PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 4< 



bison-herds, believed at that time to have been abundant in the 

 north of Mexico. 



He gives a formidable catalogue of the animals of Central and 

 South America, in which occur the familiar names of armadillo, 

 iguana, chinchilla, viscacha, vicugna, paco, and guanaco, and 

 describes many of them at length, especially the peccary (Saino) . 

 the tapirs, the sloths, and the vicugna. He speaks of the cochi- 

 neal insect, which had already become of importance in the arts. 



He was the first to call attention to the existence in South 

 America of immense fossil bones ; these he supposed to be the 

 remains of gigantic individuals of the human species. 



His description of the Flora is very full, and he dwells at 

 length upon the useful applications of the cacao-bean and its 

 product, the drink which the}' call chocolate — " whereof they 

 make great account in that Country, foolishly and without rea- 

 son," — the plantain, the yucca, the cassava, the maguey, the 

 tunall or cactus, and very many more. 



It is, however, as a scientific theorist that Acosta has the high- 

 est claim to our attention. He appears to have been the first to 

 discuss America from the standpoint of the zoogeographer. 



In considering the question, " How it should be possible that 

 at the Indies there should be any sorts of beasts, whereof the like 

 are nowhere else," he owns that he is quite unable to determine 

 whether they were special creations, or whether they came out of 

 the ark. He evidently prefers the first alternative, although so 

 trammelled by the prevalent opinions of his day and sect that he 

 is unable to bring himself quite to its avowal. He approaches 

 so close to the limits of heterodoxy, however, that Purchas, in 

 his Pilgrimes, feels obliged to print a foot-note pronouncing it 

 " unchristian to say that America was not drowned with the 

 flood." 



Acosta thoroughlv appreciated the peculiar character of the 

 American fauna and remarked that " if the kinds of beasts are to 

 be judged by their properties, it would be as reasonable to call 



