XKX On Comimrative Anatomy, and the 



the excellent professor Camper of Holland, bj dissecting 

 several ourans, apes and monkeys, demonstrated that no mo- 

 dulatiofl of the voice, resembling human speech, can be pro- 

 duced in those creatures, because the air passing through 

 the rima glottidis, (or chink on the top of the wind pipe,) 

 enters a slit or hole at the root of the epiglottis, and is lost 

 in two ventricles or hollow bags in the neck, causing it to 

 swell, and out of which the air is returned, by the con- 

 traction of the muscle over them, without any force or me- 

 lody, within their throat and mouth.^^ 



9. It is essential to the study of natural history: for ana- 

 tomical structure is the only true basis of a natural classifi- 

 cation of the animal kingdom. It Avas owing to his not be- 

 ing conversant with comparative anatomy, that the zoologi- 

 cal arrangement of the celebrated Linnaeus is deficient ; and 

 to an opposite reason may be ascribed the admirable and 

 comprehensive classification of the French naturalists. 



10. An attention to this study has enabled us to explain 

 the facts related by some travellers, the extraordinary na- 

 ture of Avhich had occasioned an unbelief in them, and the 

 imputation of a disregard to truth — I allude to the narra- 

 tives of the surprising power of the camel to take in at 

 one time a sufficient quantity of water to last four or five 

 days, and thereby to become capable of inhabiting the parch- 

 ing deserts of Arabia,- and of the practice of the people 

 of a caravan, of opening those animals when they die, in 

 order to obtain the water from their stomachs The ex- 

 amination of the stomach of this useful animal, shows how 

 it is enabled to retain the water, and that it is pure enough 

 to be drank when taken from his body, by men whose thirst 

 is great.35 



11. But while comparative anatomy enables us to do jus- 

 lice to travellers, it also furnishes us with the means of 

 putting to the test the truth of various stories of the vulgar, 

 some of which have been unaccountably admitted by men 

 of science,4o Such, among others that might be mentioned. 



