158 
COMPENSATION. 
by the structure of another part, or of another organ. 
Thus, 
I. The short, unbending neck of the elepkant, is com¬ 
pensated by the length and flexibility of his proboscis. He 
could not have reached the ground without it; or, if it be 
supposed that he might have fed upon the fruit, leaves, or 
branches of trees, how was he to drink? Should it be 
asked, why is the elephant’s neck so short? it may be an¬ 
swered that the weight of a head so heavy could not have 
been supported at the end of a longer lever. To a form, 
therefore, in some respects necessary, but in some respects 
also inadequate to the occasion of the animal, a supple¬ 
ment is added, which exactly makes up the deficiency un¬ 
der which he labored. 
If it be suggested that this proboscis may have been 
produced, in a long course of generations, by the constant 
endeavour of the elephant to thrust out his nose (which is 
the general hypothesis by which it has lately been attempt¬ 
ed to account for the forms of animated nature,) I would 
ask, how was the animal to subsist in the meantime, dur¬ 
ing the process, until this elongation of snout was com¬ 
pleted? What was to become of the individual, whilst 
the species was perfecting? 
Our business at present is, simply to point out the rela¬ 
tion which this organ bears to the peculiar figure of the 
animal to which it belongs. And herein all things corres¬ 
pond. The necessity of the elephant’s proboscis arises 
from the shortness of his neck; the shortness of the neck 
is rendered necessary by the weight of the head. Were 
we to enter into an examination of the structure and anat¬ 
omy of the proboscis itself, we should see in it one of the 
most curious of all examples of animal mechanism. [PI 
XXX. fig. 2, 3, 4, 5.] The disposition of the ringlets 
and fibres, for the purpose, first of forming along cartilag¬ 
inous pipe; secondly, of contracting and lengthening that 
pipe; thirdly, of turning it in every direction at the will 
of the animal; with the superaddition at the end, of a 
fleshy production, of about the length and thickness of a 
finger, and performing the office of a finger, so as to pick 
up a straw from the ground; these properties of the same 
organ, taken together, exhibit a specimen, not only of de¬ 
sign, (which is attested by the advantage,) but of consum¬ 
mate art, and, as I may say, of elaborate preparation, in 
accomplishing that design. 
II The hook in the wing of a bat is strictly a me¬ 
chanical, and also a compensating contrivance. [PI. XXX 
