-MAMMALIA PACHYDERMATA. 521 



which is endowed with great sensibility, is fur- 

 nished with an appendix, resembling a finger, 

 most of the functions of which, indeed, it is 

 capable of performing. 



For the formation of this admirable member 

 it has not been necessary to deviate from the 

 ordinary laws of developement by the creation 

 of a new organ ; the same end being accom- 

 plished by the extension of a structure already 

 belonging to the type of mammiferous animals. 

 In several of the pachydermata the nostrils are 

 already considerably advanced, so as to form a 

 moveable snout : this is observable in a certain 

 degree in the Hog ; it is still more remarkably 

 seen in the Tapir, which has a snout so length- 

 ened and so moveable as very much to resemble, 

 though on a far smaller scale, the proboscis 

 of the elephant. This latter organ, then, may 

 be considered as merely an elongation of the 

 nostrils, which have been drawn out to suit a 

 special purpose, very different from the function 

 to which that part is usually subservient.* 



While fleetness and elasticity are the results 

 of the mechanical conformation of the horse, 

 solidity and strength are the objects chiefly 



* A defective developement of the bones of the nasal cavity, 

 while the natural growth of the soft parts has continued, has 

 often, in the case of the human foetus, given rise to a monstrosity 

 very much resembling the trunk of the tapir or of the elephant. 

 (See Geoffroy St. Hilaire.) 



