ON THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS, AND THEIR APPENDAGES. 131 



scorn, hatred, fear, and terror ; grief and agony : they have, also, a set- 

 tled or habitual expression resulting from their contour, which impresses 

 us with ideas of sternness, or of moroseness ; gentleness, or of good-nature. 

 In the lower Mammalia, though the lips may quiver with pain, their 

 movements, in general, are but an imperfect index of the feelings : the 

 smile of pleasure, and the curled lip of scorn, belong to Man alone. In 

 many animals, as the Cat, Dog, Hare, Rabbit, &c., the upper lip is more 

 or less bifid, or indented by a deep vertical division. In the Cat tribe, both 

 the lips are short, and of little use in the prehension of food ; but the 

 sides of the upper one are thickly beset with long bristles, the bulbs, or 

 roots, of which are in contact with nervous fibrils (branches of the superior 

 maxillary chord of the fifth pair), and are thus agents of touch. Noc- 

 turnal animals, in general, are provided with these feelers, as aids to the 

 eye, and as guiders in their stealthy movements. In many animals the lips 

 are capable of great protrusion, and possess a prehensile power of consi- 

 derable extent. The proboscis of the Elephant is but its upper lip 

 singularly elongated, and modified by the extension of the nostrils to its 

 extremity : but, setting aside this extraordinary proboscis, great mobi- 

 lity will be found in the lips of other animals. In the Rhinoceros, for 

 example, the under lip is broad and thick, and the upper is singularly 

 moveable : the Rhinoceros can protrude the latter, in the form of a cone, 

 or finger, twist it round food offered for reception, and turn the mor- 

 sel into his mouth : he can collect hay, or vegetables, by its means, 

 with great facility, or pick up the smallest fragments. The lips of the 

 Horse, again, are prehensile : by their means he seizes hay, or corn, 

 between his lips, and compresses the grass of the field into tufts, direct- 

 ing them between the teeth. The naked, slimy, upper lip, or muzzle, of 

 the Ox, on the contrary, has no such prehensile power ; but his tongue 

 avails him for the same purpose. In the Camel (and the same obser- 

 vation applies to most hairy-muzzled ruminants) the lips are truly pre- 

 hensile. The upper lip of this animal is cleft, and the two parts are 

 not only capable of being protruded, but of being compressed toge- 

 ther, so as to hold, between them, the branches, or twigs, of the dry 

 shrubs of the desert, and thus gradually to pass them into the mouth. 

 In the Hare and Rabbit, the bifid upper lip has a prehensile power, 

 though it is not capable of being protruded : the latter holds in its 

 lips a stalk of the dandelion, and gradually passes it back into the 

 mouth, till the whole is masticated. The upper lip of the Great Ant- 

 eater (Myrmecophaga jubata) is very flexible, and serves to take up 

 food ; being an assistant, in this respect, to the tongue of the animal. 



Among the Carnivora, the Sloth-bear (Prochilus labiatus) is remark- 

 able for the mobility and power of protrusion enjoyed by the lips, between 

 which it seizes, with great address, food proffered for reception. In 



