120 THE CANINE FAMILY 



exceeds twenty years. The phenomena of gestation 

 in canines demand some observations, from the 

 number of whelps produced at a birth by animals 

 destined to make violent exertions to obtain their 

 daily food, and therefore not fitted to be inactive 

 for any length of time. It appears that the young 

 are produced in a premature condition, for they are 

 born blind; and while they remain in this state, 

 the foramen ovale is still open, according to the 

 experiments attributed to Mr Edwards.* But it 

 appears, in the work of that able observer, that he 

 regards the blindness of the new-bom animal rather 

 as a proof that the vital action is not sufficiently 

 energetic to generate animal heat, a process effected 

 by the combined action of the nervous and vascular 

 systems ; and that animals born with their eyes open 

 are more mature. But whether under these circum- 

 stances their blood is imperfectly arterialized, or the 

 vital energy be as yet insufficient, and consequently 

 that if they be removed from the nest, or for any 

 length of time from the maternal warmth, it is a fact 

 that they soon cool down to the temperature of the 

 -surrounding atmosphere and perish. Now, the in- 

 complete and helpless state of these animals, in their 



* Edwards sur la vie. — This conclusion may demand some 

 qualification ; for we are informed by a medical of&cer in tlie 

 Royal Navy — one of unquestioned ability and experience — 

 that in opening a seaman killed by a fall, the foramen ovale 

 was found open, admitting the passage of a quill ; yet the man 

 had been as strong, active, and healthy, as any other person 

 ou board. 



