IN THE LOWER ANIMALS, ETC. 225 



the powerful beak of the carnivorous birds, and 

 the strong, muscular gizzard of the graminivorous 

 tribes. This latter arrangement is also found 

 in some of the microscopic moss corals : animals 

 so minute, that a group of fifty are scarcely larger 

 than a good-sized pin's head ; and yet each indi- 

 vidual is furnished with a gizzard wherewith to 

 grind down the shelly coverings of the still more 

 minute creatures that constitute its food. We may, 

 therefore, reasonably infer that the teeth are de- 

 signed to fulfil a most important ofl&ce, and that 

 no animal can be deprived of them without serious 

 derangement of all the bodily functions. 



Fossils have been appropriately termed the 

 Medals of Creation, and the title is emphatically 

 applicable to the teeth. 



From their durability, they furnish a guide to 

 the forms of long extinct races, when few other 

 relics are discoverable, and the comparative ana- 

 tomist is thus enabled to assign claws to one 

 animal, or hoofs to another, with the digestive, 

 nervous, and muscular organization appropriate to 

 the habits and necessities of each. Admirable 

 examples of the application of this principle are 

 seen in the restoration of extinct animals in the 

 gardens of the Crystal Palace. 



It was considered a wonderful achievement of 

 inductive science, when Baron Cuvier thus led the 

 way to the reconstruction of long lost races, and 

 the repeopling of the ancient earth with its con- 



