358 ON 7 HE 



fluid into the wound which the claw inflicts ; and 

 when assailed, it strikes its paws together and 

 fastens upon his enemy like a crab/'* 



In closing my account of the above quadruped, 

 I may be permitted to remark, that its peculiar 

 conformation illustrates in a very striking manner 

 (what may be equally applied to the Ourang 

 Outang in reference to the human species, to the 

 Bat as partaking of the qualities of the bird, and 

 iu a comparative degree, to created things in gene- 

 ral,) that nature, while she preserves a chain 

 of affinities or resemblances throughout all her 

 'works, has given to each portion, such an iden- 

 tity of character and laws, that no interference 

 can possibly occur; and thus, under a multipli- 

 city of operations apparently opposed to each 

 other in their nature and effects, one general 

 consequence is the result, and by this, the har- 

 mony of the whole is uninterruptedly preserved. 



Every part of the animal kingdom indeed pre- 

 sents so extensive a scope for the contemplation 

 of the Philosopher, and when closely examined, 



* In confirmation of Mr, Cunningham's account of the poi- 

 sonous claw of this animal ; I have since received, in a com- 

 munication from a near relative in the Commissariate Depart- 

 ment, at Van Dieman's Land, who states, that the spur to 

 which Mr. Cunningham alludes has, upon examination, been 

 found to contain poison ; and that very lately the hand of a 

 boatman, who having caught one of the animals alive, had been 

 struck by the spur, became instantly and alarmingly swelled 

 up the \vhole arm, and was long in recovering the effects. 



