OF THE NISUS FORMATIVUS. 381 



nerves in the umbilical chord, would be unworthy of the pre- 

 tension to an enlarged acquaintance with physiology. How 

 those who believe the Divine authority of every part of their 

 Bible can reconcile the success of Jacob's stratagem* (so an- 

 ciently was the remark common) with their contempt for the 

 vulgar belief, they best ean tell. 



* " And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut 

 tree ; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was 

 in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the 

 gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should 

 conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, 

 and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted." Qenesis. xxx. 



