398 ZOOLOGY. 



bones of the horse arid ass differ in form from each other, more 

 perhaps than any part of their respective osteology ; but how 

 insignificant is this difference, in a natural- history point of view, 

 when compared with those external characters which mark the 

 zebra, the horse, the ass, and quagga ! The same remarks apply 

 to the lion and tiger, in respect of these very bones, the nasal, 

 and their relations to the superior maxillary bones, to the white 

 ox of Scotland, and to the common domestic ox. The nasal 

 bones, the skeleton of the head, the character of the teeth, do 

 not differ more regularly or constantly, nor to the same extent, 

 in the horse, zebra, and ass, than they do in the races of man. 

 The skeleton of the head of the negro and Bosjesman differs 

 much more widely from the white races of man than those of the 

 horse and lion differ from the corresponding structures in the 

 tiger and zebra. I do not, therefore, admit, to the full extent, 

 that anatomical characters ever fail to discriminate species : but 

 I freely admit their occasional inadequacy to characterize or to 

 lead to the determination of species in a practical sense. On the 

 other hand, the facility with which this may be done, by a con- 

 sideration of the external characters, is known to all the world. 

 Science admits of no exaggeration ; Anatomy has done much for 

 Natural History; much for Philosophy; still more for humanity, 

 by purging the human rnind of deep-rooted errors, of a gross 

 and scandalous character, of forty centuries' growth. But Ana- 

 tomy has its limits, notwithstanding, and these limits were 

 admitted and defined by the Great Master himself. 



" It was not to be expected that a mine of knowledge such as 

 was discovered and first worked by the great Cuvier, should 

 continue to be explored by so many vigorous hands, and that all 

 should go smoothly with the labourers : difficulties soon appeared, 

 and they increased so rapidly in number and in strength, as to 

 cloud with anxiety for the fate of his great discovery the mind 

 of the immortal author of the Ossemens Fossiles. It seemed as if 

 he were about to survive his own vast reputation. So seem- 

 ingly unimportant a question as the influence of domestication 

 over animal life embarrassed the great anatomist. The anato- 

 mical element of inquiry having failed in establishing specific 

 distinctions in the various oxen which ornament the cultivated 

 earth, Cuvier was forced to imagine them fee be like the dog, of 

 one species ; Goethe, the transceudentalist, starting from a higher 

 point of view, had arrived at the same conclusion. 'The infinite 

 varieties of the domestic ox,' observed the sublime author of 

 Fount) ' are simply the gift to man of domesticity acting through 

 millions of years/ Sueh also was Cuvier's opinion, omitting the 

 ' millions of years.' What his real opinions were on the influence 

 of time and circumstances lie never, so far as I know, communi- 

 cated to any one. The monumental records of Egypt, depicting 



