650 MAMMALIA. 



the conformation of the limbs, that it had at one time become 

 quite the fashion for naturalists to bestow a passing expression of 

 sympathy in alluding to these, so called, miserable and imperfect 

 members of the animal creation. 



" The Sloths," says Cuvier,* u derive their name from their exces- 

 sive slowness, the result of a structure truly heteroclite, where Na- 

 ture seems to have wished to amuse herself by producing something 

 imperfect and grotesque. These animals have their fingers joined 

 together by the skin, and only indicated externally by enormous 

 compressed and hooked claws, which are bent when in repose to- 

 wards the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet. The hind 

 feet are articulated obliquely with the leg, and only rest upon 

 their external edge ; the phalanges of the fingers are articulated by 

 tight hinge-joints, and the proximal ones become consolidated at a 

 certain age with the bones of the metacarpus or metatarsus, even 

 these last become anchylosed with each other for want of use. To 

 this inconvenience in the organization of the extremities may 

 be added one equally great, consequent upon their proportions. 

 The arms and the fore-arms are much longer than the thighs 

 and the legs^ so that when these creatures walk they are obliged to 

 drag themselves upon their elbows ; their pelvis too is so wide, so 

 much directed sideways, that they cannot approximate their knees. 

 Their deportment is the natural consequence of such dispropor- 

 tionate structure. They remain upon trees, and never quit one 

 till they have stripped it of its leaves, so difficult is it for them 

 to get to another ; nay, it is even asserted that they let them- 

 selves fall from their branch to avoid the trouble of crawling 

 down." 



Well may humanity pause before it ventures to accuse Nature 

 of having " wished to amuse herself by producing something im- 

 perfect and grotesque ;" and we should not have inflicted upon 

 ourselves the task of quoting so painful a passage, did it not 

 emanate from such a source, and had not ample opportunities of 

 observation shown that the very structure so accurately described 

 by Cuvier is better than any other adapted to the arboreal life 

 for which the Sloth is destined. It is not upon the ground, but 

 in the tree, that this animal must be criticized; and there, as we 

 learn, among its native branches, hanging securely by means of 

 its hooked toes and peculiarly organized hind legs, it feeds in 

 situations which otherwise would be left unoccupied ; or, using its 



* Regne Animal, vol. i. p. 223, etseq. 



