CRANIOLOLOGY. 309 



that of connecting it with an organ, which is 

 merely intended to assist the predatory habits 

 and the mastication of a carnivorous animal. 

 Hal. — I agree with Physicus in this view 

 of the subject. I once heard a physiologist of 

 some reputation deducing an argument in fa- 

 vour of craniology from the form of the skull 

 of the beaver, which he called a constructive 

 animal, and contended, that there was some- 

 thing of the same character in the skulls of 

 distinguished architects ; now^, the skull of the 

 beaver is so formed, that he is able to use his 

 jaws for cutting down the trees with which 

 he makes his dam ; and if this analogy were 

 correct, the architect ought unquestionably to 

 employ his teeth for the same purpose; and 

 though I have known distinguished men, who 

 have been in the habit of using knives for 

 cutting furniture with a sort of nervous rest- 

 lessness of hand, I do not recollect to have 

 heard of the teeth being employed in the same 

 way ; and I think it would be quite as correct, 

 to find the architectural or constructive organ 

 in the opposite part of the body, the tail, as 

 X 3 



