40 Additional Notes. 



animals and of insects, may have been acquired in a state preceding 

 their present one ; and have been derived from the parents to their 

 offspring by imitation, or other kind of tradition; thus the eggs of the 

 crocodile are at this day hatched by the warmth of the sun in Egypt; 

 and the eggs of innumerable insects, 'and the spawn of fish, and of 

 frogs, in this climate are hatched by the vernal warmth : this might 

 be the case of birds in warm climates, in their early state of existence; 

 and experience might have taught them to incubate their eggs, as 

 they became more perfect animals, or removed themselves into colder 

 climates : thus the ostrich is said to sit upon its eggs only in the night 

 in warm situations, and both day and night in colder ones. 



This love of the mother in quadrupeds to the offspring, whom she 

 licks and cleans, is so allied to the pleasure of the taste or palate, that 

 nature seems to have had a great escape in the parent quadruped not 

 devor ; ng her offspring. Bitches,and cats, and sows, eat the placenta; 

 and if a dead offspring occurs, I am told, that also is sometimes eaten, 

 and yet the living offspring is spared; and by that nice distinction 

 the progenies of those animals are saved from destruction ! 



" Certior factus sum a viro rebus antiquissimis docto, quod legitur 

 " in Berosi operibus homines ante diluvium mulierum puerperarum pla- 

 " centam edidisse, quasi cibum delicatum in epulis luxuriosis; et quod 

 " hoc nefandissimo crimine movebatur Deus diluvio submergere ter- 

 " rarum incolas." ANON. 



It may be finally concluded, that this affection from the parent 

 to the progeny existed before animals were divided into sexes, and 

 produced the beginning of sympathetic society, the source of which 

 may perhaps be thus well accounted for; whenever the glandular 

 system is stimulated into greater natural action within certain limits, 

 an addition of pleasure is produced along with the increased secretion; 

 this pleasure arising from the activity of the system is supposed to 

 constitute the happiness of existence, in contradistinction to the ennui 

 or tsedium vita;; as shown in Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIII. 1. 



Hence the secretion of nutritious juices occasioned by the stimulus 

 of an embryon or egg in the womb gives pleasure to the parent for a 

 length of time; whence by association a similar pleasure may be oc- 

 casioned to the parent by seeing and touching the egg or fetus after 



