40 ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY 



presupposes a knowledge of the generic and specific cha- 

 racters of internal organization. It seems superfluous to 

 adduce the digestion of the ruminant order, or other analo- 

 gous instances, in illustration of a truth so evident in itself. 

 Many animals are known to us as objects of alarm and 

 terror, or of considerable though less serious annoyance. 

 Some are directly formidable by their strength and ferocity, 

 as beasts of prey; others by their noxious properties, as 

 venomous reptiles and insects. Some ravage our fields 

 and gardens, destroying the various vegetable productions ; 

 others attack our food and clothing. Some even perforate 

 the planks of the largest ships, or the timbers of other sub- 

 marine constructions. 



A more extensive field is opened to the philosopher in 

 the structure and economy of animals ; in their analogies 

 and differences ; in the relation of their organization and 

 functions to the circumstances in which they are placed ; 

 and in the modifications corresponding to the infinitely- 

 varied combinations of abode, surrounding element, food, 

 mode of growth and reproduction, &c. &c. 



We see some sagacious and docile, capable of instruction, 

 exhibiting mental phenomena analogous to our own — the 

 germs or imperfect state of what, when more developed, is 

 human intellect; others are stupid, ferocious, and untame- 

 able. Some are mild, social, and gregarious ; others, wild, 

 savage, and solitary. Many surprise us by their curious 

 instincts, as in providing for the abode, defence, or food of 

 themselves or their offspring ; by the unerring regularity 

 with which each individual of the species, unaided by ex- 

 perience or instruction, obeys, as it were, the fixed law of 

 destiny, in performing at stated periods the longest jour- 

 neys, as in the migrations of birds and fishes ; or executes 

 the most perfect and intricate constructions, exceeding the 

 utmost exertions even of human skill and wisdom. 



Some have an acuteness of the external senses, par- 

 ticularly sight, hearing, and smelling, to which we are 

 strangers : in some we are astonished by the force 3 in 

 others, by the celerity and variety of motion. 



