56 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



" straight." Salt, on the other hand, is his grand aver- 

 sion, and, for all we know to the contrary, Sylvester 

 Graham may be right, that only our carnivorous habits 

 oblige us to swallow a daily dose of chloride of sodium. 



But, if the views of Luigi Cornaro are correct, there is 

 no doubt that the brute creation must be tainted with 

 original sin : Jacko is no friend of homoeopathic rations ; 

 of such comestibles as Nature has intended for him he 

 wants to eat his fill, and quite literally, too ; the Colobi 

 and Cercopithecs actually devour the utmost amount 

 of food compatible with the calibre of their digestive 

 organs ; the slender egret monkey [Cercocebics Ayguld), 

 for instance, eats with ease a daily quantum exceeding 

 four-fifths of his own weight. In the Zoological Gar- 

 den of Schoenbrunn, near Vienna, I saw one that would 

 never refuse a tidbit : after stuffing himself with apples, 

 crackers, and untold cherries, he still contrived to find 

 room for a large piece of ginger-cake. Fruges consu- 

 mere nati, they act their part well : if their appetite in- 

 creases with their size, a troop of sacred Hanumans must 

 severely strain the tolerance of the Brahminical natives. 

 An anthropoid ape has the stomach of an Arkansas 

 tramp and the lungs of a hectic school-girl. 



Few orangs or gibbons outlive the third year of their 

 captivity ; the least defect in the ventilation of their 

 prison amounts to a death-warrant ; every winter month 

 seems to shorten the term of their life by a year or two, 

 for in the tropics their average longevity exceeds a 



