38 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



We can therefore only view them as they exist in a do- 

 mestic character, and as such they must be regarded as 

 one of the most important conquests of man over the brute 

 creation. Nor can we consider the victory thus obtained 

 as the result of force alone, when the stature and power of 

 the animal, the obstinacy and fierceness with which he 

 resists ill treatment in his present condition, be taken into 

 account ; much, nay most, should be ascribed to a confident 

 nature in the creature and persevering gentleness in man. 



The teeth of the Camel offer molars possessed of the 

 general character of the Ruminantia, but they do not pre- 

 sent a continuous series in the upper maxilla ; the foremost, 

 in the shape of a crook, being separated from the others, 

 and placed midway in the diastema, or interval in the 

 mouth, between the molars and the incisors. Before these 

 are two strong canines, and what is more singular, instead 

 of a total absence of incisors in the upper jaw, as obtains in 

 all other ruminants, two corresponding to the lateral ones 

 appear, and have likewise the form of canines ; so that the 

 animal shews three of them on each side of the upper 

 maxilla. Below, the two external incisors assume a cor- 

 responding pointed form, and insert themselves between 

 the upper incisor and the canine behind it ; and the fore- 

 most of the molars, particularly in old animals, growing 

 likewise in the diastema,, with the forms of a canine, re- 

 duces the true grinders to five, and offers two of these 

 pointed crooked canines on each side of that jaw. 



The feet are divided into two toes without being sepa- 

 rated, for a horny sole spreads from the heel forwards 

 under the foot, uniting the middle part, and leaving the 

 toes only free ; these are protected by a short unguicular 

 nail. 



If to these distinctions we add the callosities of the 

 sternum, and two on the joints of each leg, the linear 

 form of the nostrils, the division of the upper lip, and the 



