J 94 PECULIARITIES IN 



diseased and tuberculated *. The monkeys in general 

 exist with difficulty in temperate countries, and can pro- 

 pagate only in warm climates. One which was impreg- 

 nated in England, and attended with all possible care, 

 brought forth a young one, which died immediately f. 

 Probably the species could not be continued here, with all 

 the aid of art ; and it certainly could not be effected, if the 

 animals were wild. When they are introduced into the north 

 (indeed into the greater part) of Europe, and carefully 

 managed in their food, temperature, &c. they die very 

 quickly : and, in almost all cases, of disease in the viscera, 

 particularly the lungs. 



Other animals, as the polar bear, naturally constructed 

 for cold, cannot subsist in warmer regions. The dog accom- 

 panies man every where; but, with all the protection and 

 assistance afforded by his master, degenerates, and under- 

 goes remarkable changes, both of bodily structure and other 

 properties, in very warm and very cold regions. 



Other circumstances in the human economy correspond 

 with this power of adaptation ; such are the slow growth, 

 long infancy, and late puberty of man. In no animal but 

 man do the sutures of the cranium close, or the teeth come 

 out at so late a period: none is so long before it can sup- 

 port the body on the legs, before it arrives at the complete 

 adult stature and capacity for exercising the sexual func- 

 tions. The long infancy of our species is compensated by 

 proportionate longevity : no other of the mammalia, of cor- 

 responding size, enjoys so long a life as man. As the dura- 

 tion of life is in proportion to the time spent in arriving at 

 the full growth, there is every reason to suppose that the 

 monkeys fall very short of man in this respect : in this cli- 

 mate they are cut off so quickly, that we cannot form a 

 judgment. 



If we add to the foregoing circumstances, that man is not 

 provided by nature with means of defence, and conse- 

 quently requires assistance ; and that his great distinctions, 



* Annalcs du Museum, t. IG — p. 53» 



+ Hunter on the Animal Economy y p. 137. 



