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THE BRIDGEWATER TREATISES 


ON THE POWER WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD 


AS MANIFESTED IN THE CREATION 


TREATISE VII 
ON THE HISTORY HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS 


BY THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. 


IN TWO VOLUMES 


VOL I 


‘““ C’EST, LA BIBLE A LA MAIN, QUE NOUS DEVONS ENTRER DANS 
LE TEMPLE AUGUSTE DE LA NATURE, POUR BIEN COMPRENDRE 
LA VOIX DU CREATEUR.” GAEDE. 


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* | ON THE 
POWER WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD 
AS MANIFESTED IN THE CREATION 
OF ANIMALS AND IN THEIR HISTORY HABITS 
AND INSTINCTS 


BY THE 
REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R.S. Erc. 


RECTOR OF BARHAM. 


VOL I 


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LONDON 
WILLIAM PICKERING 
1835 


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Vi VPtil. 


TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 


CHARLES, 


BARON FARNBOROUGH, 


KNIGHT GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH, A MEMBER OF HIS MAJESTY’S 
MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, AND ONE OF THE TRUSTEES 


OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 


THE FOLLOWING TREATISE, 
BY HIS PERMISSION, 
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 


BY HIS LORDSHIP’S OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, 


THE AUTHOR. 


VOL. I. h 


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NOTICE. 


Tue series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is 
published under the following circumstances : 


The Rigur Honovuras_e and RevereNnD FRANcis 
. Henry, Earu of Bripcewarer, died in the month of 
February, 1829; and by his last Will and Testament, bear- 
ing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain 
Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the 
sum of Eight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with 
the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal 
of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society 
of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated 
by him. The Testator further directed, that the person or 
persons selected by the said President should be appointed 
to write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work 
On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- 
fested in the Creation ; illustrating such work by all reason- 
able arguments, as for instance the variety and formation of 
God’s creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral king- 
doms; the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion; 
the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety 
of other arguments; as also by discoveries ancient and 
modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature. 
He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale 
of the works so published should be paid to the authors of 
the works. | 


Vill 

The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, 
Esq. requested the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop 
of Canterbury and of the Bishop of London, in determining 
upon the best mode of carrying into effect the intentions of 
the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with the con- 
cuirence of a nobleman immediately connected with the 
deceased, Mr. Davies Gilbert appointed the following eight 
gentlemen to write separate Treatises on the different 
branches of the subject as here stated: 


THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. 
PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
ON THE POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS OF GOD 
AS MANIFESTED IN THE ADAPTATION 
OF EXTERNAL NATURE TO THE MORAL AND 
INTELLECTUAL CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 


JOHN KIDD, M.D. F.R.S.. 


REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 


ON THE ADAPTATION OF EXTERNAL NATURE TO THE ., 
PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN. 


—— 


THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, M.A. F.R.S. 


FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
ASTRONOMY AND GENERAL PHYSICS CONSIDERED WITH 
REFERENCE TO NATURAL THEOLOGY. 


SIR CHARLES BELL, K.G.H. F.R.S. L.& E. 
THE HAND: ITS MECHANISM AND VITAL ENDOWMENTS 
AS EVINCING DESIGN. 


PETER MARK ROGET, M.D. 


FELLOW OF AND SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 


ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 


1X 


THE REV. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D.F.R.S. 


CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 


ON GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 


THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R.S. 
ON THE HISTORY, HABITS, AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. 


———-. 


WILLIAM PROUT, M.D. F.R.S. 


CHEMISTRY, METEOROLOGY, AND THE FUNCTION OF 
DIGESTION, CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO 
NATURAL THEOLOGY. 


His Royau Hieuness tHE DuxeE or Sussex, Presi- 
dent of the Royal Society, having desired that no unneces- 
sary delay should take place in the publication of the 
above mentioned treatises, they will appear at short inter- 
vals, as they are ready for publication. 


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CONTENTS 


OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 


Page 

Beret EF LATES “soc tte e eet ee ec aas xii 
IIE ec ae sc b esse cccesentcr veces Xvi 
eee PeAtION OF ANIMAS 2... cca score eee esenee 1 
II. Geographical Distribution of Ditto ........... 43 
I 0 ee ee 88 

Decal Distributionvof Datta ise. Ys de dls 88 bs 130 

III. General Functions and Instincts of Ditto ...... 138 

IV. Functions and Instincts. IJnfusories ......... 145 

*, So OU PES os soa 'o a0» > 164 

Vi. - —  fadiaries ........ 192 

Vil. ——— —— Tunicaries ........ 218 
VIL, ———___-——_ Bivalve Molluscans . 233 
IX. ————_-_——_—_——_ Wnivalve Molluscans 266 

xX. —— ——— Cephalopods ...... 303 

Xf, ————__-_—__+——_—__— Worms ........... 318 

Xil, ——~ ——-— Annelidans........ 331 
Gs ob nos + <narmmlnece meceionianble « fe 349 
PPE IAMUE OST HATIONS®. o.oo. Oe cc e  c c eee ee 364 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 


VOLUME I. 


PLATE. Inwveaeael 


Page 
Fie. 1. av Enchelis Pepa. «:. «a, 5 tie ae 
6. Alimentary canal and stomach .......... i asa 
2. EosphoraNa@lds 0.2.0. s+ sass eee 156 
3,, a. b. .c..d.. Rotifera vulgaris iniiiens sean as 153 
4. Bacillaria, multipunctata. ... ++. a temseuty as 350 
5. ————— Cleopatra...... = a0 © ssakeineteie aes 350 
6." Discovephatus ‘otator’.. .. . »~ «ct eee 349, 11. 97 
PLATE I. B. Inrusorigs. 
Fig. “1. Vorttegelia cothugnate « »s0 1s ici ene 356 
2. a. 6. Zoobotryon pellucidum... sca eten eee | 
| Worms. | 
a. Botryocephalus bicolor >... s 0s + waaieeeianeee inp dat 
4. Diplozoon paradorum .......++000 eapegdese.) BOT 


‘a. Ditto, natural size. 

b. 6. Mouths and oral suckers. 
"s+. e.'¢. Caudal plates and suckers. 
. Diplostomum, volvens ...0. 5 553246 anee eee 330 
6. Eye of a perch infested by Diplostoma. 


ON 


PLATE II. Porypgs. 


Fic. 1. Madrepora muricata .. oo. 6 6s de Sa EE 180 
2. Sertularia volubilts c.scccccece a ein Slee ieece 169 
a. a. Ovaries. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. Xi 


Pier een RNAs) OI Le UN ON as 169 
4. a. Fungia patellaris, under side. 
b. Ditto, upper side. 


PLATE III. Rapzariezs. 


Fia. 1. Cephea mosaica......... Plat, fish. . 19T 
—a.a. Arms of ditto. | 
2. Echinus esculentus, portion of the shell 
shown externally. 

a. a. a. Groves. 

b. b. Alleys. 

c. c. The lateral groves. 

d. The intermediate one. 

3. Inside of the same shell. 

a. a. The dentated suture. 

6. The middle ridge marked out on each 
side into transverse pieces. 

c. ec. The alleys, with pores for the suckers. 

d, One of the frames to which the jaws 
are fixed. 

4, Spines of Echinus cidaris. 

a. Muscular fibres inserted in-the base of 
the spine, and surrounding the ball and 
socket joint. 

6. The muscular capsule laid open, Ae the 
muscles attached to the base of the spine 


E: 
2 


203210 


c. The origins of the muscles surrounding 
the ball or tubercle. 

d. One of the tubercles. 

5. One of the suckers of E. esculentus. 

a. The sucker; the pore in the centre is 
supposed to be a spiracle connected 
with the respiration of the animal. 

b. The stalk of the sucker. 

6. The suture of a portion of the alleys at the 
lateral grove, in which the transverse 
pleces are convex. 


Fic. 


Fic. 


10. 


12; 


13. 


he 
. Portion of ditto, exhibiting the suckers on the 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 


Page 
The suture of a portion of the lateral grove 
uniting with the above, in which the trans- 
verse pieces are concave. 


. Suture of the intermediate grove divided at 


the ridge (Fig. 3. 6.). Teeth obtusan- 
gular. 


. A circular space round the mouth, co- 


vered with little oblong scales. In the 
centre is the mouth with its five converg- 
ing teeth. 
Outside of one of the five pyramidal jaws, 
in which the teeth are planted. 208—211 
a. The jaw. 6. The tooth. 


. Inside of ditto: a. the jaw, consisting in- 


ternally of two triangular transversely 
furrowed, and probably molary plates. 

A little bristle, termmating in a knob with 
three awns, planted amongst the spines 
on the shell, and, according to Cuvier,' 
a species of Polype (Pedicellaria). 

Another Pedicellaria? expanded like a 
tripetalous blossom. 


. One of the spines of Echinus esculentus. _) 


PLATE III. B. Critnorpeans. 


Pentacrinus Asteria ...« «+n tntowem vol. ii. 13 


under side of the fingers...» +)-..« sisteemas sss 12 


PLATE IV. TuwnicarRizs. 


"Cinthia Moma? 15. 20% ae Ah a Sn ae 230 
. Salpa cyawoyastra egy PO OU. OF. Pee ae ee 223 
. Pyrysoma-gqiganteum ) boOL 0 OVO. Oe ee vanes 227 
. Cephalitis Bowdichtt yo s% 200 J) Ar oe eee ee 222 
. Clavellina borealis. 2. 80°00) SS PIR 230 


1 Regn. An. in. 297. 


Fie. 


3. 


~ 


Es@.,1. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. XV 


PLATE V. Bivautve Mo.uuscans. 


EES CCH Ce ek oes et wp epee 240 
a. The foot. 6. The shell. 
N.B. The two figures in outline shew varia- 
tions in shape assumed by the foot, under 
different circumstances. 


I Sk oie yc th oon pe wees eng cues 262 


a. The tendon. 6. The aperture of the upper 
valve through which it passes. 

Anomia Ephippium. 

a. Aperture. 


EE Ss lo cc ek re ee ee ke eens 263 


a. Aperture of the lower valve through which 
the tendon passes. 


NSO MOTGAPITACED “See tee eee 264 


a. Foot formed for leaping. 
b. b. 6. Valves of the shell. 


PrEeRopop anD Hererorop MoLuvuscaNns. 


CS te > 
De Oreiconm CUPeNSIS. 4... SURE. SUG . 
emurrachoa THsa 21s ISRO OTE. J 


+ 267 
r 301 


PLATE VI. Univatve Mo.uuuvuscans. 


Voluta ethiopica, to shew the animal.......... 282 

a. The eye, shewing iris and pupil. 

b. The right hand tentacle. 

c. The proboscis exserted. 

d.- The frontal margin of the head. 

e. The respiratory tube or siphuncle. 

Jf. Appendage at its base. Analogous to the 
crus infundibuli in Nautilus?’ Owen. 

g.g. The two gills, of which the right hand one 
has but one series of lamin. 

h. Termination of the alimentary canal. 


' Owen’s Mem. on Naut. Pompil. t. v. h. 


XVI 


Pig o. 


Pre.’ 1}. 


Pre, A. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 


2. 2. The right hand margin of the mantle. 
k. The male organ. 
1. 1. The foot. — 

Fanthing « e092 er Sai hn0 ° 
a. The mouth, composed of two vertical cartila- 
ginous lips, minutely toothed at the margin. 

b. The shell. 
c. The air-vesicles forming an out-rigger. 


PLATE VII. Crrna.opops. 


Loligo cardioptera. 


». Sprrulea. prototypus. «inf deh) ode seek 


a. The shell. 


. Ocypus unguiculatus.' 1.1.2.6. ‘He onmnnee E ex 


a. The suckers. 
b. The arms. 


PLATE VIII. AnnELipans. 
Peripatus Juliformis . . . . . si N0Gs% WAI ot 


2. Anterior extremity of do. 


a. Mouth. 
b. b. Eyes. 
c. c. First pair of legs. 


‘i Bdella ntlotica! Cs ot Ue i oe oe en ee . 


a. Anterior sucker. 
6. Posterior do. 
c. Reproductive organs. 


. Lycoris egyptta ...- seceecceceresecewenes 


' Referred to by mistake as an Oetopus, 306. 


Page 


291 


3 


3 


3 


3 


9) 


oD) 


16 


08 


47 


36 


47 


INTRODUCTION. 


Tut Works of God and the Word of God 
may be called the two doors which open into 
the temple of Truth; and, as both proceed 
from the same Almighty and Omniscient 
Author, they cannot, if rightly interpreted, 
contradict each other, but must mutually 
illustrate and confirm, “though each in dif- 
ferent sort and manner,’ the same truths. 
Doubtless it was with this conviction upon 
his mind, that the learned Professor,! from 
whom I have borrowed my motto, expresses 
his opmion—that in order rightly to under- 
stand the voice of God in nature, we ought to 
enter her temple with the Bible in our hands. 

The prescribed object of the several trea- 
tises, of which the present forms one, is the 
illustration of the Power, Wisdom, and Good- 


1 The pious Heinrich Moritz Gaede, Professor of Natural 
History in the University of Liege. 


XVII INTRODUCTION. 


ness of the Deity, as manifested in the Works 
of Creation; but it is not only directed that 
these primary attributes should be proved 
by all reasonable arguments derived from 
physical objects, but also by discoveries 
ancient and modern, and the whole extent of 
literature. As the Holy Scriptures form the 
most interesting portion, in every respect, 
of ancient literature; and it has always been 
the habit of the author of the present treatise 
to unite the study of the word of God with 
that of his works ;' he trusts he shall not be 
deemed to have stepped out of the record, 
where he has copiously drawn from the 
sacred fountains, provided the main tenor of 
his argument is in accordance with the brief 
put into his hands. 

Those who are disposed to unite the study 
of scripture with that of nature, should always 
bear in mind the caution before alluded to, 
that all depends upon the rzght interpretation, 
either of the written word or created sub- 
stance. They who study the word of God, 
and they who study his works, are equally 
liable to error; nor will talents, even of the 


1 See Monographia Apum Anglie,i.2, and Introd. to Ent. i. 
Pref. xii. &c. 


INTRODUCTION. X1X 


highest order, always secure a man from 
falling into it. The love of truth, and of its 
Almighty Author, is the only sure guide that 
will conduct the aspirant to its purest foun- 
tains. High intellectual powers are a glorious 
gift of God, which, when associated with the 
qualities just named, lead to results as glorious, 
and to the light of real unsophisticated know- 
ledge. But knowledge puffeth up, and if it 
stands alone, there is great danger of its 
leading its possessor into a kind of self-wor- 
ship, and from thence to self-delusion, and the 
love of hypothesis. 

It is much to be lamented that many bright 
lights in science, some from leaning too much 
to their own understanding, and others, pro- 
bably from having Religion shown to them, 
not with her own winning features, nor in her 
own simple dress, but with a distorted aspect, 
and decked meretriciously, so that she appears 
what she is not, without further inquiry and 
without consulting her genuine records, have 
rejected her and fallen into grievous errors. 
To them might be applied our Saviour’s 
words, Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures. 
These observations apply particularly to two 
of the most eminent philosophers of the 


XX INTRODUCTION. 


present age, one for the depth of his know- 
ledge in astronomy and general physics ; and 
the other in zoology. It will be easily seen 
that I allude to La Place and Lamarck, both 
of whom, from their disregard of the word of 
God, and from seeking too exclusively their 
own glory, have fallen into errors of no small 
magnitude. It is singular, and worthy of 
observation, that both have based their hypo- 
thesis upon a similar foundation. La Place 
says, ‘ An attentive inspection of the solar 


system evinces the necessity of some central 


paramount force, in order to maintain the 


entire system together, and secure the regu- . 
One would expect © 


ee | 


larity of its motions. 
from these remarks, that he was about to 
enforce the necessity of acknowledging the 
necessary existence of an intelligent para- 
mount central Being, whose goings forth were 
co-extensive with the universe of systems, to 
create them at first, and then maintain their 
several motions and revolutions, so as to 
prevent them from becoming eccentric and 
interfering with each other,’ thus—Upholding 
all things by the word of his power. But 


1 System of the World, E. Tr. i. 330. 
2 Ibid. Appendix, concluding note. 


ee ee 


INTRODUCTION. Xx! 


no—when he asks the question, What is the 
primitive cause?! instead of answering it 
immediately, he refers the reader for his 
hypothesis to a concluding note, in which 
we find that this primitive cause, instead of 
the Deity, is a nebulosity originally so diffuse, 
that its existence can with difficulty be con- 
ceived.” To produce a system like ours, one 
of these wandering masses of nebulous matter 
distributed through the immensity of the 
heavens,’ is converted into a brilliant nucleus, 
with an atmosphere originally extending 
beyond the orbits of all its planets, and then 
gradually contracting itself, but at its suc- 
cessive limits leaving zones of vapours, which, 
by their condensation, formed the several 
planets and their satellites, including the 
rings of Saturn !!* 

It is grievous to see talents of the very 
highest order, and to which Natural Phi- 
losophy, in other respects, is so deeply 
indebted, forsaking the ns Entium, the 
God of Gods, and ascribing the creation of 
the universe of worlds to a cause which, 
according to his own confession, is all but 

1 System of the World, E. Tr. ii. 328. 

2 Ibid. 357. 3 Ibid. 332. 4 Ibid. 358. 

VOL. I. C 


XXll INTRODUCTION. 


a non-entity. He speaks, indeed, of a 
Supreme Intelligence, but it is as Newton’s 
god,—whom he blames for attributing the 
admirable arrangement of the sun, of the 
planets, and of the comets, to an Intelligent 
and Almighty Being,'—and of an Author 
of Nature, not, however, as the preserver 
and upholder of the universe,’ but as. per- 
petually receding, according as the boundaries 
of our knowledge are extended ;* thus expel- 
ling, as it were, the Deity from all. care or 
concern about his own world. 

