ORDER EDENTATA. 283 



protection against the storms of sorrow. When the great 

 account with every being shall be closed at last, we shall 

 find the balance even, and that the mighty calculator is not 

 less just than wise, less merciful than omnipotent. 



The genus Dasypus of Linnseus, the species of which 

 we most commonly know by their Spanish American name 

 of Armadillo, is very singular in the nature of its coat of 

 mail, with which all the species are invested. This and the 

 analogous covering of the Pangolins, or Scaly Ant-eaters, 

 like the spines found in a few genera already alluded to, 

 seem to present anomalies in the general nature of the co- 

 vering of animals, as much as distinct descriptions of such 

 covering. 



The nature of the integuments with which the verte- 

 brated division of the animal kingdom in general is in- 

 vested, is observed to have a general relationship with the 

 respiration of the different orders ; so much so, that the one 

 seems dependant entirely on the Other. Feathers are uni- 

 versally accompanied with a very complete system of re- 

 spiration; hair is the common covering of animals whose 

 breathing is less perfect ; and scales are proper to a third 

 large division, whose pulmonary system is much less com- 

 plete than that of the other two. The first and third of 

 these divisions present perhaps no exception to this rule] 

 We know of no Bird, or Reptile, or Fish, covered with hair, 

 but we find Mammalia invested with scales, or plates, and 

 spines. The generality of this observation is such, that 

 we may be assured there is a constant relationship between 

 the nature of the integuments of animals and the state of 

 the atmosphere to which their existence is adapted ; but 

 nature, constant in nothing more than her inconstancies, 

 furnishes an exception to this rule in the genus now before 

 us and in those alluded to. 



It is indeed hardly possible to find any pretty general 



