422 Cours de VHisfoire Naturelle des Mammifet'es. 



sees in many of their analogies more of the fancy of the poet 

 than the sobriety of the anatomist. To enter into the discus- 

 sion were to presuppose, on the part of our readers, a more 

 minute knowledge of anatomy than it would be reasonable to 

 presume they possessed ; and they might deem a little pre- 

 sumptuous the tiny reviewer who offered his umpirage in a 

 debate between combatants of such fair renown. We will 

 remark, however, that the theory seems to have been not the 

 offspring of observation, but the child of fancy, or of reason 

 if you will, nursed up by observations made for this view ; 

 and, in this case, it is obvious that what to the strong in faith 

 may seem very twin, or at least analogous in most points, may 

 show very differently to the unconcerned, and to the unbeliever 

 present a contrary aspect. Cuvier cannot see any similitude 

 between the ossicles of the ear and the opercula of fish : to 

 Saint- Hilaire no analogy is more patent. Cuvier sees nu- 

 merous and important distinctions between the vertebral and 

 invertebral animals : Saints Hilaire believes the analogies be- 

 tween them so many and so weighty as to shake to its found- 

 ation the arrangement of the Regne Animal, 



The opinion we may entertain concerning the validity of 

 Saint-Hilaire's hypothesis does not affect our opinion of the 

 merits of the book ; it is in the highest degree interesting : 

 nor must our readers conclude, from what we have said, that 

 it is merely an ex parte exposition and defence of the doctrine 

 of unity of composition. Throughout, indeed, that end is 

 kept ever in view ; but of the twenty lectures, including the 

 preliminary discourse, which form its contents, six are on the 

 structure and habits of the ape tribe, one on the lemurs, three 

 on the bats, and five on the mole. Every one of these lectures 

 is full of original views, at least of views little known in our 

 country ; and the subjects altogether are discussed in a man- 

 ner of which, we regret to add, we have no example in the 

 English language. To the lectures on the mole we shall 

 probably return on a future occasion ; at present we must 

 finish this notice with some remarks on the habits of the cro- 

 codile, as a specimen of the digressions which occasionally 

 occur in the lectures devoted to the general subject. 



The crocodile, although furnished with a lung more per- 

 fect than that of any other reptile, is little excited by the use 

 of that organ. On the land, where it breathes by the lungs 

 only, it is timid, and has no confidence in itself, seizes its prey 

 at unawares or by stratagem, provides previously for security 

 in case of resistance, and on any alarm hastens to throw itself 

 in the water. Here it is quite another animal : its energy is 

 extreme ; its swimming rapid ; and, rash even to excess, there 



