FAMILY TAP11UDJ2 ; TAPIR, PAL^OTHERIUM. 325 



the water, and resorts to it when wounded. Its disposition is 

 peaceful and quiet, and it never attempts to attack either man or 

 beast, unless hard pressed ; it is capable of defending itself 

 vigorously, however, and inflicts severe wounds with its teeth. 

 The Tapir is occasionally domesticated in Cayenne, and is harm- 

 less and familiar in its habits. The other South American species 

 is an inhabitant of the most elevated regions of the Andes, and 

 is covered with long, thick, black hair. In some of its charac- 

 ters, it approaches to the fossil Palceotherium. The Indian 

 Tapir closely resembles that of America in its conformation and 

 habits ; but it is of larger stature, and its body, instead of pre- 

 senting the dusky bay tint of the latter, is strangely marked with 

 different colours. 



292. Intermediate between the Tapir and the Hog, is a very 

 interesting genus, now extinct, but once abundant in Europe ; 

 this was termed by Cuvier the Palceotherium (ancient wild- 

 beast). Its remains are very abundant in the gypsum quarries 

 near Paris, as well as in other parts of the Continent, and in 

 this country ; and ten or eleven species have been recognised, 

 varying in size from that of the Rhinoceros to that of the 

 Hog. The reconstruction (so to speak) of these animals, from 

 the fossil remains which have been so long imbedded in the earth, 

 was one of the first fruits of the accurate study of Compa- 

 rative Anatomy, prosecuted by Cuvier ; whose name has been 

 rendered immortal by the discovery of that intimate connexion 

 existing between the different parts of the same animal, which 

 renders it possible to predict the form of the whole, with almost 

 positive certainty, from the examination of a small part only. 

 The following is his own account of this discovery, to which he 

 was led by the study of a collection of bones dug up from the 

 neighbourhood of Paris. "I found myself, as if placed in a 

 charnel-house, surrounded by mutilated fragments of many 

 hundred skeletons of more than twenty kinds of animals piled 

 confusedly around me ; the task assigned to me was to restore 

 them all to their original position. At the voice of Comparative 

 Anatomy, every bone and fragment of bone resumed its place. 

 I cannot find words to express the pleasure I experienced in 