While the philosopher thus became vain 
in his imaginations, the naturalist attempted 
to account for the production of all the various 
forms and structures of plants and animals 
upon similar principles. Lamarck, distin- 
ouished by the variety of his talents and 
attainments, by the acuteness of his intellect, 
by the clearness of his conceptions, and 
remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with 
his subject, thus expresses his opinion as to 
the origin of the present system of organized 
beings. “ We know, by observation, that 
the most simple organizations, whether vege- 


1 System of the World, E. Tr. ii. 331. 
2 Ibid. 332. Meee fo ca 


INTRODUCTION. XXlll 


table or animal, are never met with but im 
minute gelatinous bodies, very supple and 
delicate ; in a word, only in frail bodies almost 
without consistence and mostly transparent.” 
These minute bodies he supposes nature 
forms, in the waters, by the power of attrac- 
tion; and that next, subtle and expansive 
fluids, such as caloric and electricity, pene- 
trate these bodies, and enlarge the interstices 
of their agglutinated molecules, so as to form 
utricular cavities, and so produce irritability 
and life, followed by a power of absorption, 
by which they derive nutriment from with- 
out.’ 

The production of a new organ in one of 
these, so formed, animal bodies, he ascribes 
to a new want, which continues to stimulate ; 
and of a new movement which that want 
produces and cherishes.” He next relates 
how this can be effected. Body, he observes, 
being essentially constituted of cellular tissue, 
this tissue is in some sort the matrix, from 
the modification of which by the fluids put 
in motion by the stimulus of desire, mem- 
branes, fibres, vascular canals, and divers 


1 Anim. sans Vertéebr. 1. 174. 2 Ibid. 181. 


XXIV INTRODUCTION. 


organs, gradually appear; parts are streneth- 
ened and solidified ;* and thus progressively 
new parts and organs are formed, and more 
and more perfect organizations produced ; and 
thus, by consequence, in the lapse of ages a 
monad becomes a man!!! 

The great object both of La Place and 
Lamarck seems to be to ascribe all the works 
of creation to second causes; and to account 
for the production of all the visible universe, 
and the furniture of our own globe, without 
the intervention of a first. Both begin the 
work by introducing nebulosities or masses of 
matter scarcely amounting to real entities, 
and proceed as if they had agreed together 
upon the modus operandi. 

As Lamarck’s hypothesis relates particu- 
larly to the animal kingdom, I shall make 
a few observations upon it, caleulated to 
prove its utter irrationality. 

When, indeed, one reads the above account 
of the mode by which, according to our 
author’s hypothesis, the first vegetable and 
animal forms were produced, we can scarcely 
help thinking that we have before us a receipt 


1 Anim. sans Vertébr. i. 184. 


PE e——o— ee 


— 


INTRODUCTION. XXV. 


for making the organized beings at the foot 
of the scale in either class—a mass of irritable 
matter formed by attraction, and a repulsive 
principle to introduce into it and form a cel- 
lular tissue, are the only ingredients necessary. 
Mix them, and you have an animal which 
begins to absorb fluid, and move about as 
a monad or a vibrio, multiplies itself by 
scissions or germes, one of which being 
stimulated by a want to take its food by a 
mouth, its fluids move obediently towards its 
anterior extremity, and in time a mouth is 
obtained; in another generation, a more 
talented individual discovering that one or 
more stomachs and other intestines would be 
a convenient addition to a mouth, the fluids 
immediately take a contrary direction, and at 
length this wish is accomplished ; next a 
nervous collar round the gullet is acquired, 
and this centre of sensation being gained, 
the usual organs of the senses of course 
follow. But enough of this, 

Let any one examine the whole organi- 
zation and structure, both internal and ex- 
ternal, of any animal, and he will find that it 
forms a whole, in which the different organs 
and members have a mutual relation and 


XXVI1 INTRODUCTION. 


dependence, and that if one is supposed to be 
abstracted, the whole is put out of order and 
cannot fulfill its evident functions. . If we 
select, as a well known instance, the Hive-bee 
for an example. Its long tongue is specially 
formed to collect honey ; its honey stomach to 
receive and elaborate it either for regurgitation, 
or for the formation of wax; and other organs 
or pores are added, by which the latter can be 
transmitted to the wax pockets under its abdo- 
men ; connected with these, are its means and 
instruments to build its cells, either for store 
cells to contain its honey and bee-bread, or its 
young brood, such as the form of its jaws, 
and the structure and furniture of its hind 
legs. Now here are a number of organs and 
parts that must have been contemporary, since 
one is evidently constructed with a view to 
the other: and the whole organization and 
structure of the whole body forming the 
societies of these wonder-working beings, that 
I mean, of the males, females, and workers, 
is so nicely adjusted, as to concur exactly im 
producing the end that an intelligent Creator 
intended, and directing each to that function 
and office which he devolved upon them, and 
to exercise which he adapted them. Were we 


INTRODUCTION. XXVU 


to go through the whole animal kingdom the 
same mutual relation and dependence between 
the different parts and organs of the structure 
and their functions would be found. 

Can any one in his rational senses believe 
for a moment that all these adaptations of one 
organ to another, and of the whole structure 
to a particular function, resulted originally 
from the wants of a senseless animal living by 
absorption, and whose body consisted merely 
of cellular tissue, which in the lapse of ages, 
and in an infinity of successive generations 
by the motions of its fluids, directed here and 
there, produced this beautiful and harmonious 
system of organs all subservient to one pur- 
pose ; and which in numerous instances vary 
their functions and organs, but still preserving 
their mutual dependence, by passing through 
three different states of existence. 

Lamarck’s great error, and that of many 
others of his compatriots, is materialism; he 
seems to have no faith in any thing but body, 
attributing every thing to a physical, and 
scarcely any thing to a metaphysical cause. 
Even when, in words, he admits the being 
of a God, he employs the whole strength of 
his intellect to prove that he had nothing to 


XXVIII INTRODUCTION. 


do with the works of creation. Thus he ex- 
cludes the Deity from the government of the 
world that he has created, putting nature in 
his place; and with respect to the noblest 
and last formed of his creatures into whom he 
himself breathed the breath of life; he cer- 
tainly admits him to be the most perfect of 
animals, but instead of a son of God, the 
root of his genealogical tree, according to 
him, is an animalcule, a creature without 
sense or voluntary motion, or internal or 
external organs, at least in his idea—no 
wonder therefore that he considers his intel- 
lectual powers, not as indicating a spiritual 
substance derived from heaven though re- 
sident in his body, but merely as the result 
of his organization,’ and ascribes to him in 
the place of a soul, a certain interior senti- 
ment, upon the discovery of which he prides 
himself? In one of his latest descriptions of 
it, he thus describes the office of this internal 
sentiment: ‘ Every action of an intelligent 
individual, whether it be a movement or a 
thought, or an act amongst the thoughts, is 


1 N. Dict. D’ Hist. Nat. xvi. Artic. Intelligence, 344, comp. 
Ibid. Artic. Idée, 78, 80. 
2 [bid, 332. 


: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 


INTRODUCTION. XX1X 


necessarily preceded by a want of that which 
has power to excite such action. This want 
felt immediately moves the internal sentiment, 
and in the same instant, that sentiment directs 
the disposeable portion of the nervous fluid, 
either upon the muscles of that part of the 
body which is to act, or upon the part of the 
organ of intelligence, where are impressed 
the ideas which should be rendered present 
to the mind, for the execution of the intel- 
lectual act which the want demands.”! In 
fact Lamarck sees nothing in the universe 
but bodies, whence he confounds sensation 
with intellect. Our eyes certainly shew us 
nothing but bodies—their actions and mo- 
tions, their structure, their form and colour; 
our ears the sounds they produce ; our touch 
their degree of resistance, or comparative 
softness or hardness; our smell their scent; 
our taste their flavour ; but though our senses 
ean conduct us no further, we find a very 
active substance in full power within us that 
can. At a very early period of life we feel 
a wish to know something further concerning 
the objects to which our senses introduce 


1 N, Dict. D’Hist. Nat. xvi. Artic. Intelligence, 350. 


XXX INTRODUCTION. 


us, which often generates a restless desire in 
the mind to gain information concerning 
the causes and origin of those things per- 
ceived by them; now this is the result of 
thought, and thought is no body, and though 
the thinking essence inhabits a body, yet 
we cannot help feeling that our thoughts 
are an attribute of an immaterial substance. 
Thought, discursive and excursive thought, 
that is not confined to the contemplation of 
the things of earth, things that are mme- 
diately about us, but can elevate itself to 
heaven, and the heavenly bodies, not only to 
those of our own system, but can take flights 
beyond the bounds of time and space, and 
enter into the Holy of Holies, and: contem- 
plate Him who sitteth upon the cherubim, the 
throne of his Deity. Thought, that not only 
beholds things present, however distant and 
removed from sense, but can contemplate the 
days of old and the years of many gene- 
rations, can carry us back to hail with the 
angelic choirs, the birth-day of nature and 
of the world that we inhabit ; or looking mto 
the abyss of futurity, can anticipate the 
termination of our present mixed scene— 
chequered with light and darkness, good and 


INTRODUCTION. XXxl 


evil—and the beginning of that eternal sab- 
bath which remaineth for the people of God 
in the heavenly kingdom of Christ: thought 
that can not only take these flights, and ex- 
ercise herself m these heavenly musings ; but 
accompanied as she is, in our favoured race, 
with the gift of speech can reason upon them 
with a fellow mind, and by such discussion 
often elicit sparks of truth, that may be useful 
to enlighten mankind. Who can believe that 
such a faculty, so divine and god-like and 
spiritual, can be the mere result of organi- 
zation? That any juxta-position of material 
molecules, of whatever nature, from whatever 
source derived, in whatever order and form 
arranged; and wherever placed, could generate 
thought, and reflexion, and reasoning powers ; 
could acquire and store up ideas and notions 
as well concerning metaphysical as physical 
essences may as safely be pronounced impos- 
sible, as that matter and spirit should be 
homogeneous. Though the intellectual part 
acts by the brain and nerves, yet the brain 
and nerves, however ample, however de- 
veloped, are not the intellect, nor an intel- 
lectual substance, but only its mstrument, 
fitted for the passage of the prime messenger 


XXXI1l INTRODUCTION. 


of the soul, the nervous fluid or power, to 
every motive organ. It is a substance calcu- 
lated to convey instantaneously that subtile 
agent, by which spirit can act upon body, 
wherever the soul bids it to go and enables 
it to act. When death separates the intel- 
lectual and spiritual from the material part, 
the introduction of a fluid homogeneous with 
the nervous, or related to it by a galvanic 
battery can put the nerves in action, lift the 
eye-lids, move the limbs, but though the 
action of the intellectual part may thus be 
imitated, im newly deceased persons, still 
there are no signs of returning intelligence ; 
there is.no life, no voluntary action, not a 
trace of the spiritual agent that has been 
summoned from its dwelling. Whence it 
follows, that though the organization is that 
by which the imtellectual and governing 
power manifests its presence and mbhabitation, 
still it is evidently something distinct from 
and independent of it. 

Mr. Lyell has so fully considered that part 
of Lamarck’s hypothesis which relates par- 
ticularly to the transmutation of species, and 
so satisfactorily proved their general stability, 
that it is unnecessary for me to enter more 


INTRODUCTION. XXXII 


particularly into that subject, I must therefore 
refer the reader to that portion of his work.' 

Let us lastly enquire, to whom or what, 
according to our author, God has given up 
the reins; whom he has appointed his vice- 
roy in the government of the universe. Na- 
ture is the second power who sits on this 
viceregal throne, governing the physical uni- 
verse, whom we should expect to be superior 
in intellect and power to angel and arch- 
angel—but no—he defines her to be—< An 
order of things composed of objects inde- 
pendent of matter, which are determined by 
the observation of bodies, and the whole 
amount of which constitutes a power un- 
alterable in its essence, governed in all its 
acts, and constantly acting upon all parts of 
the physical universe.”* And again, Nature 
he affirms consists of non-physical objects, 
which are neither beings, nor bodies, nor 
matter. It is composed of motion; of laws 
of every description; and has perpetually at 
its disposal space and time.° 

With respect to the agency of this vice- 


1 Principles of Geology, i. c. 1, 2. 
2 N. Dict. D’ Hist. Nat. xxii. Art. Nature, 377. 
3 [bid. 


XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 


gerent of Deity, he observes that Nature is 
a blind power without intelligence which acts 
necessarily. That matter is her sole domain, 
of which however she can neither create nor 
destroy a single atom, though she modifies 
it continually in every way and under every 
form,—and causes the existence of all bodies 
of which matter is essentially the base ;— 
and that in our globe it is she that has 
immediately given existence to vegetables, to 
animals, as well as to other bodies that are 
there to be met with.’ 

From these statements, though he appears 
to admit the existence of a Deity, and that 
he is the primary author of all things, yet he 
considers him as having delegated his power 
to nature as. his vicegerent, to whose disposal 
he has left all material subsistences, and who, 
according to him, is the real creator of all 
the forms and beings that exist, and who 
maintains the physical universe in its present 
state. It is not quite clear what opinion he 
held with respect to the creation of matter, 
as he no where expressly ascribes it to God ; 
though, since he excludes nature from it, we 


1 N, Dict. D’ Hist. Nat. xxii. Art. Nature, 364. 
2 [bid. 369, 376. 


INTRODUCTION. XXXV 


may infer, unless he thought it to be eternal, 
that he meant it should be ascribed to the 
Deity ; but, if such was his opinion, he ought 
to have stated it distinctly and_ broadly ; 
which he certainly would have done had he 
felt any anxiety to prevent misrepresentation. 
As it is, his God is an exact counterpart 
of the God of Epicurus, who leaving all to 
nature or chance, takes no further care or 
thought for the worlds to which he had given 
being. 

But what is this mighty and next to omni- 
potent power, 


This great-grandmother of all creatures bred, 
Great Nature ever young, but full of eld ; 
Still moving, yet immoved from her sted ; 
Unseen of any, yet of all beheld ; 

Thus sitting in her throne——-— 


as quaintly sings our great bard of allegory.’ 
Now this great-grandmother of the whole 
creation, who, according to our author, takes 
all trouble off the hands of the God of Gods, 
sittmg as it were in his throne, and directing 
and upholding all things by the word of her 


power,—what is she? Is she not at least 


1 Faérie Queene, B. vit. c. vii. st. 13. 


XXXV1 INTRODUCTION. 


a secondary spirit, co-extensive with the phy- 
sical universe which she forms, and the limits 
of which alone terminate her action? This 
the various and wonderful operations attri- 
buted to her by this her worshipper would 
proclaim her to be. How then are we sur- 
prised and astonished when studying and 
weighing every scruple of his definitions of 
this his great Diana of Ephesus, and casting 

them up, we find at the foot of the account 
that she literally amounts to norHinG. That 
she is a compound of attributes without any 
subsistence to hang them upon. . His primary 
character of her, on which he insists in every 
part of his works, declares her to be an Order 
of Things. What idea does this phrase 
convey to the mind? That of things arranged 
and acting in a certain order. But no—this 
is not his meaning. She is an order of things 
composed of objects independent of matter. 
These objects are all metaphysical, and are 
neither beings, nor bodies, nor matter. But 
if she is not a being, she can have no exist- 
ence. Yes, says our author, she is composed 
of motion. But what is motion considered 
abstractedly, without reference to the mover 
or the moved? Like its negative rest, it 1s 


INTRODUCTION. XXXV1l 


nothing. He, Whose goings forth have been 
from of old, from everlasting, is the First 
Mover, and the motion which he hath gene- 
rated in his physical universe, was commu- 
nicated by Him to existences, which he had 
created and formed to execute his will, and 
by them to others, and so propagated, as it 
were, from hand to hand, according to his 
laws, till the universe was in motion gene- 
rally, and in all its systems and their several 
members. The Deity, at once the centre 
and circumference of creation, going forth 
incessantly, all the systems that form the 
physical universe, severally concatenated into 
one great system, responding to his action, 
and revolving round and contained in that 
central and circumferential fountain of ever- 
flowing light and glory,’ that Spiritual Sun 
of the whole universe of systems, of which 
every sun of every system is a type and 
symbol. To Him be ascribed the Glory, 
and the Power, and the Kingdom, in secula 
seculorum, Amen. 

Another object which Lamarck considers 
as constituting nature, is Law. But law 


1 Deus omnium capax, Herm. Pastor, |. ii. Mand. 1. Iren. 
Adv. Heres. |. ii. c. 55. 


VOL. TI. d 


XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 


considered abstractedly is also nothing. It 
may exist in the Divine counsels, but till it 
is promulgated, and powers appointed and 
empowered who can enforce it; as likewise 
other objects brought into existence upon 
which it can act, or that can obey it; it is 
a word without power or effect. As in order 
to motion there must be a mover and some- 
thing to be moved, so in order to a potential 
law, as well as a promulgator, there must be 
a being to enforce it and another to obey it. 

With regard to his third ingredient, space 
and fime, the theatre and limit of Nature’s 
operations ; they give her no subsistence, she 
still remains a nonentity; therefore, as de- 
fined by our author, she is nothing, and can 
do nothing. 

