12 
developments of a well-regulated mind — such as the faculty of a 
retentive memory, a power of detecting the most subtile distinc- 
tions between one thing and another, and a thorough compre- 
hension of our social position — we must look to the culture of our 
mental processes. The absence of a retentive memory is by no 
means indicative of original stupidity, want of application, or 
lack of talent ; yet those who would become possessors of this 
valuable product of mental discipline, can only do so by pursuing 
some subject, the study of which involves a methodical and con- 
tinuous process of abstract reasoning. Confusion and oblivious - 
ness are commonly the result of indiscriminate observation ; and 
the highest degree of cerebral activity will fail to recall facts once 
familiarly known, unless the storehouse of the mind has been filled 
in a gradual and tentative manner. 
One of the most constant results accruing from the diffusion of 
the Natural History Sciences is seen in the tendency of such pur- 
suits to overthrow popular prejudices and preconceived opinions. 
In face of an assembly like the present, it may seem unnecessary 
to do more than allude to this simple fact ; yet, when it is borne 
in mind that there have been Naturalists, otherwise deservedly 
eminent, whose habits of thought have led them to entertain un- 
reasonable dogmas, it is clearly the duty of those who wish to 
take a more consistent view, to point out the impolicy of such a 
course. By way of illustration, therefore, I respectfully invite 
you to call to mind the essential characters of a typical Carnivore, 
and to bear with me whilst I show how entirely at variance with 
reason are the notions held by many respecting the final intention 
of the feline structure. 
As I have elsewhere observed,* all the osseous elements entering into the 
solid framework of the feline skeleton (in its highest development) are massive 
and well proportioned ; but it is in the conformation of the skull that we 
witness an adaptation to the carnivorous habits of the species most con- 
spicuously. In the accompanying 
representation of the cranium of a 
tiger (fig. 4), the remarkable short- 
ening of the fascial bones, associated 
with the powerful grasping teeth, 
and a surprising transversal breadth 
of the skull below the orbital and 
temporal fossae, are especially sig- 
nificant. The teeth are thirty in 
number, and of these we find only 
four true and ten spurious molars, 
the ultimate grinder on either side 
of the upper series being tuber- 
culated. This tooth, however, is 
particularly small, and widened 
laterally ; but, with this exception, 
all the molars are much compressed 
Fig. 4. 
Profile View of the Skull of a Tiger. 
* In my introductory remarks on the general structure of the Felidae, in 
the ‘Museum of Natural History/ vol. i., div. 1, Mammalia, p. 109. The 
vivd voce description was an abridgment of this intercalation. — T. S. C. 
