Diseases of Ddmcsiie Animals. sxix 



ing of life, under circumstances which without such know- 

 ledge would have been deemed impossible; but are induced 

 to admiiHi the Avonderful kindness of Providence, in furnish- 

 ing the system with resources, which enables it to survive 

 after such serious privations, and outrages to the animal 

 economy. We had long known that in tlie operation for 

 aneurism, where a wounded or diseased artery is taken up, 

 and completely divided at the elbow, or in a thigh ; the parts 

 below are supplied with blooil by the anastomosing branches 

 given oif from the larger artery, above the point of obstruc- 

 tion : but Mr. Astley Cooper, of London, has shown us, that 

 even the carotids, the femoral, and brachial arteries of a 

 dog, in which the stoppage of circulation, it might naturally 

 be supposed would be followed by death ; may be tied with 

 impunity: nay, that the aorta of the same animal Biay be 

 lied and divided without injury to his health ;36 and hence 

 we are taught the propriety of attempting the saving of a 

 human life, by ligature, in case of a wound in the large arte- 

 ries of the body, instead of amputating the limb. To military 

 or naval surgeons, who are often called upon suddenly to ex- 

 ert their skill, in cases of dreadful wounds, the inferences to 

 be drawn trom Mr. Cooper's experiments are invaluable.37 



8. It was by the study of comparative anatomy that we have 

 ascertained the cause, why ouran-outangs, apes and monkeys 

 cannot speak. J. J. Rousseau, with the strangest inconsist- 

 ency, while he laboured to perfect his system, by which hu- 

 man reason and the human powers were to attain the high- 

 est possible exaltation; absurdly wished to degrade man by 

 assimilating his nature to that of brutes, and asserting that 

 those animals had originally been endowed with the divine 

 faculty of speech, but had lost it from disuse. Although 

 the assertion or opinion was contradicted, by the negative 

 fact, that no savage nation had been discovered without an 

 artificial language, while herds of ourans had been found, 

 without any ; yet no public refutation had ever been made, 

 of this absurd opinion, until after tbe yeat 177% when 