But although nature, as defined by La- 
marck, consists merely of abstract qualities, 
independent of any essence or being, and 
therefore can neither form any thing, nor 
operate upon what is already formed; yet 
would I by no means be understood as con- 
tending that there are no inter-agents be- 
tween God and the visible material world by 
which he acts upon it, and as it were takes 
hold of it; by which he has commenced and 


. 
| 
} 


INTRODUCTION. XXX1X 


still maintains motion in it and its parts; 
causing it to observe certain general and local. 
laws ; and upholds, in the whole and every 
part, those several powers and operations that 
have been thus produced; that action and 
counteraction every where observable, by 
which all things are maintained in their 
places; observe their regular motions and 
revolutions ; and exhibit all those phenomena 
that are produced under certain circum- 
stances. Whatever names philosophers have 
used to designate such powers, they have a 
real substance and being, and are a something 
that can act and operate, and impart a mo- 
mentum. 

Lord Verulam’s two hands of nature, 
whereby she chiefly worketh,' heat and cold, 
synonymous, according to some, with positive 
and negative electricity ;* the plastic nature 
of Cudworth, and some of the ancients; the 
spirit of nature of Dr. Henry More;?* and the 
ether of Sir Isaac Newton, all seem to ex- 
press or imply an agency between the Deity 
and the visible world, directed by him. A¢- 


1 Bacon’s Works, iii. Nat. Hist. Cent. i. p. 69. 
* See Lit. Gaz. January 7, 1835, p. 43. 
3 See Vor. II. p. 254. 


xl INTRODUCTION. 


traction and repulsion ; centripetal and cen- 
trifugal forces, or universal gravitation, all 
imply a power or powers in action, that are 
something more than names and nonentities, 
that are moving in two directions, and consist 
of antagonist forces. 

If we consult Holy Scripture rita se 
view of ascertaining whether any or what 
terms are therein employed to express the 
same powers, we shall find that generally 
speaking, the word heaven, or the heavens, 
and symbolically the cherubim, are used for 
that purpose. But upon this subject, which 
has considerable bearing upon the doctrine of 
instinct, I shall enlarge in a subsequent part 
of this introduction. 

Having stated Lamarck’s hypothesis. with 
respect to nature, the Goddess which he 
worshipped, and which he decked with divine 
attributes and divine power, I shall, as briefly 
as possible, give some account of his theory 
of life. Life indeed is a subject that hath 
puzzled, doth puzzle, and will puzzle philoso- 
phers and physiologists, probably till time 
shall be no more. Thus much, however, 
may be predicated of it, that both in the 
vegetable and animal, like heat, it is a radiant 


INTRODUCTION. xl 


principle, shewing itself by successive de- 
velopements for a limited period, varying’ 
according to the species, when it begins to 
decline and finally is extinguished : that some- 
times also, like heat, as in the seed of the 
vegetable and ege of the animal, it is latent, 
not manifesting itself by developement, till it 
is submitted to the action of imponderable 
fluids, conveyed by moisture or incubation. 
But to return to our author. ‘“ We have 
seen, says he, “that the life which we remark 
im certain bodies, in some sort resembled na- 
ture, insomuch that it is not a being, but an 
order of things animated by movements; which 
has also its power, its faculties, and which 
exercises them necessarily while it exists.’ 
He also ascribes these vital movements to an 
existing cause. Speaking of the imponder- 
able incoercible fluids, and specifying heat, 
electricity, the magnetic fluid, &c. to which 
he is inclined to add light, he says, it is 
certain that without them, or certain of them,. 
the phenomenon of life could not be produced 
in any body.* Now, though heat, electricity, 
&¢e. are necessary to put the principle of life 


1 Anim. sans Vertebr. 1. 321. 2 IT bid. 12°48: 


xh INTRODUCTION. 


in motion, they evidently do not impart it. 
The seed of a vegetable, or the egg of a bird 
have each of them, if I may so speak, a- 
punctum saliens, a radiating principle, which, 
under certain circumstances, they can retain 
in a latent state, for a considerable time ; but 
if once that principle is extinct, no application 
of heat, or electricity, under any form, can 
revive it, so as to commence any develope- 
ment of the germe it animated. Experiments 
have been made upon human bodies; and 
those of other animals, which, by the applica- 
tion of galvanism, after death, have exhibited 
various muscular movements, such as lifting 
the eye-lids, moving the arms and legs, &e. 
but though motions usually produced by the 
will acting by the nerves upon the muscles 
have thus been generated by a species of the 
electric fluid, proving its afhnity with the 
nervous power or fluid, yet the subjects of the 
experiment, when the action was intermitted, 
continued still without life; no return of that 
power or essence which was fled for ever, 
being effected by it, which seems to render 
it clear that neither caloric nor electricity, 
though essential concomitants_of life, form its 
essence. 


INTRODUCTION. xh 


I trust I may render some service to the 
cause of truth and science, if I again revert 
~to the subject which I mentioned at the 
beginning of this introduction, I mean the 
study of the word of God, together with that 
of his works, with the view to illustrate one 
by the other. 

The great and wonderful genius before al- 
luded to, Lord Verulam, who laid the founda- 
tion upon which the proud structure of modern 
philosophy is erected, who banished from sci- 
ence the visionary theories of the speculator,’ 
and the unfounded dogmas of the bigot, and 
made experiment, and, as it were, the anatomy 
of nature, the root of true physical knowledge ; 
warns the philosopher against making holy 
scripture his text book, for a system of phi- 
losophy, which he says, is like seeking the 
dead amongst the living.2. I am disposed, 
however, to think that this illustrious philo- 
sopher, by this observation, did not mean to 
exclude all study of the word of God, with a 
view to discover what is therein delivered 
concerning physical subjects, for he himself 
speaks of the book of Job, as pregnant with 


1 Idola Specis. 2 De Augment. Sc. 1. ix. c. 1. § 3. 


xliv INTRODUCTION. 


the mysteries of natural philosophy ;' but his 

object was to point out the evil effects of a 

superstitious and bigotted adherence to the , 
letter of scripture, concerning which men were 

very liable to be mistaken, and of inattention 

to its spirit, which is averse to all persecution, 

so that persons of a philosophic mind might 

not be interrupted in their investigations of 

nature, by the clamours or menaces of mis- 

taken men. 

In the dark ages, anterior to the Refor- 
mation, superstition occupied the seat of true 
and rational religion. Ye do err not hnow- 
ing the Scriptures, was an observation almost 
universally applicable. The armed hand of 
authority was lifted up against all such as 
endeavoured to interpret either Scripture or 
nature upon just and rational principles. 
Every such effort was rejected, was repro- 
bated ex cathedra, and persecuted as a dan- 
gerous and pestilent heresy: thus every 
avenue to the discovery of truth, either m 
religion or science, was attempted to be 
closed. This evil spirit it was that pro- 
scribed the system of Copernicus, and, 


1 Ubi supr. |. ix. c. 1, § 47, ed. 1740. 


INTRODUCTION. xlv 


because it appeared contrary to the letter 
of Scripture, persecuted Galileo for afhrming 
.that the earth moved round the sun. Lord 
Verulam clearly saw the evil consequences 
that would result to the cause of true phi- 
losophy, if the sober study of nature, and 
all experimental research into the works of 
creation, were to be denounced as impious, 
because of some seeming discordance with 
the letter of Scripture, or because a narrow- 
minded theologian could not discern where 
the writers of the Bible adopted popular 
phraseology, in condescension to the innocent 
prejudices and uninformed understandings of 
those to whom they addressed themselves ; 
and he therefore employed all the energy of 
his powerful mind to persuade the learned 
theologian, that for the discovery of physical 
truth we must have recourse to induction 
from experiment and soberly conducted in- 
vestigation of physical phenomena, while for 
spiritual we should seek to draw living 
waters from the fountain of life contamed 
in Scripture. The Bible was not intended 
to make us philosophers, but to make us wise 
unto salvation. 

But it does not follow, because we are to 


xlvi INTRODUCTION. 


seek for religious truth principally in the 
Bible, that we can derive none from the study 
of natural objects; nor, on the contrary, 
because we are not to go to the Bible for 
a system of philosophy, that no philosophical 
truths are contained in it. The Scripture 
expressly declares that the invisible things 
of God may be understood by the things 
that are made—and if we may have recourse 
to the works of creation as well as to reve- 
lation to lead us to the knowledge of the 
Creator, we may, on the other hand, by 
parity of reason, without meritmg any repre- 
hension, inquire into what God has revealed 
in Scripture concerning the physical world 
and its phenomena. Lord Bacon himself 
observes, that Philosophy is given to Religion 
as a most faithful handmaid ; since Religion 
declares the will of God, and Philosophy 
manifests his power,—and he applies to this 
our Saviour’s reproof of the Jews. Ye do 
err not knowing the Scriptures nor the 
power of God. That is, ye have not endea- 
voured to know him by a right mode of 
studying either his word or his works. The 
study of both is necessary to the right under- 
standing of either—we cannot rightly under- 


INTRODUCTION. xlvu 


stand God’s word without a knowledge of 
his works, and perpetual appeal is made to 
his works in his word; neither can we per- 
fectly understand his works without the know- 
ledge of his word. 

The penetrating mind of Bacon clearly 
perceived, that if supposed statements of 
Scripture were made the sole test by which 
philosophical systems were to be tried, there 
was an end of all progress in science, no use 
in making experiments, or pursuing a course 
of inductive reasoning. And this was the 
temper of the age in which he lived; light 
was beginning to spring up, and because it 
was novel, it was thought to be heretical and 
subversive of Scripture. But men’s minds 
are now much altered in this respect, and 
there is no danger of persecution on account 
of heterodoxy either in religion or philosophy. 
In fact the tide seems turned the other way, 
and a clamour is sometimes raised against 
persons who consult the revealed word of 
God on points connected with philosophy and 
science. But surely if the Scriptures are, as 
we believe, a revelation from the Creator of 
that world concerning which we philosophize, 
and if some parts of them do contain 


xlvui INTRODUCTION. 


mysteries of natural philosophy, as Bacon 
himself contends they do, some respect and 
deference are due to the word of God, and 
some allowance may be claimed by those who 
appeal to it on any point of science, even if 
their appeal originates in a misconception and 
misinterpretation of any part of it; the same 
allowance as is made for those, and they are 
many, who misinterpret nature. 

In the observations here made upon some 
dicta of the illustrious sage, who, unless we 
admit his venerable namesake, Friar Bacon, 
to a share in that distinction, may be termed 
the first founder of modern philosophy, 1 
have not the most distant thought of detract- 
ing from the splendour of his merits, or of 
deducting any thing from the amount of the 
vast debt which science owes him; but, as 
I have before observed, mankind, from the 
earliest ages, have been prone almost to 
idolize those to whom they were indebted for 
any weighty benefits, or to whom they 
looked up as inventors of useful arts, or 
masters of hitherto occult sciences. Grati- 
tude, indeed, demands that great and original 
geniuses, whom God has enriched with extra- 
ordinary talents, by the due exercise of which 


INTRODUCTION. xhlix 


they have become benefactors of the human 
race, should be loved and valued highly for 
their services; but when we look only at 
the instrument, and see not the hand of 
Supreme Benevolence that employs it for our 
benefit, we then overvalue man and under- 
value God ; putting the former into the place 
of the latter, and making an idol of him ; 
and if any will not worship this idol, a 
clamour is raised against them, and they are 
almost persecuted. Our great philosopher 
himself complains of this tendency to over- 
value individuals as the cause and source 
of great evils to science: he considers it as 
a kind of fascination that bewitches man- 
kind.’ 

Since the time of Bacon, philosophers and 
inquirers ito nature have for the most 
strictly adhered to his rule, if such it may 
be deemed; and, with the exception of a 
single sect, who perhaps have gone too far 


1 Rursus vero homines a progressu in scientiis detinuit, et 
fere incantavit reverentia antiquitatis, et virorum, qui in phi- 
losophia magni habiti sunt, authoritas. Itaque mirum non 
est, si fascina ista antiquitatis, et authorum, et consensus, 
hominum virtutem ita ligaverint, ut cum rebus ipsis con- 


suescere (tanquam maleficiati) non potuerint. Nov. Organ. 
1. i. aphor. 84. 


] INTRODUCTION. 


in an opposite direction, have made little 
or no inquiry as to what is delivered in 
Scripture on physical subjects, or with 
respect to the causes of the various phe- 
nomena exhibited in our system, or in the 
physical universe: but surely it is a most 
interesting, as well as novel field of study, 
for the philosopher to ascertain what has 


really been revealed in Scripture on these 


great subjects. The opinions of the ancients 
upon this head have been investigated and 
canvassed, and an approximation traced be- 
tween them, in some respects, to those of 
modern philosophers :? if the same diligence 
was exercised upon the Scriptures, we might 
arrive at information with regard to the great 
powers that, under God, rule the physical 
universe, which it is hopeless to gain by the 
usual means of investigation. 

But the great difficulty lies m the inter- 
pretation of those passages of Scripture that 
relate to physical Phenomena. Bacon often 
repeats these words of Solomon,—Jé is the 
glory of God to conceal a thing. As Moses, 
when he descended from the mount, was 


1 The Hutchinsonians. 
2 See Prof. Daubeny’s Introd. to the Atomic Theory, 13. 


————— <r OC TF Oe eee. 


INTRODUCTION. | li 


obliged to veil his face, because the Israelites 
could not bear its effulgence ;' so the Deity 
was pleased to conceal many both spiritual 
and physical truths under a veil of figures 
and allegory, because the prejudices, igno- 
rance, and grossness of the bulk of the people 
could not bear them, but they were written 
for the instruction and admonition of those 
in every age whose minds are liberated from 
the misrule of prejudice, and less darkened 
by the clouds of ignorance: but still it 
requires, and always will require, much study 
and comparison of one part of Scripture with 
another, to discover the meaning of many of 
those passages of Scripture which relate to 
physical objects. 

The Apostle to the Hebrews observes that 
the manner in which God revealed himself 
to the ancient world and the Jewish nation, 
was by dividing -his communications into 
many parcels, delivered at different times ;? 
and by clothing them in a variety of figures, 
and imparting them under different circum- 
stances,* so that in order to get a correct 
notion of them it is necessary to compare 


1 Exod. xxxiv. 29, &c. 
2 TloAvpepwe. 3 Tlodvrporwe. 


hi INTRODUCTION. 


one part of scripture with another, and to 
weigh well the various figures under which 
they are concealed, and the use of them on 
other occasions; and also to consider the 
modes in which they were communicated to 
the mind of the prophet, whether in a vision 
exhibited to him when entranced ; in a dream 
when asleep ; or under certain acts, which he 
was commanded, or by immediate inspiration 
excited, to perform. So that if we wish to 
ascertain the meaning of any particular 
symbol, or of the terms in which any com- 
munication is made from God in Holy 
Scripture ; we must not be satisfied by study- 
ing merely the passage under our eye, but, 
comparing spiritual things with spiritual, hunt 
out the meaning, as it were, by considering 
all those passages where the same thing is 
alluded to. 

It is to be observed, that in all the com- 
munications which it has pleased the Deity 
to make of his will to mankind, respect is 
had to the then state of society, and the 
progress of knowledge, arts, and civilization 
—light was imparted to them as they were 
able to bear it; they were fed with milk 
when they could not digest strong meat. 


a i 


INTRODUCTION. li 


Prejudices take usually so firm a hold upon 
the bulk of any people, that to attack them 
directly, instead of opening, closes all the 
avenues to the heart. Even the most enlight- 
ened in some respects, in others are often 
under their dominion; and, therefore, it is 
only by imparting truth Here a little and 
there a little, as circumstances admit, and 
embroidermg the veil, under which we are 
obliged to soften the effulgence of her light, 
with varied imagery, darkly shadowing out 
her mysteries, that a way is prepared for her 
final triumph and universal reception: She 
is often A light shining in a dark place, 
gradually expelling prejudice and error, and 
shining more and more unto the perfect day. 

It was not so much necessary for the con- 
version and reformation of mankind to make 
them philosophers as to make them believers. 
The great bulk of mankind were ignorant and 
uninstructed persons, whence in order to win 
their attention, it was necessary to address 
them in a language which they understood, 
and in a phraseology, with respect to physical 
objects, to which they were accustomed, and 
as those objects appear to the senses. Thus 
the moon is called a great light, because she 

VOL. I. e 


liv INTRODUCTION. 


appears so and is so to us, though really less 
‘than the planets and fixed stars; the sun is 
said to rise, and other parallel expressions, 
which are true with respect to us, and to the 
appearance of the thing, though not with 
respect to the fact physically considered. 
When the sacred writers speak of the Deity 
in terms borrowed from the human figure, as 
if he had hands, eyes, feet, and the like, and 
as if he was agitated by human passions, it is 
for the sake of illustrating the Divine attri- 
butes and proceedings by those passions, 
faculties, senses, and organs in man, by which 
alone we can gain any idea of what may be 
analogous to them in the Divine Nature. 

