94 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN". 



his opinion, that the contrast was nothing like what it is supposed 

 to be by gentlemen who had never had personal experience of the 

 change. Animals arrived at Liverpool after a long voyage in perfect 

 health, and, as a general rule, were not killed by the climate of the 

 British Islands, but in consequence of the great care that was taken to 

 prevent their inhalation of a breath of fresh air. He had himself seen 

 but a few weeks since, at a dealer's place in Liverpool, as many as 

 eighteen newly-imported African monkeys shut up together in a cage of 

 very moderate dimensions, with actually a glass front, and this inside 

 of a closed apartment. How could it be otherwise than that, under 

 such circumstances, the poor creatures should contract lung disorder, 

 so many of them breathing together the same vitiated atmosphere ? And 

 he had also lately seen, both in the Botanical Garden at Oxford, and at 

 Warwick Castle, sundry Indian monkeys which enjoy the open air in a 

 spacious cage, at all seasons, having merely a box to retire into when 

 they please. These were healthy, because they could keep their blood 

 in circulation by exercise, and breathe fresh air. After all, people knew 

 but little of the ways and habits, and of the diversified personal charac- 

 ters of monkeys, who had only seen them cooped up in cages, or with a 

 chain round the loins, the animal having a pole to run up, with a box 

 at the top of it. What should we know of common dogs or cats, if we 

 had only seen them boxed up in cages ? The healthiest and longest-lived 

 monkeys commonly seen in these islands are the little Cebi, or ' ' ring- 

 tails," from intertropical South America, which are made to perform in 

 the streets at all seasons ! Among other considerations, the latter do not 

 suifer from ennui, which caged monkeys often do very much. Most 

 persons considerably underrate the intelligence of the lower animals, 

 indeed of the more highly organized generally. How would any of us 

 like to be shut up in a small cage, and be everlastingly teased by some- 

 body or other, stirred up occasionally with a pole, &c. ? Would our 

 temper thereby be improved ? Should not we also be apt to become sullen 

 and ferocious ? And then, perhaps, we too might have a notice put up 

 above us — " Beware ! — this animal is dangerous !" Think of the treat- 

 ment of human lunatics in former days, and in some countries, unhap- 

 pily, still, and of the results of modern kinder and more considerate ma- 

 nagement. Mr. Blyth was a strenuous advocate for ventilation, and a 

 plentiful supply of oxygen, the want of a sufficiency of which, in his opi- 

 nion, kills many more of the animals imported into these countries than 

 either the chill or the humidity of the climate. Go where you will, much 

 evil was currently ascribed to climatial causes, for which the latter were 

 very partially, even if at all, really and actually to blame. — Mr Blyth 

 thought that the same remarks, a little varied, applied in a great mea- 

 sure to plants, not a few of which suffer considerably from the over- 

 much heat and humidity of hothouses, that same high temperature and 

 superabundant moisture too being continued at all seasons to plants 

 brought from regions where the extreme dryness of one season con- 

 trasted with the exceeding humidity of another portion of the year, 



