386 
REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Mr. Wilson agrees with Temminok iii believing the Gloved Cat ( Felis mani- 
culata ) of Northern Africa to be the origin of our domestic breed, contrary to the 
general opinion in favour of the Wild Cat (F. catus) of Britain.—Of the Opossums 
it is remarked, that 44 their intelligence is limited, a fact in curious conformity with 
the entire absence of all folds or convolutions of the brain, and according with 
the theory of M. Desmoulins Qmt which originated with Dr. Gall.—Ed.] that 
[cceteris paribus. — Ed.] the intellectual faculties are in the direct ratio of the 
extent of the cerebral surfaces.” (p. 127).—The Hamster ( Cricetus vulgaris ), 
like other hybernating animals, is very fat on the approach of winter, and becomes 
sadly emaciated when it awakes in spring. During that period of inactivit}% 
the pulsations of the heart are 44 few and far between,” the intestines are wholly 
devoid of irritability, and the fat of the creature has the appearance of being 
coagulated. In this, as in other cases where no food is taken in the ordinary 
way, no doubt the fat affords ample nourishment to the animal in common sea¬ 
sons; but if the rigours of winter should ever be prolonged considerably beyond 
their due bounds, so as to exhaust the fat, the animal ■would assuredly sleep to 
wake no more. 
The flesh of the Capybara or Water-hog ( Hydrochcerus capybara ) of South 
America, says our author, is excellent, and was eaten by the missionary monks 
during Lent with their T urtle, 44 on the score, it was presumed, of its amphibious 
habits. Precise views of the exact nature of all Mammalia are sometimes in¬ 
convenient.” 
A specimen of the Malay Tapir ( Tapir Indicus) described by Sir Stamford 
Raffles, 44 was frequently observed to enter a pond and walk along the bottom 
under water, but without any exercise of the ordinary mode of swimming.” (p. 
151). What, then, becomes of the much-talked-of impossibility of the Dippers 
walking at the bottom of the water ? If the above fact neither proves the occur¬ 
rence of the latter phenomenon, nor causes every argument on the opposite side 
to 46 vanish into thin air,” it at least deprives the idea of its supposed absurdity. 
Speaking of the equine race, Mr. Wilson observes :— 
“ A remarkable distinction is said to exist between the temper of the South-American and 
Asiatic wild Horses. It is this. At whatever age the former are caught, they may be rendered, 
in a measure, fit for the service of Man almost in a few days, whereas the latter can only be tamed 
when taken young, and frequently show themselves in after life to have been but half subdued. 
Does not this go far to prove that the one is the genuine original—the other but a rebel race ?”■— 
p. 152.' 
In our opinion it does not. We should make exactly an opposite induction, 
namely, that the Asiatic are the genuine originals—an opinion supported, we 
may observe, by the scriptural account of the peopling of the world. 
The descriptions of Cetaceous animals (Whales, &c. &c.) finish the volume, but 
we must now hasten to a close. 
