Africa. Lastly, by what fact in the in- 

 ternal or external structure of the hippopotamus could the ana- 

 tomist have decided a priori that the animal was aquatic *. 



Nor can we decide on the relations of different organs or 

 structures to each other. We cannot predict, for example, that 

 an animal will necessarily ruminate, because we find its upper 

 jaw unprovided with incisive teeth, nor that there is any con- 

 stant relation between these two circumstances. There is no- 

 thing in the anatomy of the skeleton or dentition of the horse 

 which can lead an anatomist to decide a priori on the probable 

 form of the stomach of that animal ; and, I would ask, where are 

 the data by which we could determine the form of the stomach 

 in the quadrumana, the larger pachydermata, including the pig, 

 the puzzling animals of Australia, and of numerous others, unne- 

 cessary to particularize here ? Where is the anatomist who would 



* Though the camelopardalis has now been known to man for some thousand 

 years, no anatomist in the world could have predicted the form of its stomach pre- 

 vious to dissection. 



The stomach of the hippopotamus is complex ; that of the rhinoceros simple ; yet 

 their food is similar. I know of nothing in the form of the skeleton or other struc- 

 tures which, being presented to the anatomist separately, and unconnected with its 

 other parts, could enable the anatomist to decide on the nature of any of these ani- 

 mals without an exact examination of the whole of the structure, and a knowledge 

 of their habits, drawn from observation of the living species ; and if, in the examina- 

 tion of fossil remains, we venture to pronounce dogmatically on a few of the best 

 made out genera, and declare such a bone to belong to the hyaena tribe, such another 

 to the tiger, elephant, and so on, such opinions are after all but probable conjec- 

 tures, unfitted by their nature to form a basis for a solid theory of animal bodies. 

 Moreover, they cannot go beyond mere generalities. 



3 p 2 



