170 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. VIL 



piece, as it also sheathes the base of the nasal partitionwalL 

 I find this state of tilings in a sub-adult specimen of the 

 lesser kind (Hemicentetes), and the smallest kind {Micro- 

 (jcdc) ; VLij specimen of the latter, M. longicaudata, has a 

 tail nearly twice as long as its body, which is very 

 curious for a member of the Tenrec family, the main 

 type of which has merely a stump, and is termed 

 ecaudatiis on that account. This fact is worth remark- 

 ing, for nature runs on her segments in the hind part of 

 the axis of a Mammal in a seemingly hap-hazard manner; 

 ready at any moment to " dock " them, as horse-dealers 

 their " cattle," or as dog-fanciers curtail their pups. 



I may remark, in passing, that I use the term "Nature" 

 as a personification of the forces that are at work in 

 organisms, feigning her to have a cpiasi-human character, 

 — partly kind, partly cruel, — becciuse to us AVestern 

 people, here, in the end of the nineteenth century, the old 

 Eastern custom of ascribing Ijoth evil and good directly 

 to the Deity seems irreverent and profane. Let that 

 })a.ss ; — the biologist stops his ears for the time to the 

 groans of this nether world, and goes on, with what 

 cheerfulness he can muster, at his own proper work. 

 He wdll be ready to argue about the origin of evil, and 

 the meaning of pain, when he has the proper data, which 

 will not be until the " consummation of all thino-s." 



Nature has 1 )een a good mother to the Tenrec ; she 

 has set him up in life with a good stock of all that 

 he can want ; and when he is weary she gives him 