But though such condescension is shown 
by the Holy Spirit to the ignorance and 
imperfections of his people, by adopting, as 
it were, a phraseology founded upon their 
innocent errors, and those misapprehensions 
of things into which they were led by their 
senses: it is not thence to be concluded that 
this popular language pervades the whole of 
the Holy Word; or that it is impossible, or 
even difficult, to distinguish things spoken 
ad captum, from statements relating to the 
physical constitution of nature which are to 


INTRODUCTION. lv 


be received as spoken ex cathedra, and as 
dictated by the Holy Spirit. It should not 
be lost sight of, that the great object of 
Revelation was to reclaim mankind from the 
debasing worship of those that were not gods 
by nature; of those powers in nature, or their 
symbols, selected from natural objects, which 
God employed and directed as his agents in 
the formation and government of the globe 
we inhabit, and of the whole universe. <‘ But 
we,’ says Bacon, “ dedicate or erect no 
capitol or pyramid to the pride of men; but, 
in the human intellect, lay the foundations 
of a holy temple, an exemplar of the world.” 
This passage is capable of an application that 
may lead us into an avenue terminating in 
such a temple, which, though not erected 
am the human intellect, may enlighten it in 
several points relating to physical truths con- 
cerning which it is now in darkness. The 
Mosaical tabernacle and the Solomonian 
temple were both erected not after the 
imaginings of the spirit of man; but the 
former after a pattern which was shown to 
Moses in the mount; and the latter after 


1 Nov. Org. aphorism. 120. 
2 Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30. 


lvi INTRODUCTION. 


another given by David to Solomon, which 
it is expressly stated he had by the Spirit, 
and which Jehovah made him understand in 
writing (or commit to writing) by his hand 
upon him.’ Now, if these holy places were 
erected after a pattern divinely furnished, 
that pattern doubtless was significant, and 
intended to answer some important purpose. 
The great end which the Deity had in view 
by the selection of the Israelitish nation, was 
to prevent all knowledge of himself, as the 
Creator and Governor of the world, from 
being totally obliterated from the minds of 
men, and to keep alive the expectation of 
the promised seed, who was to effect the 
great deliverance of mankind from the yoke 
and consequences of sin, and the dominion 
of Satan. Had it not been for this step, the 
worship of those powers and intermediate 
agents by which God acts upon the earth 
and the world at large, and produces all the 
phenomena observable in the physical uni- 
verse; of their symbols; or of deified men 
and women, would have entirely superseded 
the worship of their Almighty Author, and 


1 1 Chron. xxviit. 12; 19; 


INTRODUCTION. lvil 


the whole earth would have been so covered 
by this palpable darkness, that no glimpse of 
light would have been left to foster the hope 
and prove the germe of a future day of glory. 
The great object, therefore, of the Godhead 
being the assertion of his own supremacy, 
and to proclaim his own agency by the 
powers that are known to govern in nature, 
it was to be expected that a tabernacle or 
temple erected after a pattern furnished by 
the Deity would conspicuously do this. 

But before I enter further into this mys- 
terious subject, it will be proper to obviate 
an objection that may be alleged, viz. that it 
is incongruous and out of place to introduce, 
ito a work like the present, any inquiry into 
the nature and contents of the Jewish temple, 
especially the meaning of those symbolical 
images placed in the Holy of Holies and 
called the Cherubim, but when it is further 
considered that these symbols are represented 
as winged animals with four faces, and that 
these faces are those of the kings and rulers, 
as it were, of the animal kingdom :-—namely, 
the ox, the chief amongst cattle; the Lion, 
the king of wild beasts; and the eagle, the 
ruler of the birds ; and lastly, Wan, who has 


lvili INTRODUCTION. 


all things put under his feet,—there seems 
to be no slight connection between the che- 
rubim and the animal creation. If we regard 
the antitypes of these images as exclusively 
metaphysical, this argument will not hold ; 
but if, as I hope to prove from Scripture, 
they consist of physical as well as meta- 
physical objects, by which the Deity acts 
upon the whole animal kingdom, and_par- 
ticularly in all instenctive operations, I trust 
I shall be justified in entering so fully into 
this interesting subject. In this inquiry I 
have endeavoured to guide myself entirely 
by the word of God, comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual; at the same time taking 
into consideration those arguments, where 
the case seemed to require it, that his works 
supply. 

The Jewish tabernacle, which, as Philo 
calls it,! was a portable temple, every reader 
of Scripture knows was divided into two 
principal parts, or, according to the apostle 
to the Hebrews, tabernacles; the first of 
which was called the Holy Place; and the 
second, the Most Holy Place, or the Holy 


1 ‘Tepov gopyrov. De Vita Mosis, |. iu. 


INTRODUCTION. lix 


of Holies. This last tabernacle is expressly 
stated in Scripture to be a figure of heaven. 
« For Christ is not entered into the holy 
places made with hands, which are the figures 
of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to 
appear in the presence of God for us.” 
Where allusion is evidently made to the 
annual entry of the Jewish high priest into 
the second tabernacle, as representing Christ's 
entry into heaven itself, where the presence 
of God was manifested. Now if the second 
tabernacle represented the Heaven of Heavens, 
the first we may conclude, in which the 
ordinary service and worship of God were 
transacted, was a symbol of this world or our 
solar system.” : 

If we consider the furniture of the two 
tabernacles, we gain further instruction on the 
subject we are considering. In the first was 
the golden candlestick with its seven lights, 
the table, and the shew-bread. Amongst the 
Jews, the candlestick seems to have been 
regarded as a kind of planetarium, repre- 
senting the solar system, at least those parts 
of it that were visible to the unassisted 


1 Heb. ix. 24. ¢ “Ayo KoopuKoy, 


lx INTRODUCTION. 


eye.’ It is worthy of remark that the central 
lamp, which appears to be four times the size 
of the rest, is stated by Philo to represent 
the sun. The table and the shew-bread, in a 
physical sense, may perhaps be regarded as 
symbolizing the earth and its productions, the 
table which God spreads and sets before us. 
But as well as a physical, these things have 
a metaphysical or spiritual meaning. The 
candlestick symbolizing the church and _ its 
ministers, who are characterized as ‘“ Lights 
in the world,”*—the churches as candlesticks, 
and the principal ministers of Christ as 
stars.° | 
The contents of the second Tabernacle, or 
Most Holy Place, are now to be considered ; 
these were an ark or chest containing the 
two tables of the decalogue, over which was 
placed a propitiatory or mercy-seat of pure 
gold, at each end of which, and forming part 
of the same plate, was fixed a Cherub, or 
sculptured image so called. The directions 
for the fabrication of these images are not 


1 Joseph. Antig. 1. uli. c. 7, comp. Philo De Vita Mosis, 
l. ni. 518, B.C. Ed. Col. All. 1613. 

2 Philip. 1. 15. @wsnoee ev coopw. 

3 Revel. i. 20. 


SS eee 


INTRODUCTION. |xi 


accompanied by any description of them. 
They are spoken of as objects well known 
to the Jews; but in the prophecy of Ezekiel, 
they are described as each having four faces 
and four wings; the faces were those of a 
man anda lion on the right side ; the face of 
an ox on the left side; and the face of an 
eagle ; with regard to their wings, two were 
stretched upwards, and two covered their 
bodies. Many other particulars are men- 
tioned by the prophet, which I shall not here 
enlarge upon.’ 

A great variety of opinions have been 
held, both im ancient and modern times, 
concerning the meaning of these symbols, 
and what they are designed to represent, 
some of which I shall mention in another 
place. By most modern theologians they 
seem to be regarded as angels of the highest 
rank. The first mention of them in Holy 
Scriptures is upon the occasion of the ex- 
pulsion of our first parents from Paradise. 
« And he drove out the man ; and he placed 
at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, 


and a flaming sword which turned every way, 


1 Ezek. i. 6, 10, 11. 


lx INTRODUCTION. 


to keep the way of the tree of life.’ The 
word which in our translation is rendered 
placed, means properly caused to dwell, or 
placed in a tabernacle, and it was on this 
account probably that in the Septuagint trans- 
lation, the expression is referred to Adam. 
“ And he cast out Adam, and caused him 
to dwell opposite the garden of Eden. And 
he placed in order the cherubim, and the 
flaming sword which turned to keep the way 
of the tree of life.* The word in question 
is used by Jeremiah to denote God’s presence 
in his tabernacle in Shiloh.* It may be re- 
marked also that, i the original, the phrase 
is not simply that God placed cherubim at 
the east of the garden of Eden, but, as is 
evident from the particles prefixed to it, that 
he placed there the cherubim, namely such 
objects as were generally called by that name, 
and were familiar to the Jews. Had God 
given it in commission to angelic beings to 
keep watch and ward at the gate of Paradise, 


1 Genes. 111. 24. 2 Heb. yaw? | 

3 Gr. Kae efeBare roy Adap, Kat KaTwKicev avToy amevayre 
Te Tapaceios THC TpUMNe. Kae evade Ta yEpsPim, Kae THY HrOYLYHY 
popparay, THY spepopeyny PudacoELy THY ddov Te EvAs rhe Lwne. 

4 Jerem. vil. 12. 


INTRODUCTION. Ixiil 


it would surely have been said upon this, as 
upon other occasions, that he sent them. 
When we reflect that these mystic beings, — 
when only sculptured images, were symbols 
of the divine presence, and that God mani- 
fested himself in his tabernacle and in his 
temple by a cloud and glory when the work 
was finished according to the pattern, and 
the cherubim with the ark and mercy-seat 
were in their places,’ surely some suspicion 
must enter our minds that these cherubim, 
before the gates of Paradise, might be sta- 
tioned there for purposes connected with the 
worship of God after the fall. Indications of 
this are discoverable in other passages, as 
where it is said of Cain and Abel, that they 
brought an offering unto the Lord; a term 
implying that sacrifices were not offered in 
any place, according to the fancy of the 
worshipper. Again, after the murder and 
martyrdom of righteous Abel by his brother’s 
hand, and the divine sentence passed upon 
the latter, he says, “ Behold, thou hast driven 
me out this day from the face of the earth, 
and from thy face shall I be hid.”® And 


eo. s1,.L8—o5, 2 Chron. v.7—14. 
2 Genes. iv. 14. 


lxiv INTRODUCTION. 


it 1s subsequently stated, « And Cain went 
out from the presence of the Lord.”’ From 
these passages it seems to follow evidently 
that God was present, in some restricted sense, 
in one particular place, by departing from 
which Cain was hid from his face, whatever 
was intended by that expression. In this 
local sense, a temple or tabernacle dedicated 
to his worship, as prescribed by himself, might 
be called his presence ; or in a still more 
peculiar sense, it might be so denominated, 
if in its sanctuary it contained any symbolical 
representation of God’s universal dominion, 
and of his action every where; or if any cloud 
or irradiation of his glory was there mani- 
fested to his worshippers.” 

With regard to the flaming sword, which 
our translation seems to put into the hands 
of the cherubic watch, and which Milton has 
so finely paraphrased : ) 


And on the east side of the garden place, 
Where entrance up from Eden easiest elimbs, 
Cherubic watch, and of a sword the flame 
Wide-waving, all approach far off to fright 
And guard all passage to the tree of life. 


1 Genes. iv. 16. Exod. xl. 34—38. 


INTRODUCTION. Ixy 
And again, 


They looking back all th’ eastern side beheld 
Of Paradise so late their happy seat, 

Wav'd over by that flaming brand, the gate 
With dreadful faces throng’d, and fiery arms. 


The words in the original may either be un- 
derstood metaphorically of a flame like a 
sword, or it may be translated a consuming 
flame, a flame of burning heat; the original 
word’ often signifying an exhausting and 
violent heat. The word which we translate 
turned every way,’ 1s in Hithpael, and signifies 
an action upon itself; it 1s used in the same 
conjugation in other passages, where the sense 
seems to be that of revolving or rolling.’ 
Ezekiel in his vision of the cherubim, de- 
scribing the fire that preceded their appear- 
ance, says that it infolded itself.’ 

The last words of the passage in question, 
to keep the way of the tree of life, admit of 
two opposite interpretations—either to shut 
it up from all access, or to prevent it from 
being wholly closed. Perhaps the following 
interpretation—that the end for which the 


1, Heb. a45n * Heb. nosnnon 
3 Judges vii. 13. Job. xxxvii. 12. 
4 Ezek. i. 4. Heb. nnponn ws 


lxvi INTRODUCTION. 


cherubim and flaming sword were placed at 
the east of the garden of Eden, was to close 
for ever the way to the old tree of life, and 
also to open the way to one better suited to 
man’s altered circumstances and situation— 
will reconcile both interpretations. As soon 
as man was expelled from Paradise, the 
original covenant was ended, and he was cut 
off from all the means of grace and spiritual 
life that it held forth; and therefore it might 
be expected that his merciful and beneficent 
Creator would, in pursuance of the great 
scheme of salvation, through the promised 
seed of the woman, which he had thrown out 
to him as an anchor of hope, would supply 
him with other means suited to his fallen 
state, by which he might be renewed unto 
holiness, and gradually nourished in grace, 
so as at last to be prepared to undergo the 
sentence passed upon him with a prospect 
before him of entering into that rest that 
remaineth for the people of God. 

Having, I trust, not upon slight grounds, 
made it appear probable, that the cherubim, by 
the Deity himself, were placed in the original 
temple or tabernacle, and were intimately. con- 
nected with that form of worship which was 


INTRODUCTION. Ixvu 


instituted by him in consequence of that sad 
event, the fall of man from his primeval state 
of holiness and happiness; I shall next en- 
deavour to ascertain what these multiform 
images represented. But I must first premise 
a few observations upon the legitimate mode of 
collecting truths of this description from Holy 
Scripture, and I must here recall to the reader's 
recollection the observation of Solomon before 
quoted—ZIt is the glory of God to conceal a 
thing. A number of important truths are 
delivered in Holy Writ, which are veiled 
truths, which we shall never discover if we 
adhere to the letter, and content ourselves 
with admiring the richness and beauty of the 
setting, without paying any attention to the 
gem it encircles or conceals. Some writers 
require a clear, distinct, and explicit state- 
ment, before they will admit any thing as 
revealed in Scripture, be the circumstantial 
evidence of the fact ever so strong. For in- 
stance some eminent theologians deny the 
Divine origin of sacrifices, because no com- 
mand of God to Adam or Noah to offer them 
is recorded to have been given; yet one 
should think the practice of righteous Abel, 
and of Noah, perfect in his generations, and 


Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 


God’s acceptance of their respective sacri- 
fices,' was a sufficient proof that this was no 
act of will-worship, but one of obedience to a 
Divine institution. ~The circumstance that 
God clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of 
beasts, proves that beasts had been slain, 
which were most probably offered up as_ 
victims representing the great atonement, the : 
promised seed—and the clothing of them in 
their skins was an indication that they wanted 
garments, in the place of their own innocency 
and righteousness, to cover their nakedness, 
and that they now stood as clothed in the 
righteousness of Him whose heel was to be 
bruised for them. The distinction also of 
clean and unclean beasts directly sanctioned 
by the Deity, and which alone might be 
offered in sacrifice,’ is another circumstance 
confirmative of the common opinion. 

God, both in his word and in his works, 
for the exercise and improvement of the in- 
tellectual powers of his servants, and that— 
“ By reason of use they may have their 
senses exercised to discern both good and 
evil ;’* has rendered it indispensable that those 


1 Genes. iv. 4. viti. 20, 21. £ Ibid. and vi. 2, 3. 
3 Heb. v. 14. 


INTRODUCTION. Lxix 


who would understand them, and gain a cor- 
rect idea of his plan in them, should collect 
and place in one point of view things that 
in Nature and Scripture are scattered over 
the whole surface, so that by comparing one 
part with another they may arrive at a sound 
conclusion. Hence it happens that, in Scrip- 
ture, when any truth is first to be brought 
forward, it is not by directly and fully enun- 
ciating and defining it, so that he who runs 
may read and comprehend it, but it 1s only 
incidentally alluded to, or some circumstance 
narrated which, if duly weighed and traced 
to its legitimate consequences, puts the atten- 
tive student in possession of it. Such notices 
are often resumed, and further expanded, in 
subsequent parts of the sacred volume, and 
sometimes we are left to collect that an event 
has happened, or an institution delivered to 
the patriarchal race, without its being dis- 
tinctly recorded, from circumstances which 
necessarily or ‘strongly imply it. In a trial 
in a court of justice it very commonly happens 
that no direct proof of an event can be pro- 
duced, and yet the body of circumstantial 
evidence is so concatenated and satisfactory 
as to leave no doubt upon the minds of the 
VOL. I. poe 


Ixx INTRODUCTION. 


jury as to the nature of the verdict they 
ought to deliver. It would be a great and 
irreparable loss to the devout and_ sober 
student of Holy Scripture, if in his endeavours 
to become acquainted with the different parts 
of it, he is to be precluded from forming an 
opinion as to certain events and doctrines, 
because it has pleased the Wisdom of God 
to record and reveal them not directly and 
at once, but indirectly, in many parcels, and 
under various forms, 

To apply this reasoning to the subject | 
am discussing. Having rendered it probable 
that the cherubim placed in a tabernacle at 
the east of the Garden of Eden, repre- 
sented the same objects, and were so far 
synonymous, with those afterwards placed in 
the Jewish Tabernacle in the most holy place 
overshadowing the mercy-seat, and that the 
Divine Presence was more particularly to be 
regarded as taking there its constant station, 
and there occasionally manifesting itself by 
a cloud and a fiery splendor, I shall next 
endeavour to show what the cherubic images 
really symbolized. 

