100 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



germs or prevents their access, has greatly 

 diminished the danger of operations, and the 

 sufferings of recovery. 



SIZE OF ANIMALS 



In the size of animals we find every grada- 

 tion from these atoms which even in the most 

 powerful microscopes appear as mere points, 

 up to the gigantic reptiles of past ages and 

 the Whales of our present ocean. The horned 

 Ray or Skate is 25 feet in length, by 30 in 

 width. The Cuttle-fishes of our seas, though 

 so hideous as to resemble a bad dream, are too 

 small to be formidable ; but off the Newfound- 

 land coast is a species with arms sometimes 

 30 feet long, so as to be 60 feet from tip to 

 tip. The body, however, is small in propor- 

 tion. The Giraffe attains a height of over 

 20 feet ; the Elephant, though not so tall, is 

 more bulky ; the Crocodile reaches a length 

 of over 20 feet, the Python of 60 feet, the 

 extinct Titanosaurus of the American Jurassic 

 beds, the largest land animal yet known to us, 

 100 feet in length and 30 in height ; the 



