AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. Si) 



praise that can be bestowed on the man *. The Laplanders, 

 and the Tungooses of North-eastern Asia, are equally in- 

 debted to the rein-deer ; the TschutskI, the North-west 

 Americans, the Aleutians, and other neighbouring islanders, 

 to the whale and walrus. The latter, as well as the Green- 

 landers, seem to have anticipated modern anatomists in 

 accurately distinguishing the several anatomical textures, 

 and ascertaining what Bichat calls their " proprietes de 

 tissue,'' or properties resulting from organization, in order 

 to convert the various parts to the manifold purposes of 

 their economical anatomy : they surprise us by manufac- 

 turing thread from the carcase of the great leviathan ; split- 

 ting the fibres of its cutaneous muscle (the pamiiculus car- 

 nostis) into lengtlis of an hundred feet or more; and pre- 

 paring from it a double-threaded twine, v»'hich, in the united 

 requisites of fineness and strength, will bear comparison 

 with any productions of European industry. 



The flocks and herds which are reared for food, and the 

 various domesticated animals employed in agriculture, in 

 carrying burdens, for draught, and in numberless other 

 ways, are so useful and important, that their structure, 

 economy, and diseases, have been carefully studied ; and 

 these subjects have been found suflicient to occupy a parti- 

 cular class of persons. Indeed, without the dog, the horse, 

 the sh.eep, the cow, the goat, the rein-deer, the camel, and 

 the lama, many extensive regions of the globe would be 

 uninhabitable ; and others now covered with a numerous 

 population, would be reduced almost to the condition of 

 deserts. 



Comparative anatomy bears the same relation to the 

 veterinary art, that human anatomy and physiology do to 

 medicine. The peculiarities in the organic structure and 

 functions of particular genera or species lead to correspond- 

 ing peculiarities in their diseases and derangements. Hence, 

 a rational treatment of the disorders incidental to animals 



* See the interesting account of the Greenlanders in Crantz, Geschichte 

 von Grbniand ; also Egede's Description of Greenland ; London 1818; of 

 the Eskimaux, in Ellis's Voyage to Ihuhons Bay, p. 137 and following. 



