ANIDIAN MONSTERS. 
325 
of another well-formed calf. This specimen also consists of 
a cutaneous envelope, adipose and cellular tissue, with two 
regular indurated eminences, and a cylindrical vagina corre- 
sponding to a portion of denuded integument. The obtuse 
end is filled with a gelatinous substance. The primordial 
intestinal parts are so obscure, that he was unable satisfac- 
torily to distinguish them. There is a rudimentary spinal 
cord which distributes nervous ramifications. The umbilical 
vessels are distributed all over the mass for nourishment. 
Physiological considerations . — It will have been noticed, 
in the course of these remarks, that we have prac- 
tically recognized the principle of classifying monstrosities. 
This may perhaps seem strange to those who, being accus- 
tomed to see their almost infinite variety, may have come to 
the conclusion that, if there were any class of natural objects 
in the construction of which all rules seem violated, that class 
must comprise monstrosities. But this impression of the 
superficial observer must yield to the one forced upon the 
mind of the deep thinker, that even in the most marked devi- 
ation from the natural order of things, Nature’s works present 
evidence of conformity to fundamental laws. Thus the 
astronomer and geologist are enabled logically to account for 
the convulsions of our own and of other planets ; and, thanks 
to the labours of American mariners in particular, it is now 
ascertained that even the tempests of the ocean are regulated 
by laws, — so much so, indeed, as to surpass the anticipation 
of those most sanguine philosophers, who prosecuted their 
labours in the belief that they would eventually discover 
every law entering into the constitution of nature’s code. 
Happily, the anatomist has been no less successful in his in- 
vestigations, as is proved by the labours of Gurlt, Geoffroy 
St. Hilaire, and others, who have succeeded in estab- 
lishing a classification of monsters. True it is that so 
great is their variety, that specimens are every now and 
then met with, which it is difficult to arrange under one 
order in preference to another. For this reason, the 
eminent teratologist of Amsterdam has expressed a doubt 
as to the value of a classification ; but for a similar reason 
should we not see many objections to classify any group of 
natural objects? “ Natura non facit saltus” was the very just 
exclamation of Linnaeus. Indeed, so gradual are the steps 
of nature’s changes, as very often to be imperceptible : hence 
it is that beings which are so easily distinguished as animals 
and vegetables in their higher forms, are almost impossible 
of recognition in the lower ones. This is but a proof that all 
human systems are imperfect. It is surely no objection 
xxviii. 42 
