MEGATHERIUM. 115 



It will be my present object to enter into such a minute 

 investigation of some of the more remarkable parts of this 

 animal, viewing them with a constant reference to a pecu- 

 liar mode of life, as may lead to the recognition of a system 

 of well connected contrivances, in the mechanism of a 

 creature apparently the most monstrous, and seeming to 

 present the most ill-assorted proportions, that occur through- 

 out the entire range of the animal kingdom. 



We have here before us a gigantic quadruped, (see PL 5, 

 Fig. 1,) which at first sight appears not only ill-proportioned 

 as a whole, but whose members also seem incongruous, and 

 clumsy, if considered with a view to the functions and cor- 

 responding limbs of ordinary quadrupeds : let us only ex- 

 amine them with the aid of that clue, which is our best and 

 essential guide in every investigation of the mechanism of 

 the animal frame ; let us first infer from the total composi- 

 tion and capabihties of the machinery, what was the general 

 nature of the work it was destined to perform ; and from 

 the character of the most important parts, namely, the feet 

 and teeth, make ourselves acquainted with the food these 

 organs were adapted to procure and masticate; and we 

 shall find every other member of the body acting in harmo- 

 nious subordination to this chief purpose in the animal eco- 

 nomy. 



In the case of ordinary animals, the passagq from one 



in 1789 from Buenos Ayres to Madrid. Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Cooper 

 have described, in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New- 

 York, May, 1824, some teeth and bones found in the marshes of the Isle 

 of Skiddaway, on the coast of Georgia, which correspond with the skelc- 

 ton at Madrid. Cuvier, Vol., V. part 2, p, 519.— In the year 1832, many 

 parts of another skeleton were brought to England by Woodbine Parish, 

 Esq., from the bed of the river Saiado, near Buenos Ayres : these are 

 placed in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and 

 will be described in the Trans, Geo). Soc. Lend. Vol. III., N. S., Part 3, 

 by my friend Mr. Clift, a gentleman from whose great anatomical know- 

 ledge, I have derived most important aid, in my investigation of this 

 animal. 



