94 



ON THE GENERAL ANALOGY OF 



Camper and Gmelin to be a fish approaching the nature of an eel, and was 

 arranged accordingly. It has since, however, been restored from the class 

 of fishes to that of amphibials, and is in the present day believed by various 

 zoologists to be nothing more than a variety of the lizard. And thus the 

 hippopotamus, the tapir, and the swine, which by Linnaeus were ranked in the 

 fifth order of mammals with the horse, are arranged byCuvierwith the rhino- 

 ceros and the sokotyro, that have hitherto formed a part of the second order. 



The eel, in its general habits and appearance, has a near similitude to the 

 serpent ; many of its species live out of the water as well as in it ; and, like 

 the serpent, hunt for worms, snails, and other food, over meadows and marshes. 



The platypus anaiinus, or duck-bill (the ornithorhyncus joararfoarws of Bln- 

 menbach), one of the many wonders of New South Wales, unites in its form 

 and habits the three classes of birds, quadrupeds, and amphibials. Its feet, 

 which are four, are those of a quadruped ; but each of them is palmate or 

 webbed like a wild-fowl's ; and instead of lips it has the precise bill of a 

 shoveler or other broad-billed water bird ; while its body is covered with a fur 

 exactly resembling an otter's. Yet it lives, like a lizard, chiefly in the water, 

 digs and burrows under the banks of rivers, and feeds on aquatic plants and 

 aquatic animals. The viverra or weasel, in several of its species, approaches 

 the monkey and squirrel tribes ; is playful, a good mimic, and possesses a pre- 

 hensile tail. The flying squirrel, the flyinglizard, or draco i;o/an5, and especially 

 the bat, approach in their volant endowment the buoyancy of birds, and are able 

 to fly by winged membranes instead of by feathers. The exocetus volitans, or 

 flying-fish, and several other fishes, derive a similar power from their long 

 pectoral fins ; while the troctilus, or humming-bird, unites the class of birds 

 with that of insects. It is in one of its species, T. minimus, the least of the 

 feathered tribes; feeds, like insects, on the nectar of flowers alone, and like 

 the bee or butterfly, collects it while on the wing, fluttering from flower to 

 flower, and all the while humming its simple accent of pleasure. Its tongue, 

 like that of many insects, is missile. When taken it expires instantly ; and 

 after death, on account of its diminutive size, the elegance of its shape, and 

 the beauty of its plumage, it is M'ornby the Indian ladies as an ear-ring. 



Such being the perplexity and seeming confusion that extend through the 

 whole chain of animal life, it is not to be wondered at that we should at times 

 meet with a similar embarrassment in distinguishing between animal life and 

 plants, and between plants and minerals. I gave a cursory glance at this 

 subject in our last lecture, and especially in regard to that extraordinary divi- 

 sion of organized substances which, for want of a better term, we continue to 

 denominate zoophytes ; many of which, as, for example, various species of 

 the alcyony and madrepore, bear a striking resemblance to crystals, and 

 other mineral concretions ; while great numbers of them, and particularly the 

 corals, corallines, and some other species of alcyony, as the ses-fig, sea- 

 quince, pudding-weed, and above all the stone-lily (which last, however, is 

 now only found in a petrified state), have the nearest possible approach to a 

 vegetable appearance. Whence, as I have already observed, among the ear- 

 lier naturalists, who expressly directed their attention to these substances, 

 some regarded them as minerals, and others as vegetables ; and it is not till 

 of late years, only, indeed, since it has been ascertained that the chemical 

 elements they give forth on decomposition are of an animal nature, that they 

 have been admitted into the animal kingdom. 



Among plants, in like manner, we often meet with instances of individual 

 species that are equally doubtful, not only as to what kind, order, or class of 

 vegetable existence they belong, but even as to their being of a vegetable na- 

 ture of any kind, till their growth, their habits, and their composition are 

 minutely examined into. But independently of these individual cases, we 

 also perceive, in the general principle of action and animal life, that the more 

 it is investigated, the more it is calculated to excite our astonishment, and to 

 indicate to us, so far as relates to the subordinate powers of the animal frame, 

 the application of one common system to both, and to demonstrate one com- 

 mon derivation from one common and Almighty Cause. Having, therefore, 



