FAMILY TAPIRIDJE ; TAPIH, PALJEOTHERIUM. 325 



lives in conformation and habits, but is considerably larger than 

 either of them, often measuring seven or eight feet in length. Its 

 skin is closely covered with rather stiff hair, which, instead of 

 presenting the dusky bay tint of the common American species, 

 is of a black colour on the anterior parts of the body and limbs, 

 and white on the hind quarters, the two colours being separated 

 by a sharp line of demarcation. It is found principally in Su- 

 matra, Borneo, and the peninsula of Malacca, but probably en- 

 joys a more extensive distribution upon the Asiatic continent, as 

 representations of it are by no means uncommon in Chinese books 

 and drawings. In Borneo its thick skin is employed by the na- 

 tives in the manufacture of various articles of warlike equip- 

 ment. 



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 Palasotherium (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 



