OF NATURAL HISTORY. 6^ 



The tail Is only a prolongation of the os coccygls, or rump- 

 bone, which is fhort in man. The orang outang, and true 

 apes, have no tail ; and, in the baboons, and feveral other 

 quadrupeds, the tail is exceedingly fhort. Thus, in the 

 creation of animals, the Supreme Being feems to have cm- 

 ployed only one great idea, and, at the fame time, to have di- 

 verfiiied it in every poffible manner, that men might have 

 an opportunity of admiring equally the magnificence of tha 

 execution and the fimplicity of the defign. 



In quadrupeds, as well as in man, the bones are connected 

 by articulations and membranes ; and the different move- 

 ments of thefe bones are performed by the operation of muf- 

 cles. The number, difpofition, and form of the mufcles with 

 a few exceptions arifing from the figure and destination of 

 parts peculiar to particular animals, are nearly the fame in 

 men and in quadrupeds. The circulation of their blood, 

 the fecretion of their fluids, and the procefs of digeftion, are 

 carried on by organs perfectly fimilar to thofe of the human 

 body. In the external covering, a fmall difference takes 

 place. Quadrupeds are furniflied with a thick covering of 

 hair, or wool, to defend them from the injuries of the 

 weather. Being deflitute of art fufficient to make garments. 

 Nature has fupplled that defe6l, by giving tliem a cpat of 

 hair, which varies in thicknefs according to the feafon of the * 

 year and the difference of cHmate. In Ruffia, Lapland, 

 Kamtfchatka, and all the northern regions, the furs of ani- 

 mals are very thick and warm. But, in Turkey, Africa, and 

 the fouthern parts of Afia and America, moft quadrupeds are 

 thinly clad, and fome of them, as the Turkilli dog, are total- 

 ly deflitute of hair. 



The fkin of quadrupeds is difpofed nearly in the fame man- 

 ner as the human, only it is more elaflic. Immediately un- 

 der the fkin, there is a thin mufcular fubftance, called _/)^;/;'/" 

 sulus carmfuSf wMch is common to all quadrupeds, except the 



