HARMONY BETWEEN DISTINCT CHARACTERS. 81 



the presence of five joints in the tarsus should always accompany 

 one set of internal characters ; and why four joints should be 

 found in the tarsus of those Beetles, which agree among them- 

 selves, and differ from the last, in certain other particulars. 

 "When that is the case, the character will deserve to be regarded 

 as in itself a natui al one ; as it already must be considered in 

 some degree, since the classification founded upon it alone has no- 

 thing of the artificial nature, usually seen in arrangements formed 

 upon single characters, and displaying itself so prominently in 

 the Linnaean classification of Plants. (BOTANY, Chap. XIII.) 



58. It is from this correspondence between single characters, 

 and general plans of structure, that the Comparative Anatomist 

 derives the power, already adverted to, of determining the nature 

 of a whole animal from a single fragment of its skeleton, or from 

 one of its teeth. In no animal is the body made up of a number 

 of disconnected parts, united, as it were at hazard ; for all its 

 organs have a more or less intimate connection with each other ; 

 so that there is a kind of harmony amongst them all, and be- 

 tween every part and the entire structure. Thus, 

 the simple inspection of the tooth represented 

 in the accompanying figure, suffices to disclose to 

 the scientific Naturalist, the following facts re- 

 garding the animal to which it belonged. In the 

 first place, there must have been a bony frame- 

 work, in which this tooth was implanted, and 

 CARNIVOROUS TOOTH which gave support to the rest of the body ; and, 

 OF A LION. ag t hi s internal framework does not exist in any 

 other animals than those of the Vertebrated series, we know, 

 by its possession of this tooth, that the animal in question had 

 the brain and spinal cord, the complete set of organs of the senses, 

 the red blood, &c. &c. which belong to that sub-kingdom only. 

 Further, there are certain characters about the roots of this tooth, 

 which enable the Anatomist to feel certain, that it must have 

 been implanted in a deep socket, which is only the case in Rep- 

 tiles and Mammals ; and he may further determine from them, 

 that the animal belonged to this last class, and that it must have 

 therefore possessed the organisation which is peculiar to it. Again, 



