176 



MAMMALIA. 



single claw, that one claw necessarily tells with much 

 more effect than if the animal were'to alight on all 

 the claws a once. In great efforts, the body is 

 always delivered upon the middle claws of the fore 

 feet before the others take effect ; and thus it pierces 

 like darts projected from a powerful mechanical 

 engine, before it clutches, though the clutch very 

 speedily follows the other part of the operation. The 

 whole action of those more powerful of the carnivo- 

 rous animals very much resembles the projection of a 

 war-like missile, only it is more complete, and the 

 animal is the missile and the engine at one and the 

 same time. 



This circumstance is worthy of some consideration, 

 inasmuch as it shows us that lions, and tigers, and all 

 the more powerful of the cat family, are not made for 

 the use of man, neither can their vast but momentary 

 exertions be in any way pressed usefully into his ser- 

 vice. This is in strict accordance with the conduct 

 of these animals, and the increase and diminution of 

 their numbers, when man clears away the jungles and 

 cultivates the Held, their powerful inhabitants contend 

 for a time ; but are ultimately foiled by the intellec- 

 tual resources of men in a comparatively low situa- 

 tion, if these are in sufficient numbers, possess suffi- 

 cient activity, and live in that harmonious manner 

 which constitutes the grand strength of human 

 societies. 



If, on the other hand, from war or any other of 

 these causes by which the numbers of mankind are 

 thinned, the strength of their union broken, and the 

 jungle begins again to invade the once cultivated 

 ground, the lion, the tiger, and the other ferocious 

 animals, reappear and reassert their dominion. 



Some others of the carnivorous animals use the feet 

 partially as prehensile instruments ; though gene- 

 rally speaking they do so for striking down or holding 

 their prey rather than for tearing it, they do not 

 therefore come strictly within the list of animals 

 with true clutching feet. Their prehensile character 



is in their teeth ; and as we shall have to advert to 

 them in noticing the systematic arrangement of ani- 

 mals, we should be involved in repetition, were we, 

 in the mean time, to offer any thing more than a few 

 hints of the most general description. None of the 

 three sets of teeth with which to some extent or 

 other all the more completely mouthed animals are 



furnished, can be considered as instruments simply of 

 prehension, without at the same time performing some 

 other (unction to which, in fact, the prehensile action 

 of the teeth is generally subservient. One of the 

 most complete cases of this prehensile action which 

 exists among the mammalia, is found in some varie- 

 ties of the dog family ; and those which have it in 

 the greatest perfection, have always the muzzle short, 

 the neck and those muscles which move the jaws 

 very powerful, and they hold on with great despera- 

 tion, so that one of them may be swung round and 

 round by the animal on which it fastens without 

 letting go its hold. One of the most remarkable in- 

 stances of this occurs in the bull-dog, which has not 

 merely the canines, but even the fore teeth, so formed 

 as to retain their hold. The above figure, which 

 is a sketch of a dog hanging on by the under lip of a 

 bull, will be a sufficient illustration of this kind of 

 action, which is, generally speaking, not a very cre- 

 ditable one to the parties by whom such dogs are 

 employed. 



Some of the weasel or marten tribe also hold on 

 very desperately ; but after all their bite is a wound- 

 ing one, rather than merely prehensile. Some of 

 the rodentia, as several of the rat family and others, 

 can keep a firm hold ; but they are biters. We can- 

 not therefore consider teeth as coming very strictly 

 within the class of organs whose leading office is pre- 

 hension, though that is often part of their office. 

 There are few animals which have the teeth more 

 prehensile than the cat family, and yet they are, in 

 addition, furnished with the most complete instru- 

 ments for catching prey of which we have an exam- 

 ple in the animal kingdom. This is enough to show 

 that the mouth of no animal alone is capable of find- 

 ing a subsistence for its owner in the flesh of animals 

 of any considerable power. In their other functions, 

 whether of cutting, of wounding, of tearing, of bruis- 

 ing, or of grinding, the teeth of animals are to be con- 

 sidered more in the character of prcparers of the 

 food for the stomach, than of mere takers of it ; and 

 as in this point of view they form the basis of much 

 of the classification, according to the best informed 

 and most judicious systematise, they properly belong 

 to that branch of the view which we have endea- 

 voured to take of the mammalia. The canines of 

 some of the pachydermata form the most decided 

 exceptions to this ; and these exceptions are found 

 in animals which differ not a little in the nature of 

 their food, and their digestive organs. Of these, one 

 of the most remarkable is the hippopotamus, whose 

 prehensile teeth are very strong, and covered with a 

 more compact enamel than the teeth of almost any 

 animals. The whole mouth of this animal is indeed 

 a rugged and most formidable looking combination 

 of parts ; and if we were to judge only from the size 

 of the jaws, and the development and texture of the 

 the teeth, we should be very apt to conclude that the 

 hippopotamus was one not only of the most formid- 

 able, but of the most carnivorous animals in the 

 whole class of the mammalia. When however we 

 examine the feet, and see their perfectly harmless 

 structure, and the internal parts, and discover that 

 they are equal to the digestion of even dry sticks, we 

 come at once to a very different conclusion, and do 

 not fail in determining that like the other great ani- 

 mals of the same order, whether living or extinct, the 

 hippopotamus is a dweller in peace with his kindred 

 mammalia, and with all living creatures ; and that, 



