MAMMALOGY. 



With respect to the Orangs, for it will be perceived as we proceed 

 there are more than one species of these animals, it may be generally 

 observed that our present acquaintance with their race is perhaps 

 most deficient in those particular wherein our greatest curiosity is 

 excited. We now know something of these animals and their history, 

 but much, it must also be confessed, remains involved in ambiguity; 



the true nature of this compound object, although the magnetic point of 

 public curiosity at the time alluded to, itniay appear to some readers that we 

 have bestowed much attention upon a subject not so entirely worthy of re- 

 mark. Such indeed might have been the impression upon our own mind, if 

 we had devoted only a solitary visit to this pretended prodigy, but we 

 have seen it often. We saw it on the morning of its first exposure to public 

 view, and the incongruity of its component materials seemed obviously too 

 glaring to escape discovery. In this conclusion we were, however, much mis- 

 taken. In every subsequent visit weinvariably found this object of momentous 

 contemplation surrounded by respectable spectators, who appeared to vie 

 with each other in their expressions of admiration at its apparently close 

 assimilation to the human form. Its authenticity was asserted with gravity, 

 and the good-natured acquiescence of our countrymen yielded implicitly to 

 the assurance. Reflection therefore, not upon the object itself, but on the 

 opinions entertained respecting it, have convinced us, that it could not be 

 unworthy of elucidation. The "Mermaid" is at present only a visiting 

 sojourner with us ; its reputation will last long after its removal from the 

 metropolis, and a future aera not more credulous than our own, may deduce 

 an inference from the celebrity it has acquired, in support of the existence 

 of such an anomalous race of beings. A. calm investigation of its real 

 nature at the present period, while it is yet possible to compare and ascer- 

 tain the truth of observation, must therefore be desirable, and it is under 

 this view that we have been induced to enter into that explicit developement 

 of its true character, which it is the design of the present observations 

 to afford. 



The great Lord Bacon and the celebrated Dr. Browne did not disdain 

 to employ their time in the dissipation of vulgar errors; Linnaeus con- 

 ceived it nor unworthy of himself to expose the deception of the seven" 

 headed hydra of Hamburgh, the value of which, like the present curiosity, 



