RELATIONS. 
153 
a falcon, or a kite, acts upon the animal fibre alone; it wili 
not act upon seeds or grasses at all. On the other hand 
the conformation of the mouth of the sheep or of the ox is 
suited for browsing upon herbage. Nothing about these 
animals is fitted for the pursuit of living prey. Accord¬ 
ingly it has been found by experiments, tried not many 
years ago, with perforated balls, that the gastric juice of 
ruminating animals, such as the sheep and the ox,, speedily 
dissolves vegetables, but makes no impression upon animal 
bodies. This accordancy is still more particular. The 
gastric juice, even of granivorous birds, will not act upon 
the grain whilst whole and entire. In performing the ex- 
animal implies the absence of a collar-bone and a restrained motion in 
the shoulder-joint; and thus the naturalist, from the specimen in his hand, 
has got a perfect notion of all the bones of the anterior extremity! 
The motions of the extremities imply a condition of the spine which 
unites them. Each bone of the spine will have that form which per¬ 
mits the bounding of the stag, or the galloping of the horse, but it will 
not have that form of joining which admits the turning or writhing of 
the spine, as in the leopard or the tiger. 
“ And now he comes to the head:—the teeth of a carnivorous animal, 
he says, would be useless to rend prey, unless there were claws to hold 
it, and a mobility of the extremities like the hand, to grasp it. He con¬ 
siders, therefore, that the teeth must have been for bruising herbs, and 
the back teeth for grinding. The socketing of these teeth in the jaw 7 gives 
a peculiar form to these bones, and the muscles which move them are 
also peculiar; in short, he forms a conception of the shape of the skull. 
From this point he may set out anew, for by the form of the teeth, he 
ascertains the nature of the stomach, the length of the intestines, and all 
the peculiarities which mark a vegetable feeder. 
“ Thus the whole parts of the animal system are so connected with 
one another, that from one single bone or fragment of bone, be it of the 
jaw, or of the spine, or of the extremity, a really accurate conception of 
the shape, motions, and habits of the animal, may be formed. 
“ It will readily be understood that the same process of reasoning will 
ascertain, from a small portion of a skeleton, the existence of a carnivo¬ 
rous animal, or of a fowl, or of a bat, or of a lizard, or of a fish ; and 
what a conviction is here brought home to us, of the extent of that plan 
which adapts the members of every creature to its proper office, and yet 
exhibits a system extending through the whole range of animated beings, 
whose motions are conducted by the operation of muscles and bones! 
“ After all, this is but a part of the wonders disclosed through the 
knowledge of a thing so despised as a fragment of bone. It carries us 
into another science ; since the knowledge of the skeleton not only 
teaches us the classification of creatures, now alive, but affords proofs of 
the former existence of animated beings which are not now to be found on 
the surface of the earth. We are thus led to an unexpected conclusion 
from such premises; not merely the existence of an individual animal, 
or race of animals; but even the changes which the globe itself has un¬ 
dergone in times before all existing records, and before the creation of 
human beings to inhabit the earth, are opened to our contemplation.” 