The word Cherub, in the Hebrew lan- 
guage, has no root; for the derivation of it 


INTRODUCTION. Ixx1 


from a particle of similitude and a word sig- 
nifying the mighty or strong ones, which is 
proposed by Parkhurst and the followers of 
Mr. Hutchinson, seems to me not. satis- 
factory. Archbishop Newcome' and others 
derive it from a Chaldee root, which signifies 
to plough, and the radical idea seems to be 
that of strength and power, which will agree 
with the nature of the derivative, as indicating 
the powers, whether physical or metaphysical, 
that rule under God. Other divines, as God 
is said to ride upon the cherubim, and they 
are called his chariot, would derive the word, 
by transposition, from a. root which signifies 
to ride ;* but if a transposition of the letters 
of the word may be admitted, I should prefer 
deriving it from a root which signifies to 
bless or to curse,? since, as we shall see, the 
cherubim are instruments of good or evil, 
according as God sees fit to employ them ; 
fruitful seasons and every earthly blessing 
being brought about by their ministry. 

The word Cherub, pl. cherubim, considered 
as derived from any of the roots last men- 
tioned, conveys therefore the idea of strength 


1 Newc. Ezek. c. i. 10, note. 
“as oS ys 


lxxul INTRODUCTION. 


and power; of God’s action upon and by 
them, expressed by his riding or sitting upon 
them, and inhabiting them; as likewise by 
his employing them as instruments both of 
good or evil, of blessing and cursing. 

That the cherubim are powers or rulers 
in nature is evident, as was before observed, 
from their symbols—the man, the lion, the 
ox, and the eagle. It is singular that amongst 
the descendants of the three sons of Noah, 
the three last animals should be adopted into 
their religion,—the ox, the Egyptian Apis, 
by the descendants of Ham ;' the lon, as a 
symbol of light, by the Persians,’ derived 
from Shem; and the eagle by the Greeks 
and other nations descended from Japhet.’ 

These powers, be they what they may, are _ 
described in Scripture as forming a chariot | 
on which the Deity is represented as riding, | 


1 Other descendants of Ham, as the Phoenicians, regarded the — ) 
ox or heifer as a sacred animal. Baal was worshipped as an ox 
as well asa fly. (Tobit, 1. 5.) 

@ Mithras is to be seen with the head of a lion and the body — 
of a man, having four wings, two of which are extended towards 
the sky, and the other two towards the ground. Montfaucon, 
i. 232. Comp. £zek. i. 11. 

5 Every one knows that the eagle was sacred to the Grecian 
Jupiter. 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxul 


and sometimes in such terms as bring to our 


mind, to compare great things with small, the 
chariots and charioteering of mortals. Thus 
we are told of The chariot of the cherubim 
that spread out their wings, and covered the 
ark of the covenant of the Lord... And in 
Ezekiel’s mystic visions, the glory of Jehovah 
sometimes went up from the cherubic chariot 
to the temple, when The house was filled with 
the cloud, and the court was full of the 
brightness of the Lord's glory” And again, 


the glory of the Lord departs from the house, 


and stands over the cherubim, when mount- 
ing on high from the earth, The glory of the 
God of Israel was over them above? A 
common epithet of God, as king of Israel, 
was that of Insessor of the cherubim,? Whose 
name is called by the name of the Lord God 
of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim ; 
or he that sitteth upon, above, or between the 
cherubim ; or, as it may be rendered, Jn- 
habiteth the cherubim. ‘These expressions 
allude, not only to the presence of God in 


1 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. 

2 Ezek. x. 4. % Ibid. 19. 

4 1 Sam. xiv. 4. 2 Sam. vi. 2. 2 Kings, xix. 15. Ps. 
xxx. 1. xia, &c. 


Ixxiv INTRODUCTION: 


his tabernacle and temple between or above 
the sculptured and symbolical cherubim, but 
to his riding upon, sittmg upon, or inhabiting, 
that is ruling and directing those powers of 
whatever description, which are symbolized 
by those images, or signified by that name. 
When the Lord came to deliver David 
from his enemies, it is stated that he rode 
upon a cherub ;' and the prophet Habakkuk, 
alluding probably to the delivery of the 
Israelites by the destruction of the Egyptians 
in the Red Sea, exclaims, Thou didst walk 
through the sea with thine horses, through 
the heap of great waters ;* and again, with a 
prospective view before him, perhaps, of some 
still mightier deliverance of the church from 
her enemies, “ Was the Lord displeased 
against the rivers? was thine anger against 
the rivers? Was thy wrath against the sea, 
that thou didst ride upon thy horses and upon 
thy chariots of salvation?”* He uses the 
same instruments when his will is to inflict 
a curse and execute judgments. The Lord 
will come with fire, and with his chariots like 


1 2 Sam. xxii. ll. Ps. xviii. 10. 
2 Habak. iu. 15. 3 [bid. 8. 


=e liane OE A ee PO tings AE PM: FR > 6 De tee oy 2 a 


(Es eee ape genta iceriniatititesnhaehenatsinaciniiniieaents ie 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxv 


a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury 
and to rebuke with flames of fire In 
Ezekiel’s vision, coals of fire were taken from 
between the cherubim to scatter over Jeru- 
salem.’ 

Having noticed the ideal meaning of these 
mystic symbols, and their connection with 
and subservience to Jehovah of Hosts, as the 
God of Israel, of Israel both according to the 
flesh and the spirit ;* our next inquiry must 
be whether there are no physical or meta- 
physical beings or objects, concerning which 
the same things are predicated in Holy 
Seripture, as concerning the cherubim; for 
if there are, as equals of the same are equal 
to one another, it follows that these things 
must be synonymous. 

Every student of Holy Writ, when he turns 
his attention to this observation, will imme- 
diately recollect passages in which the same 
things are predicated of the heavens ; thus it 
is said of God, as the God of Israel—-Who 
rideth upon the heavens in thy help, and 
in his excellency upon the sky. And again, 


1 [saz. \xvi. 16. 2 Ezek..x..2, 
2 ator. x. 18. 4 Deut. xxxiil. 26, 


Ixxv1 INTRODUCTION. 


Lixtol him that rideth upon the \eavens.' 
Him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens 
that were of old.” Every one knows that, in. 
Holy Scripture, God is also perpetually de- 
scribed as he who sitteth upon the heavens ;* 
that the heaven is God’s throne, and the 
earth his footstool ;* that The Lord hath 
prepared his throne in the heavens ;’ that 
he dwelleth in the heavens, though they can- 
not contain him;* that he filleth heaven and 
earth.’ 

With regard to Blessings and Curses, that 
the Heavens are the primary instruments by 
which God bestows the one and inflicts the 
other, is evident from many passages of Holy 
Writ. Thus it is said in Deuteronomy,* The 
Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure 
the heavens,® to give the rain unto thy land 
in his season, and to bless all the work of 
thine hand. ‘The prophet Hosea has a pas- 
sage, in which the hands by which blessings 
and fertility are transmitted to man step by 


1 Ps, lxviu. 4. 2 Thid. 33. 


3 [bid. 1. 4. 4 Matth. v. 34, 35. 
5 Ps. ciil. 19. 

6 Ibid. cxxill. 1. 1 Kings, viii. 27. 

7 Jerem. xxiii. 24. 8 Deut. xxvii. 12. 


9 Heb. Down me 2107 FWVIN TR 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxvil 


step are strikingly described. And it shall 
come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith 
the Lord, J will hear the heavens, and they 
shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear 
the corn and the wine and the oil; and they 
shall hear Jezreel.' Thus the blessing de- 
scends from God by the heavens to the earth, 
producing abundance for the support and 
comfort of man. And with respect to curses 
it is said, The heaven that is over thee shall 
be brass Ye are cursed with a curse, saith 
Malachi, for ye have robbed me, even this 
whole nation. The curse alluded, was the 
shutting of the windows of heaven.° 

From all these passages, it 1s evident that 
the same things are predicated both of the 
Heavens and the Cherubim, and that, there- 
fore, they are synonymous terms, and signify 
the same powers. But this leads to another 
inquiry. What are the heavens? This is 
a query which at first every one thinks he 
can answer, but yet when the term comes 
to be sifted, it will be found that few have 
any definite idea of its real meaning. Gene- 
rally speaking, the expanse over our heads, 


Liles, 1,21, 22. 2 Ibid. xxvu. 23. 
3 Malach. iu. 9, 10. 


Ixxvlil INTRODUCTION. 


and the bodies it contains, are understood by 
the word Heavens; but when analysed, it 
will be found chiefly to indicate powers in 
action contained in that expanse, and which 
act upon these bodies ; powers that in the va- 
rious systems of the universe have various 
centres dispersed throughout space, each havy- 
ing a local or partial action upon its own sys- 
tem, and all derived originally, and still main- 
tained, from and by one parent fountain, the 
centre of all irradiation, of all light, of all life 
and energy. 

In order to ascertain what the word hea- 
ven, or heavens, really means, the most satis- 
factory way is to submit it to analysis. In the 
Bible there are three terms employed to sig- 
nify the heavens and heavenly powers, one of 
which’ is usually rendered the Heavens ; ano- 
ther,’ the Sky ; and a third,* the Pirmament. 
I shall consider each of these terms. 

1. Heaven, or the heavens.—This word, in 
the Hebrew language, is derived from a root,' 
which signifies to dispose or place, with skill, 
care, and order, as say the lexicographers ;_ so 
that literally the common plural term would be 


1 pnw 2 p’pnw 3 pps 4 ow 


——— es lS 


INTRODUCTION. lxx1x 


the disposers or placers. It is singular, and 
worthy of particular notice, that the Pelas- 
gians, according to Herodotus, gave no other 
names to their deities than that of gods,’ so 
calling them because they were the placers’ of 
all things in the world, and had the universal 
distribution of them.’ We see here that the 
Grecian gods—which, as has been proved in 
another place,’ were subsequent to the origi- 
nal chaotic state of the heavens and the earth 
when the one was without light, and the other 
without form and void—were really synony- 
mous with those ruling physical powers which 
God employed as his instruments first in the 
formation of the heavenly bodies, and next in 
that of their organized appariture, whether ve- 
getable or animal; and lastly, in maintaining 
those motions or revolutions in the bodies just 
named, which he had produced, and other 
physical phenomena which were necessary for 
the welfare of the whole system and its several 
parts. These powers, whatever name we call 
them by,’ form the disposers or placers, the 


1 @cor. 2 Sevrec. 

3 Oeeec be mpoowvopacay opeac aro Te TOLOUTS, OTL Koopw Oevrec 
Ta TayTa TpHypara Kat macau vopac exov. Euterp. c. 52. 

4 See Appendix, Note 1. 5 See above, p. xxxIx. 


Ixxx INTRODUCTION. 


heavens in action: these are the Jupiter, Juno, 
and Minerva of the Greeks and Romans, and 
the various deities of other nations: For all 
gods of the nations are idols, saith the Psal- 
mist,’ but Jehovah made the heavens, or the 
powers symbolized by the idols of the nations. 
These are those powers which, under God— 
who, as the charioteer of the universe, directs 
them in all their operations, whether in heaven 
or on earth, to answer the purposes of his pro- 
vidence—execute the laws that have received 
his sanction. These are the physical cheru- 
bim represented by the earthly rulers—the 
man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle—these 
the chariot and throne of the Deity; the 
hands also by which he taketh hold of material 
things; the feet by which he treads on the 
earth and other planets. 

Those sublime metaphors of the prophet Na- 
hum—Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind, 
and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of 
his feet?—though at first sight appearing only 
magnificent figures, when analysed will be 
found literally true. Knowest thou the ordi- 
nances of the heaven? canst thou set the do- 


1 Ps. xevi. 5. 2 Nahum, i. 3. 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxx1 


minion thereof in the earth ?' saith God; 
showing that he, by his instruments the hea- 
vens, rules the earth: this is said in stronger 
terms, when the heaven is declared to be God’s 
throne, and the earth his footstool, which 1m- 
plies that God acts upon the earth by what are 
called symbolically his feet—those powers 
therefore that produce whirlwinds and storms 
in our atmosphere; that by their impact 
upon our planet cause evaporation, and conse- 
quently form the clouds, are the metaphorical 
feet of Jehovah, so that the clouds with strict 
propriety may be called the dust excited by 
the tread of his feet. When the Psalmist 
says of God, He sitteth upon the cherubim, 
let the earth be moved, what beauty, pro- 
priety, and force is there in the expression 
when it is recollected that the physical cheru- 
bim are those powers that have complete do- 
minion over the earth, and cause its motions. 
2. The Sky.—The word we render by the 
term sky, or skies, for it 1s always used in the 
plural, is derived from a root,’ which signifies 
to comminute, grind, or wear by friction, im- 
plying powers that come in contact from oppo- 


1 Job, xxxviil. 33. 2 pnw 


Ixxxll INTRODUCTION. 


site directions, so as to be antagonist or 
conflicting powers. The cherubim placed 
at each end of the mercy seat had their 
faces inward, or looking towards each other,’ 
so that they appeared to symbolize antagonist 
powers, as if one was a wis centrifuga, and 
the other a vis centripeta. The pillars of 
the earth are the Lord’s, and he hath set the 
world upon them ;* and these two antagonist 
forces, that which flies from and that which 
seeks the centre, form that, so called, universal 
eravitation, which, under God, upholds the 
universe, keeps all its wholes and their parts 
in their places, maintains their motions, and 
mutual actions upon each other. But though 
these, as moving in an opposite direction, may 
be called antagonist or conflicting powers, yet 
their opposition is not enmity, but universal har- 
mony and love. This Philo seems to intimate, 
when he says—a station,’ over against Para- 
dise, was assigned to the cherubim, and the 
flaming sword, not as to enemies about to 
struggle and fight, but as to those that were 
most intimate and friendly. It is said of the 
cherubic animals, in Ezekiel, that they ran 


1 Exod. xxxvii. 8. 9. 2 1 Sam. iu. 8. 


3 De Cherubim. 85. F. G. Ed. Col. Allobr. 1643. 


a EEE 


wis ee ae ee eS ee eer rrlc emerlleereoereerreeerr—<“<—étiSS Tl lle 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiil 


and returned as the appearance of a flash of 
lightning,‘ which seems to intimate a constant 
efflux and influx of inconceivable rapidity. 
Accordingly the effluxes of light and heat 
from the solar orb in our own system are never 
intermitted, and their velocity, for that of light 
has been measured, exceeds that of any other 
moving substance. With respect to the fuel, 
if I may so express myself, that maintains this 
constant expenditure, little seems yet to be 
known of it philosophically ; and we can only 
form conjectures with respect to it derived 
from the general analogy of nature, as far as 
it is submitted to the observation of our senses. 
On earth we know that there can be no com- 
bustion or evolution of light and heat without 
the access of air to an ignited body; and that 
a constant supply of some combustible sub- 
stance to replace the constant expenditure of 
fuel is also necessary. Therefore, reasoning 
from analogy, something similar must take 
place at the great focus of light and heat. 
There must be an influx of air and a supply of 
combustible matter. That there is such an 
influx is rendered further probable by other 


1 Bzek. i. 14. 


Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION. 


analogical arguments. In man, who is called 
a microcosm, or world in miniature, there is 
as incessant a return of the blood to the heart 
in a negative state by one set of vessels, as 
there is an issue of it in a positive state by 
another. ‘The lungs also inspire the air im one 
state, and expire it in another: and by this 
alternate flux and reflux life is maintained ; 
but suspend it beyond a certain period and 
death is the result. Again, the rivers are con- 
stantly discharging their waters into the sea by 
one channel and receiving them back again by 
another. Plants likewise, and animals, derive 
their nutriment from the earth and from the 
heavens, and under other forms return it again 
to the sources from which it flowed. So that 
it seems to be a general law that where there 
is an efflux there must also be an influx. 

3. The Firmament.—The proper transla- 
tion of the word, which our version, after the 
septuagint, renders firmament, is—the expan- 
sion. And God said, Let there be an expan- 
sion, and let it divide the waters, &e. The 
cause of expansion is heat, which naturally 
divides and separates that in which it acts; as 
we see in the case of evaporation and the as- 
cent of steam: and not only this, but the 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxxv 


expansive force consolidates that whereon its 
impact is, whence our translation renders the 
word, after the Greek, scpewna, the firmament, 
that which renders all things firm, the action 
of which produces the cohesion of the atoms 
of bodies, and their agglomeration round a 
partial or general centre: in this last accep- 
tation it is synonymous with the term attrac- 
tion, and in the former with that of repulsion. 
From these considerations we may readily 
understand why the Psalmist calls it, The 
firmament of his power or strength. 

The terms expansion, then, and firmament, 
express the matter of the heavens in a state of 
action, going from or returning to its central 
fountain ; for every system, as well as its own 
sun and planets, has doubtless its own hea- 
vens, probably never stagnant, but incessantly 
issuing from a centre of irradiation, as the 
blood from the heart in a positive state, and 
returning in a negative state to that centre 
where it is, as it were, again oxygenated, and 
circulates to the flammantia menia mundi ; 
and so 


Lalitur, et labetur in omne volubilis evum. 


1 Ps, cl. I. 
5) a 2 o 


xxxyi INTRODUCTION. 


