22 THE HOUSE. 



early Eocene formations in Switzerland. None of 

 these have been found in such a complete state as 

 Phenacodns ; it is scarcely necessary therefore to 

 dwell upon them here, though it will be well to de- 

 vote a little time to the consideration of the structure 

 of this form, which, if not in the actual ancestral 

 line of all ungulates (and also, according to Cope, of 

 the insectivores, carnivores, lemurs, monkeys, and 

 even Man himself !) at all events exhibits the primi- 

 tive pattern upon which the skeletons aud teeth of 

 all the others have been constructed, and which has 

 never been departed from in any of them, however 

 disguised by the special modifications of particular 

 parts. 



No part of the organization of an animal is so 

 important in judging of its general position and 

 characters, and at the same time so perishable, as 

 the brain, and yet in consequence of this organ in all 

 the higher vertebrates being accurately adapted in 

 size and form to the bony case which contains it, we 

 have been able to obtain a wonderfully perfect 

 knowledge of, at all events, the rough anatomy of 

 the brain in many animals which ceased to exist 

 ages ago. A cast of the interior of the skull of Phe- 

 nacodus, made and figured by Cope, shows a remark- 

 ably low type, both as to size and form, as compared 

 with any modern ungulate of corresponding dimen- 



