132 Human Physiology. 



moth or humming-bird are not more beautiful Some are 

 armed with sharp scimetars and spears, harpoons, fishhooks, 

 models of every kind of weapon that man has invented for 

 offence or defence. The eunice gigantea, the largest annelid 

 known, is four feet long a gorgeous animal blazing with 

 iridescent tints, rowing along with seventeen hundred oars so 

 rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow its movements; a 

 creature with three hundred brains or nervous centres, three 

 thousand nerves, two hundred and fifty stomachs, five hundred 

 and fifty branchiae or lungs, six hundred hearts, and thirty 

 thousand muscles ! 



CHAPTER V. 



LIFE IN THE HIGHER ORDERS OF ANIMALS. 



Mammalia Resemblances and Diversities Adaptations of Domestic Ani- 

 mals to the wants of Man The Horse The Dog The Camel The 

 Elephant Ready Submission to Man Sagacity and Humanity 

 Character expressed in Organism The Manis The Beaver Mon- 

 keys The Gorilla and Orang Outang The Life of Man Unity of 

 Life Infinite Power and Wisdom. 



IN our rapid survey of life in the vegetable and animal king- 

 doms, we come now to the class of animals to which we, by 

 our physical constitution, are most nearly related, and whose 

 characters we can best understand, from similarity and a cer- 

 tain degree of sympathy. This is the class Mammalia animals 

 which suckle their young. This class has a wide range on 

 land and water, from the elephant and whale to the mouse and 

 bat; for our nearest animal relations not only walk on four legs, 

 or climb with four hands, but swim and fly. They also differ 

 from most of the lower orders of animals in bringing forth their 

 young alive. To this class belong the animals most useful to 