‘But though every system probably forms a 


“distinct portion of creation, yet, reasoning 


from analogy, and the general plan of the 
Deity, as far as we are acquainted with it, 
there is every reason to believe that the 
universe consists of systems so concatenated 
as to form one great whole, the centre of 
which may be the Heaven of Heavens, the 
presence-chamber of the God of Gods and 
Lord of Lords; in whom and from whom is 
all motion, light, and expansion. What may 
be the links that connect the several systems 
can only be conjectured. It has been ob- 
_ served with regard to comets, that they wander 
from one solar system to another ;' if this be 
the case they evidently belong to éwo systems, 
and their perihelion in one, will be their 
aphelion in another, and thus they may form 
connecting links between them. This con- 
catenation of systems may also have a com- 
mon motion round their glorious centre, form- 
ing the grand cycle, or year, of the Uni- 
verse. rls 
Having, I trust, made it evident, or at 
least extremely probable, that the Heavens 


1 La Place, System. &c. by Harte, i. 337. 


j 
. 
( 
4 


INTRODUCTION. Ixxxvil 


and the Cherubim, physically considered, - . 
indicate the same powers, I shall next advert — 
to some passages of Scripture that seem to 
lift up the veil which covers these mysterious 
symbols, and show us expressly what they 
represent. 

In that sublime description of the descent 
of the Deity for the help and deliverance 
of David in the eighteenth Psalm, we have 
these words; He rode upon a Cherub and 
did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the 
wind. Here we have one of these symbolical 
beings introduced and explained—as the latter 
hemistich of the verse is clearly exegetical of 
the former—by the phrase, The wings of the 
wind.’ If we next turn to the hundred-and- 
fourth Psalm, in a parallel passage, we find 
an explanation of this latter metaphor. He 
maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh 
upon the wings of the wind. Whence it 
appears that the wings of the wind, by an 
elegant metonomy, mean the clouds, conse- 
quently the clouds are a cherub. In various 
parts of the Old Testament, God’s presence 
and glory are manifested by and in a cloud. 


1 Parkhurst renders these words, The wings of the Spirit, but 
he stands alone in this. 


X@Vill INTRODUCTION. 


doxologising spirits whom the cherubim sym- 
bolize.’' Trenzeus, the learned Bishop of 
Lyons, who had conversed with Polycarp, 
St. John’s disciple, regards these mystic ob- 
jects as physical and ecclesiastical symbols, 
taking chiefly into consideration their number. 
The four quarters of the globe, the four winds, 
the four gospels, the four universal covenants 
given to man—each of these he appears to 
regard as figured by the cherubic animals ;” 
and he might have added the four physical 
cherubim, spirit or wind, light, expansion, 
and the clouds. Justin Martyr has a sin- 
gular opinion on this subject. He thinks 
iizekiel’s cherubim symbolized Nebuchad- 
nezzar when he was driven out from the 
society of man as a beast:* when, according 
to the Septuagint which Justin used, he eat 
erass like an ow, his hair was like a lion’s, and 
his nails like a bird’s or eagle's. Athanasius 
has a remarkable passage, before alluded to, 
in which he says of Christ, that when he ap- 
peared upon earth, He bowed the heavens and 
came down, and that he again mounted the 


1 Tn allusion probably to Jsaiah vi. 3, and Revel. iv. 8. 
2 Adv. Heres. |. ii. c. 11. 
3 Quest. et Resp. ad Orthodox, Quest. xliv. 


INTRODUCTION. xC1x 


cherubim, and ascended into heaven,' from 
whence it should seem that he had adopted 
the opinion, that the heavens, and the clouds 
were antitypes of the symbolical cherubim : 
yet in another passage of his works, he ex- 
pressly places the seraphim and cherubim 
amongst the highest of the heavenly essences. 
« As we know,” says he, “ that there is a 
distinction of rank in the powers above, so 
there are also differences of station and know- 
ledge. The thrones, both the Seraphim and 
the Cherubim, learn from God immediately, 
as higher than all and nearest to God, and 
they struct the inferior orders—but the low- 
est rank are the angels, which are also the 
instructors of men.” ? 

it seems evident from this statement of the 
opinions of both ancient Jews and Christians, 
that the sculptured Cherubim, in their opinion, 
represented physical as well as metaphysical 
objects ; im fact, the most general interpreta- 
tion seems to be—that those powers that rule 
under God, either in his physical universe, or 
which, with regard to our planet, have power 
in his church, or over his people; and also 


1 Quest. ad Antioch. exxxvi. 
@ De commun. essent. ed. Paris, 1627, i. 238. 


xc INTRODUCTION. 


Apocalypse, to ride upon a White Horse, 
and the armies which were in heaven to 
follow him upon white horses;' by these 
white horses are meant white clouds, as is 
evident from other passages of Holy Writ; 
as where it is said—Behold, he cometh with 
clouds.” Again, God's going to execute 
judgments upon any nation is sometimes 
represented by his riding upon a cloud. So 
when the prophet pronounces the burden of 
Egypt, his exordium is—Behold, the Lord 
rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come 
onto Egypt. 

So immediate is God’s action upon the 
clouds described to be in the Bible, that the 
thunder is called his voice, as in Job—Hear 
attentively the noise of his voice, and the 
sound that goeth out of his mouth. He di- 
recteth it under the whole heaven, and his 
lightning unto the ends of the earth——God 
thundereth marvellously with his voice :* and 
when he descended upon Mount Sinai, it was 
with mighty thunderings.* Considering the 
benefits and blessing that God confers upon 


1 Revel. xix. 11, 14. 
2 Ibid. i. 7, comp. Dan. vil. 13. Rev. xiv. 14. Acts, i. 11. 
3 Job, xxxvil. 2—5. 4 Exod. ix. 28. 


INTRODUCTION. xCcl 


mankind by the ministry of the Cherub- 
clouds, his horses and chariots of salvation, 
we need not wonder at the Psalmist’s expres- 
sion— His strength is in the clouds.’ Acting 
by them, he causes it to rain upon one city 
and not upon another.” Are there any, says 
Jeremiah, among the vanities of the Gentiles 
that can cause rain? or can the Heavens 
give showers? Art not thou He, O Lord 
our God. | 

The Deity superintends his whole creation, 
not only supporting the system that he has 
established, and seeing that the powers to 
which he has given it in charge to govern 
under him, execute his physical laws ; but 
himself, where he sees fit, in particular in- 
stances dispensing with these laws: restrain- 
ing the clouds, in one instance, from shedding 
their treasures; and in another, permitting 
them to descend in blessmgs. Acting every 
where upon the atmosphere, and those secon- 
dary powers that produce atmospheric phe- 
nomena, as circumstances connected with his 
moral government require. ‘Thus it is that 
his strength is in the clouds ; that his pre- 


1 Ps. \xviil. 34. * Amos, iv. 7. 
3 Jerem. xiv, 22. 


xCll INTRODUCTION, 


sence, either to bless or to curse, is mani- 
fested by them; that his voice is heard from 
them; his glory irradiates from them. On 
this account also they are called his paths.’ 

The Lord is said to come with fire, or 
rather in fire ;? to descend in fire;* to be a 
consuming fire ;* to speak out of the fire ;° 
from all which passages it seems to follow, 
that fire or heat form also one of the physical 
cherubim upon which the Deity sitteth, or 
which he inhabiteth, and by which he aeteth. 

Light appears entitled to the same dis- 

tinction ; for God is said to dwell in the light 
_ that no man can approach unto,’ and to cover 
himself with light as with a garment.’ 

Lastly, air or wind, which God bringeth 
out of his treasury ; which is the type, and, 
on the day of Pentecost, was the precursor 
of the Holy Spirit, both in Hebrew and 


Greek® is expressed by the same word dis-- 


tinguished only by its adjuncts; and is one 


* Ps. Ys. 1s. 

2 Isai. \xvi. 15. Heb. wa, the Septuagint seem to have 
read wo. 

3 Exod. xix. 18. 4 Deut. iv. 24. 

5 Ibid. 36. 6 | Tim. vi. 16. 

7 Ps. cre 2. 8 MN mrevpe. 


INTRODUCTION. xen 


of the main instruments by which God acts 
upon our globe, both in dispensing blessings 
and curses, and without which our life could 
not be sustained a moment, is evidently a 
cherub, or ruling physical power, of the same 
rank with heat and light. 

The statement I have here given of the 
physical cherubim, is singularly confirmed 
in Ezekiel’s vision. I looked, says he, and 
behold a whirlwind came out of the north, 
a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and 
a brightness was about it. Here we see the 
appearance of the symbolical animals was 
preceded by that of the physical agents they 
symbolized—the wind, the cloud, the fire, 
and the light. The reason why the clouds 
are particularly signalized as God’s chariots, 
appears to be because they are instinct with 
all those principles by which God acts upon 
the earth; and therefore they are described 
as carrying him, since they are the instru- 
ments by which his will has full accomplish- 
ment, 

It is singular, and worthy of particular 
notice, that God is also said to dwell in darf- 


1 Ezek. i. 4. 


XC1V INTRODUCTION, 


ness. The Lord hath said that he would 
dwell in the thick darkness ;‘ and again— 
Moses drew near to the thick darkness where 
God was. In the Psalms it is said—He 
made darkness his secret (or hiding) place.’ 
Darkness was the state of the original hea- 
vens, before God formed the light, to which 
this passage seems to be an allusion. In 
Isaiah, the term create is applied to darkness, 
and form to the production of light;* from 
which it appears that it was out of darkness 
that light was formed; and these two oppo- 
sites seem to bear the same relation to each 
other as positive and negative electricity, or 
heat and cold. Darkness was that in which 
the Divine Spirit operated, when by incu- 
bation motion, followed by light and expan- 
sion, was educed, and the sea brake forth 
from the crust of the earth as from the womb; 
when the cloud was the garment thereof, and 
thick darkness a swaddling band for it. 

In the different visions of the appearance 
of the Deity, as the Insessor of the chariot 
of the cherubim, it is stated, that expanded 


1 2 Chron. vi. 1. 2 Exod. xx. 21. 
3 Ps. xvin. LL. 4 Isai. xlv.7. 
5 Job, xxxviil. 8, 9. 


INTRODUCTION. XCV 


over their heads was a firmament like crystal 
or ice; that above this firmament was a sap- 
phire throne; that one sat on this throne, 
round about whom was the appearance of a 
rambow.' So likewise in the vision of the 
apostolic prophet, St. John—A throne was set 
in heaven, and one sat upon it, and there was 
a rainbow round about the throne, and before 
the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal ; 
and in the midst of the throne and round about 
the throne were four cherubic animals, which 
proclaim the Trisagium.* When Moses, 
Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel 
went up into Mount Sinai, and saw the God 
of Israel, He stood upon what was like a 
pavement of sapphire and as it were the body 
of heaven in its clearness.’ In all these pas- 
sages, the same idea seems to prevail with 
respect to the firmament—it is like ice or the 
terrible crystal in one—a sea of glass like 
crystal, or crystallizing, emitting the splendour 
of crystal in the other—like the body of 
heaven in its clearness in the third. 

The footstool of the Deity, the pavement 
on which his throne is placed, is over or above 


1 Ezek. i. 22, 26, 28. 2 Revel. iv. 2, 3, 6, 7, 8. 
3 Exod. xxiv. 10. 


xevl INTRODUCTION. 


the heads of the cherubim; and though we 
cannot comprehend exactly the precise mean- 
ing of the figures employed, yet the general 
idea seems to be that of irradiation ; and by 
these representations the claim of Jehovah the 
God of Israel is indicated to supremacy and 
entire dominion over the physical cherubim, 
or the heavens in a state of action, and as 
the sole fountain and centre of that incessant 
radiation and glory, and of those constant 
effuxes by which the whole universe of sys- 
tems and worlds is maintained. 

It seems probable, therefore, that one of the 
principal reasons why the cherubic symbols 
were placed in the adytum of the Jewish 
tabernacle and temple was not only to repre- 
sent those powers that govern under God in 
nature, but likewise to indicate his Supreme 
and only Godhead, and that his people were 
to beware of worshipping these powers or their 
symbols, because they derived so much benefit 
from their ministerial agency, but to worship 
Him alone who created them, employed them, 
and operated in and by them. 

The ancients seem generally to have re- 
garded the name and symbols as indicating 
and representing more than one object. 


INTRODUCTION. xevil 


Philo Judzeus, who has written a treatise 
upon those placed at the east of the garden 
of Eden, sometimes interprets them physi- 
cally, and sometimes metaphysically. Physi- 
| cally, in one place, he considers one cherub 
}as representing the sphere of the fixed stars, 
and the other that of the planets,’ and in 
another he asks, whether they may not 
signify the two hemispheres,” both of which 
amount to the whole universe.’ The flaming 
sword, he conjectures, either represents the 


general motion of the heavens and planets, or 
else is a symbol of the sun.*. Metaphysically, 
he considers the two cherubim as symbolizing 
the Power and Goodness of the Deity, and 
the flaming sword the Logos or his essential 
Word; and this interpretation he seems to 
think was divinely suggested to him.’ Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, in some degree, seems to 
incline to the opinions, on this subject, of his 
compatriot Philo, but he expresses himself 
obscurely,° and, after alluding to other inter- 
pretations, concludes with mentioning “ The 


1 De Cherubim. 1613. 86. A. B. 

2 Ibid. D. 3 [bid. 85. G. 

4 Ibid. D. E. 5 Ibid. 86. F. G. 

6 Clem. Alex. Stromata. |. v. 241. ed. Sylburg. 1592. 


XCVili INTRODUCTION. 


doxologising spirits whom the cherubim sym- 
bolize.”' Treneeus, the learned Bishop of 
Lyons, who had conversed with Polycarp, 
St. John’s disciple, regards these mystic ob- 


jects as physical and ecclesiastical symbols, 


taking chiefly into consideration their number. 
The four quarters of the globe, the four winds, 
the four gospels, the four universal covenants 
given to man—each of these he appears to 
regard as figured by the cherubic animals ;” 
and he might have added the four physical 
cherubim, spirit or wind, light, expansion, 
and the clouds. Justin Martyr has a sin- 
gular opinion on this subject. He thinks 
Eizekiel’s cherubim symbolized Nebuchad- 
nezzar when he was driven out from the 
society of man as a beast:* when, according 
to the Septuagint which Justin used, he eat 
grass like an ox, his hair was like a lion’s, and 
his nails like a bird’s or eagle’s. Athanasius 
has a remarkable passage, before alluded to, 
in which he says of Christ, that when he ap- 
peared upon earth, He bowed the heavens and 
came down, and that he again mounted the 


1 Tn allusion probably to Isaiah vi. 3, and Revel. iv. 8. 
2 Adv. Heres. |. iii. c. 11. 
3 Quest. et Resp. ad Orthodox, Quest. xliv. ; 


INTRODUCTION. xC1x 


cherubim, and ascended into heaven,' from 
whence it should seem that he had adopted 
the opinion, that the heavens, and the clouds 
were antitypes of the symbolical cherubim : 
yet in another passage of his works, he ex- 
pressly places the seraphim and cherubim 
amongst the highest of the heavenly essences. 
« As we know,’ says he, “that there is a 
distinction of rank in the powers above, so 
there are also differences of station and know- 
ledge. The thrones, both the Seraphim and 
the Cherubim, learn from God immediately, 
as higher than all and nearest to God, and 
they instruct the inferior orders—but the low- 
est rank are the angels, which are also the 
instructors of men.” ” 

It seems evident from this statement of the 
opinions of both ancient Jews and Christians, 
that the sculptured Cherubim, in their opinion, 
represented physical as well as metaphysical 
objects ; in fact, the most general interpreta- 
tion seems to be—that those powers that rule 
under God, either in his physical universe, or 
which, with regard to our planet, have power 
in his church, or over his people; and also 


1 Quest. ad Antioch. exxxvi. 
* De commun. essent. ed. Paris, 1627, i. 238. 


Cc INTRODUCTION. 


those spiritual essences that approach nearest 
to him, in the purity of their natures, are the 
antitype of the cherubic forms. St. Paul, 
describing the creation of all thmgs by the 
Son of God, whether viszble or invisible, men- 
tions particularly four ruling powers m nature 
and grace—Thrones, dominions, principali- 
ties, and powers.’ This may be interpreted 
of all rule and government both m heaven 
and upon earth; which is all derived from 
Christ, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, 
to whom All power is given in heaven and 
earth :? who therefore is the Insessor of the 
cherubim, acting by all the powers that he 
hath created, whether physical or metaphy- 
sical, whether civil, ecclesiastical, or spiritual ; 
for He upholdeth all things by the word of 
his power? | 
In the prophecy of Isaiah, and in the 
Apocalypse,’ the six-wimged beings called by 
the former The seraphim,’ and by St. John 


1 Coloss. i. 16. 2 Matth. xxviii. 18. 

* Heb. 1.3. 4 Tsai. vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8. 

5 Heb. p*»sw This name, which literally may be rendered 
burners, physically would signify the heavens in the most in- 
tense state of action; they are stated to have six wings, the 
upper pair veiling their faces, the lower pair covering their feet, 
the intermediate pair being used for flight. See Jsaz. vi. 2. 


INTRODUCTION. ci 


liwing-creatures' — which by most ancient 
writers are thought to be synonymous with 
the cherubim—are represented as repeating 
the Trisagium; the latter says—They rest 
not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, 
Lord God Almighty. This triple ascription 
of Holiness is thought by many to intimate 
a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, and 
that the physical cherubim or seraphim 
symbolically represent that mystery. Arch- 
deacon Sharp, and after him Archbishop 
Newcome,” have observed, that this opinion 
is inconsistent with these symbolical animals 
falling down and worshipping the Lamb, and 
ascribing their redemption to him; an ob- 
jection which appears to me not to have been 
satisfactorily answered. It should, however, 
be taken into consideration that the cherubim 
are symbols not solely of physical, but of 
all governing powers; and that, therefore, in 
order to interpret rightly any act of theirs, the 


When our Saviour says of the wind—Thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it 
gveth ; may not the same thing be meant as by Isaiah’s Descrip- 
tion of the Seraphim ? 

