MAESUPIALS AND THEIR YOUNG. 375 



the evident purpose of injecting the milk from the nipple into 

 the mouth of the adherent foetus. But, as it can scarcely be 

 supposed that the efforts of suction should always coincide with 

 the maternal act of injection, and thus suffocation might easily 

 ensue unless the aperture of the windpipe were guarded by 

 some special contrivance, we find the latter projecting, as in 

 the cetaceans, into the nasal cavity, where it is closely em- 

 braced by the muscles of the soft palate. The air-passage being 

 thus completely separated from the fauces, the injected milk 

 passes in a divided stream on either side the windpipe to the 

 gullet ; and the little creature breathes and sucks at the same 

 time, without one of these vital functions ever interfering with 

 the other ! 



A circumstance well worthy of remark is, that in the animals 

 parental affection and filial attachment last no longer than the 

 necessity of maternal care. As soon as the young are able to 

 provide for themselves, as soon as they can play their part in 

 the world without any further assistance, repulsive coldness, or 

 even enmity, takes the place of former tenderness, and creatures 

 until then inseparable depart from each other as perfect 

 strangers. This limited extent of animal feeling is in perfect 

 harmony with the limited sphere of animal existence. 



The services which the quadrupeds render to man are of 

 such paramount importance that without their assistance he 

 never could have become a civilised being. As the existence 

 of the animals in general depends upon that of the vegetable 

 kingdom, and as among the animals each higher grade of 

 organisation rests upon the foundation of an inferior type, so 

 without the possession of his domestic cattle, man could never 

 have risen to the superior rank he occupies among the denizens 

 of the earth. In fact, they are almost as essential to the per- 

 fection of his being as his reason itself, as without them he 

 never could have developed his rational faculties; and thus 

 there can be no doubt that they have been specially formed for 

 his service. What would agriculture be without the horse or 

 the ox ? and what would England be without agriculture ? the 

 dwelling-place of a few skin-clad barbarians ! 



In many countries the very existence of man depends upon 

 the possession of a single mammalian. The Bedouin cannot be 

 thought of without the dromedary, or the Samoyede without the 



