LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



105 



not without its use in the Roman pharmacopoeia, as, 

 for instance : 



The eie-teeth of the said crocodile filled up with 

 frankincense, (for hollow they be,) and tied to any 

 part of the body, put by those periodicall fevers 

 which use to return at sett and certaine hours ; but 

 then the patient must not for five dayes together 

 see the party who fastened the same about him. 

 And they report likewise, that the little gravel 

 stones taken out of their belly be of the same vertue 

 to drive away the shaking fits of agues when they 

 are comming, which is the cause that the JEgyp- 

 tians use ordinarily to anoint their sicke folk with 

 the fat of this beast. 



The blood administered to the eyes was supposed 

 to promote clearness of vision. The fat bore a high 

 price, for he who was anointed with it might fear- 

 lessly dive in the Nile, though surrounded by croco- 

 diles. It was reckoned excellent good for the bites 

 of serpents, according to Dioscorides ; and Leo 

 lauds its efficacy in the case of old ulcers, and even 

 of cancers. Boiled in water with vinegar, it was 

 held a sovereign remedy for the toothache, if the 

 patient washed his face with the decoction ; and no 

 doubt it did the sufferers as much good as any nos- 

 trum now advertised. The skin, if carried round 

 fields or gardens, and afterwards suspended there, 

 was held to be a sure defence against approaching 

 hailstorms. In modern times not only is the musk 

 of the glands held precious, (or was, not long ago,) 

 but other parts of the animal were used for medici- 

 nal purposes. Hasselquist notices the " folliculus," 

 of the bigness of a hazel nut, under the shoulders of 

 the old crocodiles, containing a thick matter which 

 smells like musk. The Egyptians, he says, are 

 very anxious to get this when they kill a crocodile, 

 it being a perfume much esteemed by the grandees, 

 but Hasselquist did not find one in any that he dis- 

 sected. He states that the Egyptians use the fat 

 against the rheumatism and stiffness of the tendons, 

 esteeming it a powerful remedy outwardly applied. 



He mentions the gall, as being considered good 

 for the eyes ; and that, and the eyes of the crocodiles 

 themselves, as used by the Egyptians for purposes 

 about which we care not to be particular. 



I am not aware that a true crocodile has ever 

 been exhibited alive in this country. I never saw 

 one, though I have seen many alligators of all 

 sizes. It would not be very difficult to bring over 

 a Nilotic crocodile ; and if the Zoological Society 

 of London were to show one with its attendant dot- 

 terell and the hippopotamus,* the attraction would 



* 6th Oct. I to the Zoological Garden, and in my way 

 to the hippopotamus came upon a late hatch of six young 

 black swans not long out of the egg, walking with their 

 affectionate mother, the proud father strutting in advance 

 ready to do battle with all comers, and looking as if he 

 defied the world. Looked in upon Jenny Lind, who had 

 broken her horn at the base, or rather loosened it at the 

 suture, so that it went cmite back. But the keeper set it 

 cleverly, and it is now in place, exalted, like that of her 

 namesake by Brother Jonathan ; so that she carries her 

 head as proudly and symmetrically as any giraffe of 

 them all. 



Tho great tortoise had cuddled into a corner of his 

 house, as if he felt the approach of winter. 



Hippo was in his bath. When he sinks he puts back 

 his ears, and closes them to keep out the water. A large 



be strong. The clever keepers of that establish- 

 ment would soon reconcile them to each other, and 

 present another " united happy family" to the won- 

 dering spectators. 



Without wearying the reader with anatomical 

 details, we would draw attention to certain pecu- 

 liarities in the organization of the crocodilian 

 family, which are not only essential to its well- 

 being, but indicate that approximation of one 

 form to another of which every observer who stud- 

 ies animated nature is constantly reminded. 



The cervical vertebrae are furnished with a sort 

 of false ribs, which impede lateral motion ; and, 

 indeed, the general structure of the vertebral col- 

 umn, as far as the pelvis, combined with the ab- 

 dominal ribs, renders it difficult for the crocodilidee 

 to bend their bodies sideways ; whence the notion 

 of throwing them out when in pursuit by doub- 

 ling back. There is a story of an Englishman 

 running before a large alligator which came out 

 of the lake Nicaragua, and was gaining on him 

 fast. He would have been soon overtaken by his 

 grim pursuer, had not some Spaniards called to 

 him to run in a circle and baffle it by compell- 

 ing it to resort to the laborious operation of turn- 

 ing, if it should be bent on continuing the pur- 

 suit. That an alligator can bend its body and 

 tail so as to bring head and tail together I have 

 proved. I took an alligator between five and six 

 feet long, at the Zoological Garden in the Re- 

 gent's Park, by the tail, and lifted it off its legs, 

 when, by what certainly appeared to be a violent 

 effort, it bent its body so as to reach my hand with 

 its head. I had a glove on, but the reptile bit it 

 through, without, however, wounding my hand. 



The abdominal ribs, which form a sort of plas- 

 tron for the protection of the belly, in addition to 

 the false and ordinary ribs, do not reach up to the 

 spine, and seem to be the result of an ossification 

 of the tendinous portion of the recti muscles. 

 True clavicles there are none, but, as in the rest 

 of the Saurian tribe, the coracoi'd apophyses are 

 attached to the breast-bone. The lungs of rep- 

 tiles generally reach down into the abdomen ; but 

 such is not the case with the crocodilians, and 



vegetable marrow was thrown to him by Hamet. He 

 mumbled it for some time in the water, and below the 

 surface as well as above, making an impression on the 

 fruit but not breaking it. When below the surface he 

 would let it out of his mouth, and then rise after it as it 

 floated to the top, trying his young teeth upon it. At 

 last his vegetable appetite appeared to be roused. He 

 brought it to one of the steps of his bath, and, reposing, 

 set to work upon it in good earnest, with all but his head 

 still in the water, succeeded in breaking it, bit off pieces, 

 chewed them with a slow, champing, snapping motion, 

 without any lateral grinding, and swallowed them. He 

 had previously been offered green maize, which he 

 mumbled, broke, and played with, but did not eat, so far 

 as I could see. Boiled carrots and kohl-rube were more 

 to his taste ; and he had eaten freely of them before the 

 experiment of the raw vegetable marrow was made. All 

 this looks like a healthy state of stomach, and I cannot 

 help hoping that his careful attendants will bring him 

 through the winter. He was rather fractious at first on 

 being left, but is now reconciled to the absence of his 

 kind Hamet at night, and sleeps by himself very com- 

 fortably. In short, his conduct entirely justifies the 

 epithet conferred on him by Mr. Dickens, who has im- 

 mortalized " The Good Hippopotamus." 



