10 THE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 
The tish-bone is often totally destitute of these canals, while, in other cases, the bone 
is thickly pierced with them, and exhibits also a number of minute tubes, white and 
delicate, as if made of ivory. 
Returning to the human bone, the Haversian canals are seen to be surrounded with a 
number of concentric bony rings, varying much in number and shape, on which are 
placed sundry little black objects that somewhat resemble ants or similar insects. These 
latter objects are known by the name of bone-cells ; and the little dark lines that radiate 
from them are the indications of very minute tubes, the number and comparative 
dimensions of which are extremely various in different animals. 
Thus, it will be seen, how easily the observer can, in a minute fragment of bone, 
though hardly larger than a midge’s wing, read the class of animal of whose framework 
it once formed a part, as decisively as if the former owner were present to claim his 
property ; for each particle of every animal is imbued with the nature of the whole 
being. The life-character is enshrined in and written upon every sanguine dise that rolls 
through the veins; is manifested in every fibre and nervelet that gives energy and force 
to the. breathing and active body ; and is stereotyped wpon each bony atom that forms 
part of its skeleton framework, 
Whoever reads these hieroglyphs rightly is truly a poet and a prophet; for to him the 
“valley of dry bones” becomes a vision of death passed away, and a prevision of a 
resurrection and a life to come. As he gazes upon the vast multitude of dead, sapless 
memorials of beings long since perished, ce ‘there j is a shaking, and the bones come together’ 
onee again ; their’ fleshly clothing is restored to them; the vital fluid courses through 
their bodies ; the spirit of life is breathed into them ; “ and they live, and stand upon their 
feet.” Ages upon ages roll back their tides, and once more the vast reptile epoch reigns 
on earth. The huge saurians shake the ground with their heavy tread, wallow in the slimy 
ooze, or glide sinuous through the waters ; while w inged reptiles flap their course through 
the miasmatie vapours that hang dank and heavy over the marshy world. As with them, 
so shall it be with us,—an inevitable progression towards higher stages of existence, the 
effete and undeveloped beings passing away to make room for new, and loftier, and more 
perfect creations. What is the volume that has thus recorded the chronicles of an age so 
long past, and prophecies of as far distant a future? Simply a little fr agment of 
mouldering bone, tossed aside contemptuously by the careless labourer as miners’ 
“yubbish.” S 
Not only is the past history of each being written in every particle of which its 
material frame is constructed, but the past records of the universe to which it belongs, 
and a prediction of its future. God can make no one thing that is not universal in its 
teachings, if we would only be so taught ; if not, the fault is with the pupils, not with the 
Teacher. He writes his ever-living words in all the works of his hand ; He spreads this 
ample book before us, always ready to teach, if we will only learn. We walk in the 
midst of miracles with closed eyes and stopped ears, dazzled and bewildered with the 
Light, fearful and distrustful of the Word! 
It is not enough to accumulate facts as misers gather coins, and then to put them 
away on our bookshelves, guarded by the bars and bolts of technical phraseology. As 
coins, the facts must be circulated, and given to the public for their use. It is no matter 
of wonder that the generality of readers recoil from works on the natural sciences, and 
look upon them as mere collections of tedious names, irksome to read, unmanageable of 
utterance, and impossible to remember, Our scientific lbraries are filled with facts, dead, 
hard, dry, and material as the fossil bones that fill the sealed and caverned libraries of the 
past. But true science will breathe life into that dead mass, and fill the study of zoology 
with poetry and spirit. 
