4 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Ada 



them to embrace with their tendrils the trunks of trees or shrubs. 

 Thus Nature fashions the outward forms of plants according 

 to the part which they are intended to fill, and according to the 

 functions which have been allotted to them. v. 



The Incapability of Adapting Oneself. 



Many interesting facts might be brought forward respecting 

 the difficulty or facility which different animals have in accommo- 

 dating themselves to varieties of temperature. It would appear 

 that some animals, particularly those which inhabit the colder 

 latitudes, enjoy a very limited range. Among these may be 

 mentioned the reindeer, the Esquimaux dog, and the Arctic 

 or great white bear. All the Esquimaux dogs brought to this 

 country have perished. Arctic bears when imported suffer very 

 much from the change of temperature, and, in order to keep 

 them alive for any length of time, it is necessary to maintain a 

 certain degree of artificial cold in the places where they are kept. 

 Every attempt to introduce that beautiful and useful animal, the 

 reindeer, into England or Scotland, has invariably failed, though 

 in the latter country the moss, which constitutes the principal part 

 of its food, grows in great abundance. On the other hand, it is 

 equally curious that most animals brought hither from tropical 

 climates die of some form of scrofula. Eor there is a, law of 

 limitation for animals and men. And the facts respecting 

 the limited range enjoyed by some animals are not more note- 

 worthy than are those respecting the limited range of some men. 

 There are some persons who do well enough in the dull dreary 

 region of a cold official life, whose existence is unendurable in 

 the midst of the associations of wit and romance. The red- 

 tape species die if brought away from the frigid regions of 

 officialism and formality ; and there are many poor men who live 

 honest useful lives in the scenes of indigence, who, when fortune 

 unexpectedly transports them into the luxurious scenes of 

 opulence and gaiety, die from some one or other of the results of 

 the change for which they were not constituted. Many attempts 

 have been made to remove very good men from one position 

 into another, and the result has been a termination of their 

 usefulness, and often of their life. The notion that men can 



