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powers by which it digests it.* Birds of prey, by theiV 

 talons and beaks, are qualified to seize and devour many 

 species, both of other birds, and of quadrupeds. The con- 

 stitution of the stomach agrees exactly with the form of the 

 members. The gastric juice of a bird of prey, of an owl, 



* This subject of the relation of parts, and the correspondence of 

 one part of the animal structure to all the others which is here briefly 

 spoken of by our author, has since been made, in the hands of some 

 distinguished anatomists, of immense importance in a scientific point 

 of view. The following extract from Mr.BelVs Treatise on Animal 

 ■Mechanics, shows how extensively it is capable of being considered, 

 and what interesting results may be diavvn from it. Ed. 



" >Yhat we have to state has been the result of the studies of many 

 naturalists; but although they have laboured, as it were, in their own 

 department of comparative anatomy, they have failed to seize upon it 

 with the privilege of genius, and to handle it in the masterly manner 

 of Cuvier. 



" Suppose a man ignorant of anatomy to pick up a bone in an unex- 

 plored country, he learns nothing, except that some animal has lived 

 and died there ; but the anatomist can, by that single bone, estimate, 

 not merely the size of the animal, as well as if he saw the print of its 

 fjot, but the form and joints of the skeleton, the structure of its jaws, 

 and teeth, the nature of its food, and its internal economy. This, to 

 one ignorant of the subject, must appear wonderful, but it is after this 

 m.anner that the anatomist proceeds ; let us suppose that he has taken 

 up that portion of bone in the limb of the quadruped which corresponds 

 to the human wrist ; and that he finds that the form of the bone does 

 not admit of free motion in various directions, like the paw of the 

 carnivorous creature. It is obvious, by the structure of the part, that 

 the limb must have been merely for supporting the animal, and for 

 progression, and not for seizing prey. This leads him to the fact that 

 there were no bones resembling those of the hand and fingers, or those 

 of the claws of the tiger ; for the motions which that conformation of 

 bones permits in the paw, would be useless, without the rotation of the 

 wrist — he concludes that these bones were formed in one mass, like 

 the cannon bone, pastern-bone, and coffin-bones of the horse's foot. 



" The motion limited to flection and extension of the foot of a hoofed 

 animal implies the absence of a collar bone and a restrained motion in 

 the shoulder joint ; and thus the naturalist, from the specimen in his 

 hand, has got ?i perfect notion of all the bones of the anterior extrem- 

 ity ! The motions of the extremities imply a condition of ihe spine 

 which unites them. Each bone of the spine will have thai form which 

 permits the bounding of the stag, or the galloping of the horse, but it 

 •will not have that form of joining which admits the turning or writh- 

 ing of the spine, as in the leopard or the tiger. 



" And now he comes to the head : — the teeth of a carnivorous animal, 

 he says, would be useless to rend prey, unless there were claws to 

 hold it, and a mobility of the extremities like the hand, to grasp it. 

 He considers, therefore, that the teeth must have been for bruising 

 herbs, and the back teeth for grinding. The socketing of these teeth 

 in the jaw gives a peculiar form to these bones, and the muscles 

 which move them are also peculiar ; in short, he forms a conception 

 of the shape of the skull. From this point he may set out anew, for 