1 Gr. Zwa. 

2 Sharp On the Cherubim, 305. Newcome’s Ezekiel, i. 10, 
note. 


VOL. I. h 


Cll INTRODUCTION. 


circumstances attending upon it should be 
carefully examined. If we consider the pas- 
-sages in the Apocalypse here alluded to, we 
shall find that when praise is to be rendered 
to God as Creator and Upholder of the unt- 
verse, they then are stated. to proclaim his 
Triune Deity, by saying—Holy, Holy, Holy, — 
Lord God Almighty, which was, and 1s, and 
ws to come. This they do as the physical 
powers, under God, upholding the universe, 
especially as fire, light, and air; all of which, 
in passages of Scripture above noticed,’ ap- 
pear to represent the Three Persons of the 
Holy Trinity. But when they are introduced 
as representing the governing Powers of the 
universal Church, as they are when they fall 
down and worship the Lamb, the case is 
altered ; for those they then represent are 
amongst the redeemed. a onn® 
One of my objects in treating so much at 
large upon this mysterious subject, was to 
counteract that tendency, often observable in 
the writings of philosophers, to ascribe too 
much to the action of second causes, and the 
mechanism of the heavenly powers; as if 


1 Revel. ubi supr. 2 See above, p. xc. 


INTRODUCTION. © ell 


they were sufficient of themselves, and with- 
out the intervention of the First Cause, to do 
all in all, and keep the whole machine and 
all its parts together and at work. Instead 
of regarding Him as receding further and 
further from our observation,’ my desire 1s to 
bring Him nearer and nearer to us, that we 
may see and acknowledge Him every where, 
as the main-spring of the universe, which 
animates, as it were, and upholds it in all its 
parts and motions— 


Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent. 


Maintaining his own laws by his own universal 
action upon and by his cherubim of glory. 
Wirsout HIm THEY CAN DO NOTHING. 


1 cannot conclude this Introduction without 
returning my grateful acknowledgments to 
the Board of Curators of the Hunterian 
Museum, for their kind permission to have 
drawings taken of such subjects in that 
superb collection as might answer my _ pur- 


1 See above, p. xxi. 


ClVv INTRODUCTION. 


pose; and to Messrs. Clift and Owen, the — 
conservator and assistant-conservator of the 
museum, for their readiness, on all occasions, 
to show and explain to me such articles under 
their care as I had occasion to mspect; to 
the friendly attentions of the latter gentleman 
I am particularly indebted, not only for his 
exertions to serve me in the museum, but for 
his valuable information on numerous scien- 
. tific subjects, on which I had occasion to con- 
sult him, which his deep knowledge of com- 
parative anatomy, and familiar acquaintance 
with the classification of the animal kingdom, | 
enabled him to give me. To the gentlemen 
connected with the British Museum and that 
of the Zoological Society, I have to make 
similar acknowledgements for the kindness and 
information with which my inquiries on several 
subjects have uniformly been answered. 

As the first volume of this work) was 
printed before the publication of Dr. Roget’s 
admirable Treatise, it will not be deemed 
wonderful that, m some instances, we have 
treated of the same subject. The history, 
habits, and instincts of animals, are so inti- 
mately connected with their physiological 
structure, especially their external anatomy, 


INTRODUCTION. CV 


that it is scarcely possible, in order to prove 
the adaptation of means to an end, to treat 
satisfactorily of the former without occasional 
illustrations from the latter. After the doctor’s 
work appeared, I removed many things of 
this kind from my MS., upon which he had 
enlarged. The moult of Crustaceans, how- 
ever, seemed to me, and to every friend whom 
I consulted, so necessary to make the history 
of that Class complete, that, though mostly 
derived from the same source as that of my 
learned Co-nominee, I did not expunge it. 


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THE 


HISTORY, HABITS, AND INSTINCTS 


OF ANIMALS. 


CHAPTER I. 


Creation of Animals. 


Iw no part of creation are the POWER, WISDOM, 
and GOODNEss, of its beneficent and almighty 
Author more signally conspicuous than in the 
various animals that inhabit and enliven our 
globe. The infinite diversity of their forms and 
organs; the nice adaptation of these to their 
several functions ; the beauty and elegance of a 
large number of them ; the singularity of others ; 
the variety of their motions; their geographical 
distribution ; but, above all, their preeminent 
utility to mankind, in every state and stage of 
life, render them objects of the deepest interest 
both to rich and poor, high and low, wise and 
unlearned, so that arguments in proof of these 
primary attributes of the Godhead, drawn from 
the habits, instincts, and other adjuncts of the 
VOL. I. B 


2 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


animal creation, are likely to meet with more 
universal attention, to be more generally compre- 
hended, to make a deeper and more lasting im- 
pression upon the mind, to direct the heart more 


fervently and devotedly to the maker and giver 


of these interesting beings, than those which are 
drawn from more abstruse sources, though really 
more elevated and sublime. 

The history of the animal kingdom naturally 
commences with the creation of animals, and the 
great events preparatory to it, for when the 
ALMIGHTY CrEaTorR, in his wisdom, and by the 
word of his power, had first brought into being, 
_ and afterwards set in order, the heavens and the 
earth; had caused the latter to bring forth grass, 
and herb, and tree, and then had placed his sun 
in the former, that by constant irradiations of 
hight and heat from that central fountain, the 
life; and motion, which the rirst mover had 
begun by the incubation of his Spirit, and which 
now manifested itself in the vegetable kingdom, 
might be maintained till it had run its destined 
course. When all things were thus prepared, 
his next care was to people and enliven the earth 
with a different and higher class of beings, in 
whom—to organization, and life, and growth, 
and reproductive powers,—might be added sensa- 
tion and voluntary motion. Unpeopled by ani- 


t See Appendix, note 1. 


el ge ee Ce 


7) a 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 3 


mals, the verdant earth in all its primitive and 
untarnished beauty, though inlaid with flowers 
exhibiting, in endless variety, every mixture 
and shade of colour that can glad the sight ; 
though fanned by gales breathing Sabean odours, 
to gratify the scent ; though tempting the appe- 
tite by delicious fruits of every flavour, still 
would be a scene without the breath of life. No 
motions would be seen but of the passing clouds, 
of the fluctuating waters, and the waving boughs ; 
no voice heard but of the elements. 

Was a single pair placed in this paradise, 
though at first it would seem that there was 
gratification for every sense, and joy would pos- 
sess the heart, and admiration fil! the soul with 
pleasure ; yet after the novelty of the spectacle 
had ceased, and the effect of its first impression 
was obliterated, a void would soon be felt, some- 
thing more would seem wanting to animate the 
otherwise lovely scene; a longing would arise in 
the mind for some beings, varying in form and 
magnitude, furnished with organs that would 
enable them to traverse and enliven the lower 
regions of the atmosphere, others that might 
course over the earth’s surface, and others that 
could win their easy way through its waters, so 
that all, by their numbers, and the variety of 
their motions, might exhibit a striking and inter- 
esting contrast to the fixed and unconscious 
vitality of the vegetable kingdom. 


4 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


But it was. not the will of the beneficent Crea- 


tor to leave such a blank and blot in his creation ; 
before he created man in his own image, and en- 
throned him king of the new-made world, he 
decreed that his dominion also should be an 


image of his own, over innumerable creatures of | 


every form and grade, each in its place entrusted 
with a peculiar office and function, and furnished 
with organs adapted to its work, contributing to 
its own and the general welfare; so that all 
should operate, ‘‘ though each in different sort 
and manner,” to accomplish the great plan of an 
All-wise Providence. 

What was the precise order of creation in the 
-animal kingdom is no where clearly revealed in 
Holy Scripture; and we can only conjecture, 
since the most perfect animal, and he who alone 
belonged to the spiritual and invisible world by 
his soul, as well as by his body to the visible, was 
created the last, that the progress was from those 
that were at the foot of the scale to those that 
were at the summit. We are told, indeed, in 
general terms, that on the fifth day, at the divine 
bidding, the waters, hitherto barren and unten- 
anted, produced abundantly “the moving crea- 
ture that hath life,’ and fowl to traverse the firma- 
ment. In an instant,.in obedience to that quick- 
ening word, by the operation of Almighty Power, 
and under the guidance of infinite Wisdom and 
Goodness, the boundless ocean with all its tri- 


7 gl a Eh, ee ee, Bw 


££ 


CREATION OF ANIMALS ~ 


butary streams became prolific, and brought 
forth by myriads, in endless and strange diver- 
sity, its destined offspring, beginning, perhaps, 
with the viewless animalcule or the senseless 
polype, half animal and half plant, and ending 
with the half fish and half quadruped, cetaceans, 
and their kindred monsters.’ Nor was the Ocean 
prolific of aquatic animals alone, and those whose 
habitation was the restless world of waters, with 
all its streams, its caves, and its abysses, it also 
eave birth to all the winged and feathered tribes 
—from the brilliant humming bird to the mighty 
eagle and the giant vulture—that people and 
enliven the atmospheric sea, and make it the 
field of their excursions. The animals created 
on this day were destined to dwell or move, 
independent of the earth, in a fluid medium of 
greater or less tenuity, and for that purpose 
were fitted with appropriate and peculiar organs, 
in one case both for respiration and locomotion, 
in the other for locomotion only. 

Again the word of power was spoken,—‘ Leé 
the earth bring forth,” and instantly the various 
tribes of quadrupeds issued from her teeming 
womb, varying infinitely in size, from the minute 
harvest-mouse* to the giant bulk of the elephant 
and hippopotamus ; then also the earth-born rep- 
tiles, whether four-footed, six-footed, eight-footed, 


1 See Appendix, note 2. 2 Mus messorius. 


6 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


or many-footed, started into life, and connected 
the terrestrial tribes with those produced from the 
waters. In the majority of these, the fins of the 
fishes and cetaceans, and the wings of the birds, 
were replaced by legs best fitted for motion on ~ 
the theatre on which they were to act their part, 
and to fulfil the will of their Creator. 

The earth was now completely furnished and 
decorated to receive her destined king and master. 
The sun, the moon, and the stars were shedding 
their kindly influences upon her; she and her 
fellow planets had commenced their annual and 
diurnal revolutions; the plants and flowers, her 
first born progeny, had sprung out of her bosom, 
and covered her with verdure and beauty; and 
the fruit and forest trees flourishing in all their 
glory of leaf, blossom, and fruit, were ready to 
minister to the support, comfort, and enjoyment 
of their future lord: the sea, the air, the earth, 
were each filled with their appropriate inhabi- 
tants, and throughout the whole creation was 
beauty, and grace, and life, and motion, and joy, 
and jubilee. But still, in the midst of all this ap- 
parent glory and activity of vegetable and animal 
life in the new created world, there was not a 
single being endued with reason and understand- 
ing; one that could elevate its thought above the 
glorious and wonderful spectacle to the great 
Author of it, or acknowledge and adore its Creator. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 7 


Amidst this infinite variety of beings there was 
not a single one which to a material body added 
an immaterial immortal soul; so that there was 
still a great blank in creation. A wonderful and 
magnificent temple was reared, and shone in 
glory and beauty, but there was as yet no priest 
therein to offer up incense to the Deity to whom 
it was dedicated. 

We are now, therefore, to consider the creation 
of him for whom this high office was reserved, 
who, as king and priest, was to render to the 
common Creator the praises due from all created 
things, and be the spokesman for all the inhabi- 
tants of this terrestrial globe. 

The vast distance, on this account, intervening 
between man and the highest animals in the scale 
of being, appears evident from the different cir- 
cumstances attending their creation. When they 
were brought into existence, the word was—“ Let 
the waters bring forth—Let the earth bring forth,” 
from which it should seem that God did not act 
immediately in their creation, except by his agency 
on those powers that he had established as rulers 
in nature, and by which he ordinarily taketh 
hold, as it were, of the material universe. But 
when a being, combining the spiritual with the 
material world, is to be created, all the persons 
of the Godhead unite immediately in the work, 
and without the intervention of any other agent, 


re) CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


‘* Let us make man.” He was therefore neithér 
sea-born nor earth-born, as some ancient nations 
claimed to be, but born of God ; though, as Christ 
moistened clay when he was about to exercise 
his creative power, in the re-forming of an eye ;* 
so was the humid earth used in the creation of 
the body of man by his Maker, and when that 
wonderful machine, with its complex apparatus of 
organs, both external and internal, was finished ; 
when a throne and presence chamber were pre- 
pared for the intellectual and spiritual, and govern- 
ing part of his nature, and that wonder-working 
pulp the brain, with its silver spinal cord and 
infinitely divaricated threads, already fitted for 
the mastery of every motive organ, was in a state 
to transmit without obstruction, each flux and 
reflux of that subtile fluid, intermediate, as it 
‘were, between matter and spirit,? which so in- 
stantaneously conveys and causes the execution 
‘of the commands of the will by every external 
bodily organ ; when the heart was ready to beat ; 
the lungs to play; the blood to circulate; and 
every other system to start for the fulfilment of 
its prescribed errand. ‘‘ Zhen the Lord God 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and 
man became a living soul.” He was now installed 
into his kingdom over the globe which he inha- 
bited, and dominion was given him over the 


1 John, 1x. 6. * See Appendix, note 3. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 9 


inhabitants of the water, of the air, and of the 
earth ; and the divine image, in which he was to 
be created, was rendered complete. 

Now, the generations of the world were perfect 
and healthful, and God saw every thing that he 
had made, and behold it was very good. That 


_-is,—every individual essence, whether inanimate 


or animate, was fitted in every respect to answer 


the end of its creation, and perform its allotted 


part in contributing to the general welfare. The 


entire machine was now in action, every separate 
_ wheel was revolving, and the will of Him who 
contrived and fabricated it had full and unin- 
_ terrupted accomplishment. ‘The instincts of the 


whole circle of animals urged them, by an irre- 
sistible impulse, to fulfil their several functions ; 
I mean those that were necessary to the then 
state of things: for if the instinct of the pre- 
daceous ones was not restrained, they would soon 
have annihilated the herbivorous ones, even if, 
as Lightfoot supposes, they were at first created 
by sevens.* They must, therefore, originally have 
eaten grass or straw like the ox, and neither 
injured nor destroyed their fellow-beasts of a 
more harmless character; this, indeed, appears 
clearly from the terms of the original grant, 
“To every beast of the earth, and to every fowl 


of the ar, and to every thing that creepeth upon 


! See Appendix, note 4. 


10 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


the earth, wherein there ts life, I have given 
every green herb for meat.” And to this vege- 
table diet, before the close of the present scene, 
we are assured they shall again return so as to 
render the last age of the world as happy as the 
original state of man in Paradise.’ This harmony 
of the animal creation, continued probably long 
enough, after the fall, to allow sufficient time for 
such a multiplication of the flocks and herds, 
and flights and shoals of the gregarious animals, 
as would secure them from extinction—but then, 
as the poet sings: 


Discord first 
Daughter of sin, among th’ irrational 
Death introduc’d through fierce antipathy : 
Beast now with beast ’gan war, and fowl with fowl, 
And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving, 
Devour’d each other; nor stood much in awe 
Of man but fled him, or with count’nance grim 
Glar’d on him passing. These were from without 
The growing miseries which Adam saw. 


Had Adam not fallen, this sad change would, 
probably, never have taken place, for as the 
author of the book of wisdom argues :—‘‘ God 
made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the 
destruction of the living. For he created all things 
that they might have their being ; and the genera- 
tions of the world were healthful: and there ts no 


1 Isaiah, Ixv. 25. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 11 


powson of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of 
death upon the earth.’ When we consider the 
relative position of man and the animal kingdom, 
by the divine decree, subjected to his dominion, 
the harmony and goodwill that subsisted between 
them, it appears improbable that immortal man 
would have been afflicted by the appearance of 
death and destruction amongst his subjects from 
any cause, especially by the strong, and those 
armed with deadly weapons, attacking and de- 
vouring the weak and helpless. Even now, 
fallen as we are from our original dignity, there 
is no creature so fell and savage that we have not 
more or less the power to subdue and tame; no 
natures so averse, that we are not skilled to re- 
concile ; we can counteract even instinct itself, 
and make a treaty of peace and mutual good 
will between animals, whom nature, by a law, 
has placed in the fiercest enmity and opposition 
to each other.' 

The Creator, indeed, foreseeing the fatal apos- 
tacy that plunged our race in ruin, and providing 
for the circumstances in which our globe would 
eventually be placed from the too rapid increase 
of various animals most given to multiply, fur- 
nished the predatory tribes with organs and 
offensive arms, which, when he gave the word 
and let loose the reins, would urge them to the 


1 See Appendix, note 5, 


12 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


work of destruction, and impel them to attack 
and devour without pity, those amongst the 
weaker animals, that were likely to increase in 
a degree hurtful to the general welfare, thus ful- 
filling his great purpose of generally maintaining 
those relative proportions, as to number, of indi- 
vidual species, that would be most conducive to 
the health and mutual advantage of all parts of 
the system of our globe. 


