MAMMALIA. 



323 



with all the fingers and thumb, each can individually 

 be approximated to the thumb so as to hold the very 

 smallest substance, and as Man is so constituted that he can 

 stand firmly on his feet, his hands can be solely appropriated 



PIG. 88. HUM AX HAND. 



to the acts of prehension. It has been said that Man owes 

 much of his superiority to the lower animals, to the possession 

 of hands which can take, examine, and compare everything 



FIG. 89. MONKEY'S HAND. 



within his reach ; but it seems more probable that these 

 hands have been given him because he, only, has the faculties 

 of examining and comparing. The Lion and Tiger would be 

 no better off, had they Man's hands instead of their feet 

 with claws probably much worse. 



Animals do not "feed upon unorganised matter, as do 

 vegetables, but merely appropriate to their own use those 

 organic principles which are ready formed in the vegetable 

 or animal, such as albumen, fibrine, starch, gum, sugar, 

 Ac., and assimilate them into their substance. 



When food enters the mouth of an animal it there meets 

 with a fluid (the saliva) which is capable of converting 



T 2 



