\ 



M^Murtrie's Translation of the Regne JlrdmaL 451 



The word bouillie, it is true, has made a sort of lodgment with 

 us, as a representative of boiled beef; but we hardly think his 

 readers will be much edified by learning that the molecules of 

 the spinal marrow resemble excessively small pieces of boiled beef. 

 To translate " infiniment petits," by " excessively small," is to 

 throw away the whole philosophic force of the passage. 



At page 31, is another instance of unfaithful translation, and 

 want of knowledge in the physiology of invertebrated animals. 

 Of these he says, " the muscles are merely attached to the skin, 

 which constitutes a soft contractile envelope, in which, in many 

 species, are formed stony plates, called shells, whose position and 

 production are analogous to those of the mucous hody.^^ Cuvier 

 says, " les muscles sont attaches seulement a la peau, qui forme 

 une enveloppe molle, contractile en divers sens, dans laquelle s' en- 

 gendrent, en beaucoup d' especes, des plaques pierreuses, ap- 

 pelees coquilles, dont la position et la production sont analogues 

 a celles du corps muqueux." A competent translator would have 

 translated the phrase " contractile en divers sens ;" for these 

 lights and shades of great masters, are sacred in the eyes of men 

 of science ; and a physiologist would have said, " are analogous 

 to those of the rete mucosum," the position of which, between 

 the epidermis and cutis vera, is clearly expressed by Cuvier. 



As a specimen of errors attributable to sheer carelessness, we 

 have, at page 49, the following strange assertion, under the head 

 of " physical and moral developement of man," and which has 

 hitherto been supposed only applicable to that eccentric sect of 

 the bimana, called Shaking Quakers. Speaking of the external 

 marks of puberty in young persons. Dr. M'Murtrie says, — for 

 Cuvier does not say so — " and neither sex, (very rarely at least,) 

 is productive, before, or after that manifestation." 



At page 143, speaking of the rat, mus rattus of Linnaeus, we 

 have, " of which no mention is made by the ancients, and which 

 appears to have entered Europe in the middle century.''^ Cuvier 

 says, " dans le moyen age," " in the middle ages." In the name 

 of old Chronos, what does the middle century mean ? 



Few persons in this country have seen the giraffe, and books 

 must be relied upon, of course, for a general knowledge of the 

 structure of this interesting animal. Dr. M'Murtrie, at page 186, 

 Vol. I, in treating of the horny prominences on the heads of many 

 of the ruminants, says, " In others, the prominences are only 



