FACULTIES OF BRUTES. 
277 
rative bulk in the quadruped than in the human being ; and the 
sense of smell, bearing portion to the development of the nerve on 
which it depends, is far more acute. In man it is connected 
with pleasure, in the inferior animal with life. This portion of 
our subject was illustrated in The Veterinarian for February 
last. The relative size of the nerve was spoken of as bearing 
an invariable proportion to the necessity for an acute sense of 
smell in the various animals—large in the horse, compared with 
the olfactory nerve in the human being—larger in the ox, who is 
not so much domesticated, and oftener sent into the field to shift 
for himself—larger still in the swine, who has to search for a por¬ 
tion of his food buried under the soil, or immersed deeply in re¬ 
fuse and filth—and yet larger in the dog, the acuteness of whose 
scent is so connected with our pleasures. 
This illustration might be pursued with reference to the optic 
and the auditory nerves—the fifth pair, and the portio-dura of 
the seventh;—and if we still further pushed our inquiries, we 
should find that even the organic nerves were in a remarkable 
degree more developed. The medulla oblongata, and the supe¬ 
rior cervical ganglion—the sources of the respiratory system and of 
all digestive, secretory, reproductive power,—these are developed 
in the brute to a degree never seen in man. 
All this is what we should expect. There is much wisdom 
and benevolence in such an arrangement. The keenness of scent, 
and the strength of sight, and the acuteness of hearing, which 
necessarily follow from this mechanism, better prepare them for 
our service : they are the qualities which constitute much of 
their value. And then, the development of the organic nerves, 
as well as the sensitive:—the brute requires the admonitions which 
result from them :—the teachings of instinct—in his wild state, at 
least, he has no other monitor to instruct and to guide him : the 
purposes of food and the faculty of reproduction depend upon 
them; and even the superior bulk and perfection of these organic 
nerves render him more valuable to us : the worth of the horse de¬ 
pends on his wind; that of the ox, on his disposition to fatten. 
Then the nerves both of animal and organic life are more de¬ 
veloped—the materials of knowledge arc more numerous—the 
