300 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



(very like a whale) which had been cast out of a 

 human stomach ; while second - hand stories of 

 sleeping girls, fasting men, and " infant phe- 

 nomena " of various kinds were recorded with the 

 utmost gravity. In fact the early volumes of the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Royal Society strongly re- 

 mind one of the illustrated accounts of abnormal 

 potatoes and other "remarkable phenomena" 

 which occasionally appear in our cheap popular 

 magazines. 



Of old, when pious students dwelt with admira- 

 tion on the wonderful works of the Creator, one 

 finds that reference is almost always made either 

 to something very vast or very small, or else to 

 some strange and unusual phenomenon such as a 

 comet or a volcanic eruption. Things of a more 

 familiar type seem to have been taken for granted, 

 and to have inspired but little curiosity. 



One reason why the old order (and lack of 

 order) has changed and given place to new is 

 because our knowledge of nature has become 

 more and more systematised. We now think a 

 great deal more of establishing and illustrating 

 natural laws than in drawing attention to apparent 

 breaches of law. It is only by treating each 

 phenomenon, whether small or great, in relation 



