THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 171 



proper thereunto : For according to these philosophers, 

 apes should speake, seeing that they have the instruments 

 necessary for speech." An opening such as this could 

 hardly fail to provoke the ingenuous advocates of God- 

 made man, and consequently we find Tyson, in confirming 

 the statements of the Parisians, drawing an inference 

 which he says the " Atheists can never answer." Yet 

 neither the Parisians nor Tyson could be expected to com- 

 prehend those structural refinements which alone can 

 evoke the harmony of speech, and it was reserved for the 

 more instructed vision of Camper to supply a profane but 

 convincing explanation of the silence of the forest. 



The structure of Birds early engaged the more 

 serious attention of the old anatomists, and it is there- 

 fore in accordance with tradition that the most complete 

 and accurate section of the work of the Parisians is that 

 devoted to Birds. They detect the connection between 

 the calibre and length of the gut and the character of 

 the food, and they note also that the absence and relative 

 development of the caeca are determined by the same 

 factor. They describe the sinus rhomboidalis of the 

 spinal cord, first in the Eagle, and afterwards extend the 

 discovery to other birds. Its contents are found to be 

 a " white and glutinous humour," the removal of which 

 hj a duct is considered to be possible. The pecten of the 

 eye is investigated and described in several birds, and its 

 pigmented and vascular nature is clearly perceived. The 

 pecten is supposed to be wanting only in Apteryz, but 

 the Parisians were unable to find it in the Numidian 

 Crane. They undoubtedly anticipate the modern view 

 that the function of the pecten is the " nourishment of 

 the humours of the eye." In the Cormorant they note 

 the absence of the caeca formerly believed to be present 

 in all Birds, and their description of the curious stomach 



