KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



197 



a combat with blows from his jaw. Each 

 animal has the internal sense of his facul- 

 ties, and knows the use of his weapons, inde- 

 pendently of all instruction. If it were other- 

 wise, why should not the young boar bite with 

 the teeth which he already has, in place of at- 

 tempting the use of tusks, which he has not? If 

 you have three eggs hatched, one of an eagle, one 

 of a duck, and one of a serpent, you wiil see the 

 eagle and the duck try to fly before they possess 

 any wings; the little serpent, on the contrary, 

 will roll himself into a spiral, and, however 

 feeble he may be, will make efforts to crawl. If 

 you bring them up in a house, and then take 

 them into the open field, the eagle will direct his 

 flight to the heaven, the duck will make for the 

 water, and the serpent will hide himself under 

 the grass. The eagle, I think, will not fail to 

 pursue his prey; the duck, to swim; and the 

 serpent, to seek for holes in the earth ; all, as I 

 conclude, without having been taught by any 

 master." 



We see, also, by this, that a similitude of 

 occupation exists among several animals, although 

 their organs may differ entirely ; or, that similar 

 internal faculties obtain their common object by 

 means of external organs totally unlike. The 

 trunk is to the elephant, what the hand is to the 

 man and the monkey; the swallow attaches its 

 nest by the means of his beak and the thrush 

 cements the interior of his, with clay, tempered 

 by the same instrument, in the same manner as 

 the beaver covers his habitation with it by means 

 of his tail. The squirrel and the wren, the 

 swamp -thrush, and the reed-mouse, build their 

 nests in a manner almost similar. The eagle 

 holds his prey between his talons, as the dog does 

 a bone with his paws. Whatever difference 

 exists between the hands of the monkey, and the 

 feet of the parrot, and the Polish titmouse (parus 

 pendulinus), all three make use of these parts to 

 hold their food in the air in the same manner ; 

 the hog roots the earth with his snout, the dog 

 scratches it, and the stag beats it with his feet, to 

 uncover the truffles. 



In like manner, phenomena entirely different, 

 result from organs apparently similar. In how 

 many different modes, and with what variety of 

 toils, do the different species of spiders seize their 

 prey ! What diversity of structure exists in the 

 nests of birds! Even those who construct similar 

 ones, and which belong to the same genus, how 

 much do they differ in their mode of life, in 

 habitual residence, in their food, their notes, and 

 other distinctive peculiarities! The great tomtit, 

 {parus major), for example, builds his nest in 

 hollow trees; the long-tailed tomtit {parus 

 caudatus), in the bifurcations, and between the 

 bark and the trunk ; the bearded tomtit (parus 

 barbatus), in the reeds; and the titmouse sus- 

 pends his nest, remarkable for its art and 

 delicacy, from a slender branch; while the 

 cuckoo, though provided with a beak and feet 

 like other birds, builds none. 



We challenge those who assert that the ex- 

 ternal organs produce the internal faculties, to 

 form a conjecture of any faculty from the confi- 

 guration of these organs. What would lead you 

 to conclude, that the ant lion digs a reversed 

 cone in the sand for the ants to fall into? What 



reveals to you the reason why the hare has his 

 covert in the midst of the fields, while the rabbit 

 burrows? What sign shows you that the rook 

 must live in society, while the pie lives in insu- 

 lated couples? How do you distinguish the 

 natural wildness of the cuckoo and the chamois, 

 from the facility with which the pigeon and the 

 goat are tamed ? Would you not rather have 

 attributed the faculty of building to the hands of 

 the curious monkey, than to the feeble and 

 palmate feet of the beaver? Would you not 

 make the weak wren migratory to the south, 

 rather than the vulture ? How will you discover 

 why the hamster lays up food for the winter, and 

 why the bustard, crane, &c, set sentinels? 



Thus have I demonstrated, that it does not 

 belong to the touch alone, to give us a knowledge 

 of the world without us; that sensations take 

 place, not only by means of the external senses, 

 but likewise in the interior of the organisation ; 

 that we cannot call the touch, the corrector of the 

 other senses; that the hands, when there exists 

 no faculty of a superior order, cannot invent 

 either arts or tools ; that the whole use of the 

 touch is limited to procuring the ideas of distance, 

 extent, form, rest, motion, moisture and dryness, 

 and the degree of solidity of objects; that, in 

 other respects, it must be regarded as the instru- 

 ment of the superior faculties; that these supe- 

 rior faculties, such as the inclinations, propen- 

 sities, different modes of industry, and the facul- 

 ties, cannot be determined, conjectured, or ex- 

 plained by the organs of touch. We are, then, 

 obliged to seek other organic conditions, as the 

 causes of all the faculties which we cannot derive 

 from this sense. 



It is alleged, as the cause of the numerous 

 advantages of touch, that it supposes a reflection 

 in the animal that exercises it, whereas the others 

 require none. " Light," say they, " and sounds, 

 strike their respective organs without the will of 

 the' animal; whereas he touches nothing without 

 some preliminary exercise of the intellectual 

 faculties. 



But this opinion, which embraces only one side 

 of objects, disregards the active functions of the 

 other senses; and, as it excludes, at the same 

 time, the involuntary touch and shock, and, con- 

 sequently, the passive function of touch, it does 

 not deserve any more extended refutation. 



We may place in the same category, the 

 directly opposite opinion of Dumas, who says, 

 " the perceptions from touch do not leave after 

 them impressions as definite, as lively, and of 

 which the memory can so easily recall the 

 image." 



To this objection, those may answer, who are 

 under the sad necessity of indemnifying them- 

 selves by the pleasures of the imagination only, 

 for the loss of those gratifications which they 

 have formerly had from the sense of touch. 



THE MIGRATION 05" FISHES. 



Amongst the migrations of fishes, I must 

 not neglect (says Kirby) those that take place 

 in consequence of the water in the ponds or 

 pools that they inhabit being dried up. Some 

 of these are very extraordinary, and prove, 



