372 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



steel jaws was avoided, and no sinewy foot was pinched. Finally, a 

 wicked arrangement of innocent-looking logs set on a trigger was 

 made to fall upon the poor wolf and destroy him. Peale got his 

 " specimen," but it was only by brute force ; the coyote was a match 

 for him in brain. 



The skins of these wolves are not so highly valued as those of the 

 big gray wolf, yet formerly they entered largely into the shipments of 

 the Hudson Bay Company, for whom they were " cased " or stripped 

 off wrong side out, as is done with the smaller animals. At present 

 they are in demand to a small extent for making sleigh-robes, rugs, etc., 

 but can scarcely be counted among the commercial furs. 



The striking resemblance between the coyote and the majority of 

 the snappish curs thronging in the camps of the redskins long ago at- 

 tracted attention, and with good reason, for they are descended from 

 tamed wolves of one kind or another, and the stock is constantly and 

 designedly replenished by their masters through mixture with the 

 wild wolves. 



As a pet, the coyote is not in great favor. He will, indeed, stay 

 at home and consent to friendly and even affectionate terms with his 

 owner, but he seems to have not a particle of gratitude, nor any of 

 that responsive attachment which makes the well-bred dog so lovable 

 as a friend. Moreover, in spite of his natural subtlety and shrewd- 

 ness, he shows little aptitude for learning the ordinary accomplish- 

 ments of dogs, and so fails to sustain an interest in himself after the 

 novelty of first acquaintance has worn off. He is faithful to his model, 

 and lives up to the motto, " Once a coyote always a coyote." 



THE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF NATURE.* 



By Dr. F. W. PAVY, F. E. S. 



THE next part of my duty is to exhort the fellows and members 

 of this college "to search and study out the secrets of Nature by 

 way of experiment." These are the directions I am to follow, and 

 they give me a wide field to select a course of procedure from. The 

 kind of exhortation I shall employ will consist in placing before you 

 a view of the method of work which Harvey himself adopted, and then, 

 as an incentive to follow his example, 1 will display some of the fruit 

 yielded by recent research conducted upon the lines of his procedure. 



The object to be promoted is the acquirement of additional knowl- 

 edge. It is an old but true saying that knowledge is power. We 

 accept the doctrine, which comes to us in definite shape from no less 



* From the " Ilarvcian Oration," delivered at tbe R yal College of Physicians, London, 

 October 18, 18S6. 



