ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 4? 



omy is a science the only merit of whicli depends upon its being a literal 

 record of facts ; yet students, at the before-mentioned places, are fond of 

 alluding to the larynx of the ass, as displaying a peculiar development, 

 which accounts for the difference of voice between the last-named animal 

 and the horse. The author could never discover such a curiosity, nor 

 is any necessary, when the peculiarity of ihe two sounds is attentively 

 noticed. One is a nasal tone, modulated by the flutter of the nostrils ; 

 the other is a harsh, grating noise, produced by energetically inhaling 

 and expelling the atmosphere through the extended pipe of the animal's 

 trachea. 



The donkey labors, however, beyond the care of its enslaver and with- 

 out the region of human sympathy. Be its toil exhaustive, let it work 

 without cessation throughout the day and far into the night, no eye 

 regards its fatigue with commiseration. It is an object only to laugh at. 

 The popular belief is, that the tribe is so peculiarly hardy as to be alto- 

 gether removed from the necessities, the liabilities, or the accidents com- 

 mon to every other form of life. All grades of existence which men 

 please to neglect, they generally designate as "hardy." Human beings, 

 however, notoriously become less "hardy" as knowledge is enlarged and 

 as life becomes better cared for. Will the time ever arrive when percep- 

 tion can embrace that which we now view only as an object of fun, and 

 when the donkey will be regarded as entitled to share the consideration 

 bestowed upon all the other inhabitants of earth ? 



The country is not secure, the people are not released from barbarism, 

 while the pressure of want can blind the nation to the lawful needs of 

 the lives which surround and which serve it. Civilization must be far 

 from perfected, when an inquiry concerning the man who has beheld a 

 dead donkey can make a large assemblage laugh. The author has, 

 however, known poor families to be plunged into deep distress because 

 the assinine form of existence was not immortal. His experience may, 

 probably, be peculiar, but it is opposed to the stale jest of our theaters ; 

 for when he was demonstrator at the Royal Veterinary College, he used 

 to dispute with the man who supplied donkeys for the pupils to dissect, 

 whether the institution should or should not bear the loss of such as died 

 before their lives were required by the school. These creatures were 

 bought at Smithfield, and brought to Saint Pancras for animals enjoying 

 health ; they were wanted to endure but a few days ; yet the author has 

 seen three carcasses anticipate this brief interval of permitted existence. 



The author can further testify that, among the scores of carcasses 

 which he has dissected, he never examined the body of a donkey, how- 

 ever young it might have been, that he did not encounter appalling 

 proofs of internal injuries — injuries which had resulted in change of 



