PTERODACTYLE. 
■233 
tlian those we have been examining in the case 
of the Pterodactyle. We find the details of 
parts which, from their minuteness should 
seem insignificant, acquiring great importance 
m such an investigation as we are now conduct- 
ing ; they shew not less distinctly, than the co- 
lossal limbs of the most gigantic quadrupeds, a 
numerical coincidence, and a concurrence of 
proportions, which it seems impossible to refer 
to the effect of accident ; and which point 
out unity of purpose, and deliberate design, in 
some intelligent First Cause, from which they 
were all derived. We have seen that whilst all 
the laws of existing organization in the order of 
Lizards, are rigidly maintained in the Pterodac- 
fyles; still, as Lizards modified to move like 
f>irds and Bats in the air, they received, in 
each part of their frame, a perfect adaptation to 
their state. We have dwelt more at length on 
the minutiae of their mechanism, because they 
convey us back into ages so exceedingly remote, 
and show that even in those distant eras, the 
same care of a common Creator, which we wit- 
ness in the mechanism of our own bodies, and 
those of the myriads of inferior creatures that 
niove around us, was extended to the structure of 
creatures, that at first sight seem made up only 
nf monstrosities. 
