148 rROSrECTIVE CONTRIVANCES. 



mechanism of the mouth, which would have appeared al- 

 most insurmountable. The expansion of the jaw, (the 

 consequence of the proportionable growth of the animal, 

 and of its skull,) necessarily separates the teeth of the first 

 set, however compactly disposed, to a distance from one 

 another which would be very inconvenient. In due time, 

 therefore, i. e. when the jaw has attained a great part of its 

 dimensions, a new set of teeth springs up, (loosening and 

 pushing out the old ones before them,) more exactly fitted 

 to the space which they are to occupy, and rising also in 

 such close ranks, as to allow for any extension of line 

 which the subsequent enlargement of the head may occa- 

 sion. 



II. It is not very easy to conceive a more evidently pros- 

 pective contrivance, than that which, in all viviparous ani- 

 mals, is found in the milk of the female parent. At the 

 moment the young animal enters the world, there is its 

 maintenance ready for it. The particulars to be remarked 

 in this economy are neither few nor slight. We have first 

 the nutritious quality of the fluid, unlike, in this respect, 

 every other excretion of the body ; and in which nature 

 hitherto remains unimitated, neither cookery nor chemistry 

 having been able to make milk out of grass : we have, 

 secondly, the organ for its reception and retention : we have, 

 thirdly, the excretory duct, annexed to it : and we have, 

 lastly, the determination of the milk to the breast, at the 

 particular juncture when it is about to be wanted. We 

 have all these properties in the subject before us ; and 

 they are all indications of design. The last circumstance 

 is the strongest of any. If I had been to guess beforehand, 

 I should have conjectured, that, at the time when there 

 was an extraordinary demand for nourishment in one part 

 of the system, there would be the least likelihood of a re- 

 dundancy to supply another part. The advanced preg- 

 nancy of the female has no intelligible tendency to fill the 

 breast with milk. The lacteal system is a constant won- 

 der : and it adds to other causes of our admiration, that 

 the number of the teats or paps in each species is found to 

 bear a proportion to the number of the young. In ihe sow, 

 the bitch, the rabbit, the cat, the rat, which have numerous 

 litters, the paps are numerous, and are disposed along the 

 whole length of the belly ; in the cow and mare they are 

 few. The most simple account of this is to refer it to a. 

 designing Creator. 



