n 



a 



^^ 



^ 



Cii. XXXV.] 



EGYPTIAN MUMMIES. 



2G3 



m some 



clianges in any perceptible degree, except tliat, 

 individuals, one additional false grinder occasionally appears, 

 sometimes on tlie one side, and sometimes on the otlier.^- 



Tlie greatest departure from a common type— and it con- 

 stitutes the maximum of variation as yet known in the animal 

 kingdom— is exemplified in those races of dogs which have a 

 supernumerary toe on the hind foot with the corresponding 

 tarsal bones ; a variety analogous to one presented by six- 

 fingered families of the human race.f 



It was moreover urged, and of all objections this was the 

 most serious, that however distinct were the various races of 

 the dog they could all breed freely together and produce 

 fertile offspring, as was also the case with various domesti- 

 cated birds, sucli as the common fowl, of which such marked 

 varieties had been obtained. In no instance had the mongrel 

 offspring been shown to be habitually sterile, like the common 

 mule or the offspring of the horse and ass, where the two 

 parents belong to two undoubtedly distinct species. 



When the controversy had been brought to this point, and 

 the amount of possible variation of animals under domesti- 

 cation, and of plants under culture, was still under discus- 

 sion, the followers of Lamarck sometimes lamented that no 

 accurate descriptions, and figures of known species, had been 

 handed down from the earliest periods of history, such as 

 might have afforded data for comparing the condition of the 

 same species, at two periods considerably remote. To this, 

 however, the opponents of transmutation replied, that we are 

 in a great measure independent of such evidence, since, by a 

 singular accident, the priests of Egypt have bequeathed to 

 us, in their cemeteries, that information which the museums 



and works of the Greek and Eoman philosophers have failed 

 to transmit. 



It had fortunately happened that the men of science who 

 accompanied the French armies during their four years' occu- 

 pation of Egypt from 1797 to 1801, instead of emnlovinP- 



many 



their whole time, as so 



done, in exclusively col 



ammed diligently, and sent home p-reat numbers of embalmed 



mummies, had ex- 



■ 



* Disc. Pi^l. p. 129, sixth edition. 



t Ibid. 



