HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



209 



traordinary toes in each of their feet ; but that we may 

 not quit the quadrupeds, we fliall mention the Unau a 

 fpecies of American floth, which amongft other of its ir- 

 regularities, has got forty-fix ribs. " The number of 

 " forty-fix ribs in an animal of fo fmall a body," fays 

 Mr. de Buffon, " is a kind of error or excefs of nature ; 

 " for no animal even among the larger!:, or among thofe 

 " which have the longeft body in proportion to their 

 " thicknefs, has fo many. The elephant has not more 

 ¥ than forty, the horfe thirty-fix, the badger thirty, the 

 " dog twenty-fix, and man twenty-four." If the firfl: 

 Unau which ever was, had the fame number of ribs 

 given it by the Creator which its pofterity have at pre- 

 fent, the reafoning held by Mr. de BufFon is a cenfure 

 of Providence ; and when he fays that that exceffive 

 number of ribs has been an error of nature, he means 

 an error of Providence, who is efficient nature. We are 

 certain fuch an idea is far from the elevated mind of the 

 count de BufTon ; but the fpirit of philofophy, which 

 runs through all his works, leads him fometimes into ra- 

 ther exceptionable expreffions (a). If, on the contrary, 

 thofe philofophers believe, that the Unau had originally 

 a number of ribs proportioned to the fize of its body, 

 and that the malignant clime of America did increafe 

 them gradually afterwards, we ought to believe, that 

 if that fpecies of quadruped was tranfported to the old 

 continent, and was bred under a more favouring iky, it 

 would at lad be reflored to its primitive perfection. Let 

 Vol. III. Ee the 



(a) The count de BufFon, defirous of affigning a reafon why man refifts the 

 influence of climate better than the animals, fays, in volume xviii. " Man is 

 " altogether the work of heaven, the animals in many refpects are but produc- 

 " tions of the earth." This propofition appears a little too bold; but we meet 

 with many ftill ftronger in his Epoches de la Nature. 



