COMPENSATION. 165 



feed, i. e. is calculated to counteract the effects of reple- 

 tion.* 



Or there may be cases, in which a defect is artificial, and 

 compensated by the very cause which produces it. Thus 

 the sheej), in the domesticated state in which we see it, is 

 destitute of the ordinary means of defence or escape ; is 

 incapable either of resistance or flight. But this is not so 

 with the wild animal. The natural sheep is swift and ac- 

 tive : and, if it lose these qualities when it comes under 

 the subjection of man, the loss is compensated by his pro- 

 tection. Perhaps there is no species of quadruped what- 

 ever, which suffers so little as this does, from the depreda- 

 tion of animals of prey. 



For the sake of making our meaning better understood, 

 we have considered this business of compensation under 

 certain particularities of constitution, in which it appears 

 to be most conspicuous. This view of the subject neces- 

 sarily limits the instances to single species of animals. But 

 there are compensations, perhaps, not less certain, which 

 extend over large classes, and to large portions of living 

 nature. 



I. In quadrupeds, the deficiency of teeth is usually com- 

 pensated by the faculty of rumination. The sheep, deer, 

 and ox tribe, are without fore-teeth in the upper jaw. These 

 ruminate. The horse and ass are furnished with teeth in 

 the upper jaw, and do not ruminate. In the former class 

 the grass and hay descend into the stomach, nearly in the 

 state in which they are cropped from the pasture, or gath- 

 ered from the bundle. In the stomach they are softened 

 by the gastric juice, which in these animals is unusually 

 copious. Thus softened, and rendered tender, they are 

 returned a second time to the action of the mouth, where 



* Blumenbach states in his Manual of Natural History, that he had 

 conversed with many Hollanders who had lived in Guiana, and from 

 them collected, that this apparently miserable animal, is rather an en- 

 viable one. First, he nourishes himself entirely from leaves, and, there- 

 fore, when he has once climbed a tree, he can live on the same dish a 

 quarter of a year. Secondly, he does not diink at all. Thirdly, on a 

 tree he is exposed to but few enemies, and when the sloth marks that 

 a tiger-cat is climbing up a branch, it goes softly to the end of the 

 branch, and rocks it till the tiger-cat falls off, so that seldom is there 

 an instance that a tiger-cat surprises one ; even upon the ground, so 

 powerful are the claws of the sloth, and so fearful its cries, that its 

 enemies generally get the worst. So idle is Buflfbn's declamation 

 against the goodness and wisdom of Providence drawn from this 

 beast. Paxton, 



P 3 



