Natural-Historical Collections. 65 



wise annexed a faithful representation of the true Northern Elk, ( Cervus Al- 

 ces) with the view that a comparison between the two might be instituted ; 

 adding, that the representation of the true Elk (the Cervus Alces) was express- 

 ly made for him ia Prussia. 



" It is rather curious tliat Munster, in drawing two animals of this anoma- 

 lous species of Cervus, which we shall presume to be male and female, gives to 

 each of them horns ; those of the animal in the front of the drawing, which 

 we shall suppose to be of the male sex, being somewhat larger and more 

 inflected than those of the female. The coincidence of this delineation with 

 the observations of Baron Cuvier and Mr. Hart, but more particularly of the 

 latter, is very striking ; for both of them suppose that the female, as well as 

 the male of the fossil elk, possessed horns, after the manner of the rein-deer." 



" But it would be unfair to criticise," adds Dr. Hibbert, " with too much 

 minuteness and severity, a drawing, accompanied with a description, made 

 nearly three hundred years ago, during the very infancy of our knowledge of 

 natural history, and at a time when the race described was evidently becoming 

 extremely rare, if not extinct ; and this forbearance is the more demanded as 

 an act of justice, in a case where the essential and permanent characteristics of 

 the form and figure of the animal appear to be given with such a degree of ac- 

 curacy and fidelity, as to render it impossible that we should confound them 

 with tiiose of any other race of Cervi then known to be in existence. If, how- 

 ever, some slight discrepancies should be insisted upon, I am quite willing that 

 Munster's Cervus be considered as a varietj^ only of the Cervus euryceros, or 

 Fossil Elk of Ireland, analogous to such varieties as we find in the breed of 

 horses, of dogs, of foxes, of wolves, or of hares." 



' Suggestions on, the relation between Organized Bodies, and the Conditions of 

 their Existence.'* — Every student of natural science must have found the advan- 

 tage of possessing some leading principles, however hypothetical, under which he 

 may consider the many unconnected facts wliich daily fall under his observation. 

 The following propositions are suggested as at least capable of proving service- 

 able in this respect, at the same time that they may possibly be found, from fu- 

 ture developement, to be explanatory of several of the phenomena of organization. 

 Though founded on the comparison of numerous facts, hitherto unexplained, no 

 claim is advanced for these generalizations, except that they are not commonly 

 received, and that they merit some consideration from the philosophical anatomist. 



1. The developement of the process of organization, — a power imposed by 

 the Deity upon matter,— ^depends upon the conditions of existence. 



2. The perfection of organized bodies, or the number and complexity of or- 

 gans, has a direct ratio with the number of the conditions of existence. 



Thus the lower the animal or plant in the scale of perfection, the fewer 

 the conditions of its existence, and vice versa. 



3. All organized bodies possess the power of varying the developement of the 

 organs, by addition or subtraction of parts, as changes in the conditions of ex- 

 istence occur. 



It is easy to conceive that an organized body can assimilate elements in 

 the form of a new organ, as new fmictions are required, when we re- 

 collect that it is constantly exercising a power of converting inorganic 

 matter into the living emblem of its original form. 



4. The characters of organized bodies will be permanent during the conti- 

 nuation of the same conditions of existence which led to their developement, and 

 no longer. 



5. The more numerous the conditions of existence, the less liable the cha- 

 racters of the organized body to change, and vice versa. 



6. It has been observed that the older the formations of the earth's crust, 

 generally speaking, the less perfect the organic remains they contain. This 

 progressive increase of perfection in organization, would lead us to expect, from 

 the foregoing principle, that, with the advancing age of the earth, the condi- 

 tions have increased in number ; and this seems to be the fact. 



7. Adaptation is the law by which organized bodies change with the variation 

 of the conditions of existence ; and separation of the functions of relation, and 

 concentration of the vital functions, seems to be the mode of perfection. H.H.C. 



" By the " conditions of existence," we mean the external physical agents 

 with which an organized body is in necessary relation, and upon which the in- 

 t«grity and action of its functions depends. 



VOL. II. I 