This too is the place to consider another cir- 
cumstance connected with the appointment by 
Providence of certain animals to certain ends. 
There are, as must be evident to every one who 
' thinks or observes at all, large numbers of the 
animal kingdom, which, considered in their in- 
dividual capacities, may be regarded as positively 
injurious to man ; and seem to have been created 
with a view to his punishment, either in his per- 
son or property. Of this description are those 
predatory tribes of which I have just spoken: 
but I here mean, more particularly, to advert 
to those personal pests, that not only attempt to 
derive their nutriment from him by occasionally 
sucking his blood when he comes in their way, 
as the flea, the horse-fly, and others, but those 
that make a settlement upon him or within him, 
selecting his body for their dwelling as well as 
their food, and thus infesting him with a double 
torment. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 13 


_ Besides those insects of a disreputable name ' 
which, under more than one form, inhabit his 
person externally ; and those that, burying them- 
selves in his flesh, annoy him and produce cuta- 
neous diseases,’ a whole host of others attack 
him internally, and sometimes fatally. Can we 
believe that man, in his pristine state of glory, 
and beauty, and dignity, could be the receptacle 
and the prey of these unclean and disgusting 
creatures? This is surely altogether incredible, 
I had almost said impossible. And we must 
either believe, with Le Clerc and Bonnet, that 
all those worms now infesting our intestines 
existed in Adam before his fall, only under the 
form of eggs, which did not hatch till after that 
sad event: or that these eggs were dispersed in 
the air, in the water, and in various aliments, and 
so were ready to hatch when they met with their 
destined habitation: or, as some parasites are 
found in the earth,’ or the water,‘ as well as in the 
human species, that they are in general formed 
for living in different stations:° or, lastly, that 
they were created subsequently to the fall of 
Adam, not immediately or all at once, but when 
occasions called for such expressions of the divine 
displeasure. 

With respect to the first of these hypotheses, 

~ 1 Pediculi. 2 Sarcoptes Scabiei, Pulex penetrans, &c. 


3 Lumbricus. 4 Gordius aquaticus. 
5 See Introd. to Ent. iv. 229. 


¥4 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


it seems to me very improbable for this reason, 
that it supposes the first pair to have in them 
the germes of all these animal pests, which 
although, before the fall, they were restrained 
from germination, after that event, were left 
to the ordinary action of physical laws, so that 
then every one of these scourges must have 
inhabited them and preyed upon them. Fallen 
indeed they were from glory and grace, but who 
can think that all the accumulated evils that their 
sin introduced into the world fell with concen- 
trated violence upon their own heads, that all the 
various ills that flesh is heir to were experienced 
by them in their own persons before they were 
divided, some to one and some to another, 
amongst their posterity? It is scarcely to be 
supposed that any single individual, from that 
time to this, was subject to the annoyance of 
every one of these animals, and it seems incre- 
dible that Adam and Eve had experience of 
them all. 

That they had their existence originally 
either as germes or as perfect animals in the 
air, the earth, or the waters, and were taken 
in by man with his food, with respect to some 
species may, perhaps, be true. The earth-worm 
is often voided by children, and some other 
that infest animals are found in the water, but 
of those that are appropriated to man internally, 
none have as yet been found, except that just 


——eEew 


£ 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 15 


mentioned, in any other habitation. Linné indeed 
assigns an aquatic origin to the fluke, the asca- 
rides, and the tape-worm, but he seems to have 

adopted this opinion upon very slight grounds. 
- Bonnet very justly asks, with respect to the last 
of these animals, which Linné states he found 
once in a kind of ochre. ‘‘M. Linné is the only 
one that has made this discovery, now it is 
certain that if tape-worms existed out of the 
body of man and other animals, would it be 
possible, after the numerous researches that 
naturalists of every country have made in a 
variety of places, both in the earth and the 
water, none should ever meet with that insect?’’? 
All Helminthologists seem now to be of opinion 
that the sole natural habitation of these animals 
is that in which they are usually found, the 
human viscera. 

We now come to the last hypothesis, that these 
animals were created subsequently to the fall: a 
single instance from Scripture of such a crea- 
tion will be sufficient to render it probable that 
others may have taken place when occasions 
called for such expressions of Divine displeasure. 
Every one is aware that God by the wonder- 
working rod of Moses converted all the dust of 
Egypt into some punitive animal or genus of 
animals, for they attacked man and beast, con- 


1 Q@uor. ii. 138. 


16 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


cerning the kind of which interpreters differ ;’ 
but this does not affect the question, it is evident 
that here is an instance of the creation of an 
animal in great numbers, and what is worthy 
of particular observation, that this animal was 
not afterwards again annihilated as the frogs, 
and others were. What has evidently been done 
once under circumstances that required it, though 
not recorded, may have been repeated, and thus 
all the punitive species in question may have 
been produced. 

This is given merely as an hypothesis, to ac- 
count for the existence of these animals, without 
doing violence to probability ; and rather in ac- 
- cordance with the word of God, than controverting 
any thing delivered therein—and if it excites a 
discussion that may throw new light upon the 
subject, which ever way the question is deter- 
mined, I shall be well pleased—my object being 
rather to elicit. truth, than to uphold opinion. 


Another inquiry also suggests itself with respect 
to the original animal creation. Are any of those 
animals with which God peopled the earth, air, 
and waters, preparatory to the creation of man, 
now extinct? The answer to this question will 
principally depend upon that to another. Did 
any alteration take place in the climate and pro- 


1 See Appendix, note 6. 


- 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 17 


ductions of our globe in consequence of the fall 
of man from his original state? We learn from 
the inspired penman, that God, induced by that 
sad event, pronounced a curse upon the ground, 
and predicted that it should produce in abundance 
noxious plants for the annoyance of the offending 
race of man, and that whereas the primeval earth 
brought forth spontaneously her fruits and 
flowers, and afforded man a pleasant and delight- 
ful recreation and employment, without subject- 
ing him to toil and weariness; this state of 
things should cease, and man, for the future, 
should earn his bread with difficulty by the la- 
bour of his hands and the sweat of his brows. 
From hence it seems to follow that at this time 
some great change took place, both with respect 
to climate, and to that blessing from atmospheric 
influences which produces plenty and fertility 


_with the lowest amount of labour. Geologists 


have observed, from the remains of plants and 


animals embedded in the strata of this and other 


northern countries, that the climate must formerly 
have been warmer than it now is.t Some change 
or changes of this kind therefore would sooner or 
later produce the extinction of such animals and 
plants, inhabitants of northern countries, as could 
not bear such a change of temperature, and at 


the same time could not escape from it; and 


1 See Appendix, note 7. 
VOL. I. C 


18 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


admitting this—it would enable us to answer in 
the affirmative to the query above stated— 
namely, that there were species of animals ori- 
ginally created which have since ceased to exist. 
Being no longer necessary to bear a part in car- 
rying on the general plan of Divine Providence 
with regard to our globe, they were permitted or 
caused to perish. 

One circumstance, which I have not seen 
adverted to, seems to confirm this hypothesis: 
that so few fossil remains, if any, of tropical 
birds have hitherto been discovered in cold 
countries, while such numbers of the quadru- 
peds of warm climates, both viviparous and ovi- 
_ parous, are met with every day in a fossil state. 
Now the birds could readily shift their quarters 
southward, when the temperature grew too cold 
for them, while the quadrupeds might be stopped 
by seas, rivers, and other obstacles. 

Another question may be asked with respect 
to the subject I am discussing; might not the 
animals now become superfluous have been ex- 
cluded from the ark at the time of the general 
deluge, and so left to perish? This would furnish 
a very easy solution of the difficulty, but the text 
of Scripture seems too precise and express to 
allow of such a supposition. For the command 
to Noah is—* Of every living thing of all flesh, 
two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark.” 
But yet the terms here employed must be limited 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 19 


to those animals that required such shelter to 
preserve them from destruction by the diluvial 
waters; so that the expression—“ of all flesh”’— 
necessarily admits of some exceptions. 

But there are doubtless very many animals 
still existing upon the earth and in its waters, 
that have not yet been discovered. When we 
consider the vast tracks of terra incognita still 
shut out from us in the heart of Africa, that fatal 
country hitherto as it were hermetically sealed to 
our researches, and from whose bourn so few 
travellers return ; how little we know of Central 
Asia, of China, and of some parts of North Ame- 
rica; we may well believe that our catalogues 
_ of animals are still very short of their real num- 
_ bers, even with respect to those of the largest 
dimensions. Burchell and Campbell appear to 
_have met with more than one new species of 
rhinoceros in their journey from the Cape of 
_ Good Hope into the interior ;* the same country 
| may conceal others of the same gigantic or other 
tribes, which, when it is more fully explored, may 
hereafter be brought to light. 

Again, with regard to the productions of the 
various seas and oceans that occupy so large a 
portion of our- globe, we know comparatively 
few, especially of its molluscous inhabitants. 
_ What are cast up on the shores of the various 


1 See Appendix, note 8. 


20 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


countries washed by their waves, and what the 
net or other means may collect in their vicinity, 
find their way indeed into our cabinets; but 
what are these compared with such as inhabit 
the depths and caves and bed of the infinite 
ocean, which net never dragged, nor plumb-line 
fathomed. Who shall say what species lurk in 
those unapproachable recesses never to be re- 
vealed to the eye of man, but in a fossil state. 
The giant Inocerami, the singular tribe of Ammo- 
nites, and all their cognate genera, as even La- 
marck seems disposed to concede:' the Baculites, 
Hamites, Scaphites, and numerous others there 
have space enough to live unknown to fame, while 
_ they are reckoned by the geologist as expunged 
from the list of living animals. I do not mean to 
assert that these creatures are not extinct, but I 
would only caution the student of nature from 
assuming this as irrefragably demonstrated ; 
since we certainly do not yet know enough of the 
vast field of creation, to say dogmatically with 
respect to any species of these animals that this 
is no longer in being. 

But besides the unexplored parts of the sur- 
face of the earth, and of the bed of the ocean, 
are we sure that there is no receptacle for 
animal life in its womb? I am not going here 
to revive the visionary speculations of Athana- 


1 InN. D. D.H.N. vii. 553. 


Ne RIG 8 1h I EE TR twee 4, 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 91 


sius Kircher in his Mundus subterraneus, but 
merely to inquire whether there are any pro- 
bable grounds for thinking that some creatures 
may be placed by their Creator at such a depth 
within the earth’s crust, as to be beyond all 
human ken. 

When Laplace says, “It is certain that the 
densities of its (the earth’s) strata increase from 
the surface to the centre,” it seems to follow that, 
in his opinion, there is no central cavity in our 
globe ; but as his object was chiefly to assert the 
increasing density of the strata as they approach 
the centre, perhaps his words are not to be 
taken strictly, especially as in another place he 
speaks of it merely as probable that the strata 
are more dense as they are nearer to the centre. 
Sir I. F. W. Herschel makes a similar, but less 
exclusive observation, using the terms, “‘ towards 
the centre,” which is not inconsistent with a 
cavity. 

But after all this is matter of conjecture built 
upon the attraction of the earth, and cannot be 
ascertained by actual examination ; as far as that 
has been carried, it does not appear that in the 
present state of our globe the strata always lie 
exactly in the order of their densities; in the 
original earth probably they did. But now we 
tread upon the ruins of a world that has been 
almost destroyed and reformed. ‘“ The struc- 
ture of the globe,” observes an eminent geogra- 


b be CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


pher, ‘‘ presents in all its parts the features of a 
grand ruin; the confusion and overthrow of most 
of its strata, the irregular succession of those 
which seem to remain in their original situations, 
the wonderful variety which the direction of the 
veins and the forms of the caverns display, the 
immense heaps of confused and broken sub- 
stances, the transportation of enormous blocks 
to a great distance from the mountains of which 
they appear to have formed a part,”’'—do not 
lead us as he would intimate “to periods far 
anterior to the existence of the human race,” 
but to a mighty catastrophe by which the whole 
structure of our globe has been dislocated, and 
its ancient strata broken up, and separated by 
the intervention of new ones formed of animal 
and vegetable remains. 

When the Almighty formed our globe from 
the original chaos, and projecting it into space 
bade it perform its diurnal and annual revolu- 
tions, he first weighed it in his balance, and 
moulded it so as it might answer to the action 
of those mighty powers by whose constant im- 
pulse or ‘impact those revolutions were to be 
maintained ; and if a central void was necessary 
he wanted not the means to produce and main- 
tain it. When the power called attraction 
tended to drive all to the centre, the repellant 


1 Malte-Brun Syst. of Geogr. L. 1. 192. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 23 


principle might be so stationed as to counteract 
it, and keep the earth’s crust at its assigned dis- 
tance. To compare great things with small, he 
who made the rain-drop made also the air- 
bubble,—the one to fall, the other to rise. 

The word of God, in many places, speaks of 
an abyss of waters under the earth, as distinct 
from the ocean though in communication with 
it, and also as contributing to form springs and 
rivers.’ Scientific men, in the present day, 
appear disposed to question this; the Geologist, 
though he may regard the granitic strata as 
forming the base, as it were, of the crust of the 
earth, seems rather to view it as containing a 
focus of heat, than a magazine of infinite waters ; 
from whence are partly derived the springs and 
rivers that water the earth’s surface, and ulti- 
mately make good to the ocean its whole loss by 
evaporation.’ ‘‘ Springs,” says the author above 
quoted, “‘ are so many little reservoirs, which 
receive their waters from the neighbouring 
ground, through small lateral channels.” He 
allows, however, that the origin of springs 
cannot be referred to one exclusive cause, and 
associates with that just mentioned, the precipi- 
tation of atmospheric vapours attracted by high 
lands, the dissolving of ice, the filtering of sea- 


1 Comp. Job, xxviii. 14, xxxviii. 16, 17.—Genes. xlix. 25.— 
Deut. xxxiii. 13.—Jonah, ii. 6, &c. 
2 Ps. Ixxviii. 15, 16.—Proy. viii. 24. . 3 See Appendix, note 9. 


24 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


waters, and the explosion of subterraneous va- 
pours. He makes no direct mention of a store- 
house of waters in the bosom of the earth as in 
any case the source of springs and rivers, but 
allows that ‘“‘the phenomena of capillary tubes 
may obtain in its interior. The sea-waters, 
deprived of their salt and bitter elements, 
may ascend through the imperceptible pores 
of several rocks, from which, being disengaged 
by the heat, they will form those subterra- 
neous vapours to which many springs owe 
their origin.” A very slight’ alteration of this 
passage would make it harmonize with the 
Scripture account of the matter. If, for “some 
- rocks,” we substitute through the rocky strata, 
and to the ‘‘sea-waters” add received into the 
abyss, it would amount to nearly the same thing. 
It was an ancient opinion, mentioned in Plato's 
Pheedon, that there is a flux and reflux of the 
waters of our globe, a kind of systole and dias- 
tole, into and from Tartarus or the great abyss, 
which produce seas, lakes, rivers, and fountains.’ 
That all the causes mentioned above contribute 
to the formation of the rivers that water the 
earth, especially the clouds and vapours that 
gather round the tops of the mountains and high 
hills I am ready to admit, at the same time I 
must contend that the principal reservoir from 


1 Platonis Dialogi. Ed. Forst. Phedon. § &. ~ 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 295 


which they are supplied has its station under the 
earth. 

Writers on this subject seem to speak as if 
the source of all rivers was in mountainous or 
hilly countries, but though the mightiest rivers 
of the globe originate in such situations, there 
is a very large number of considerable streams 
whose source is not particularly elevated, espe- 
cially in the flat parts of England; and there 
are few rivers that do not receive some supply 
from lesser ones, having their rise in low 
grounds, in their course. The practice, in all 
countries, of digging wells indicates a downward 
source of water. 

In the Mosaic account of the deluge it is 
stated, that the waters prevailed above the tops 
of all the mountains fifteen cubits—now the 
highest mountain in the globe, Dhawalagiri, a 
peak of the Himmaleh range in northern India, 
is five miles above the level of the sea, this will 
make a sphere of waters, inclosing the whole 
globe as its nucleus, of five miles in depth above 
the level of the sea, but in calculating the immense 
additional body of water thus burying the whole 
globe, deductions must be made for the moun- 
tains and the lands elevated above that level, 
which would considerably decrease the total 
amount. But, even then, how vast would be the 
increase. If two fifths of this body were de- 
ducted, a deluge of rain for forty days and forty 


26 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


nights over the whole globe, would fall infinitely 
short of the amount of water required to cover it 
to this height. The mean quantity of rain that 
now falls upon the earth in the course of a whole 
year is short of three feet; there must therefore 
have been an outbreak of waters from a source 
which could supply all that was necessary to ac- 
complish the will of the Almighty, and make the 
earth itself a ruin, as well as sweep off its inhabi- 
tants; and where shall we look for this but to the 
abyss that coucheth beneath the earth, whose foun- 
tains, as the sacred historian tells us, were broken 
up. If we consider the diameter of our globe, 
and that the ocean in depth is not supposed. to 
_ exceed the highest mountains, we may conceive 
that in a spheroid, whose diameter is 8000 miles, 
allowing for the depth of the crust of the earth, 
there is space for a treasure-house of water, of 
sufficient amplitude to supply what the heavens 
could not furnish, to raise the diluvial waters to 
the height decreed in the Divine counsels. It 
seems now agreed amongst geologists and mine- 
ralogists that traces of the action of fire, as well 
as water, are very visible amongst the present 
strata of this globe: when the waters of the 
abyss were sent out from their hidden receptacle, 
it must be by the agency of some potent cause 
employed by the Deity, equal to the production 
of the effect he intended. 

In the present state of the globe, volcanos, or 


ae 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 27 


their traces are visible in various regions in all 
climates, and in the islands of various seas, and 
in Iceland, near Hecla, the subterranean furnace 
sends vast columns of water into the air, some- 
times to the height of a hundred feet, and at the 
base of half that diameter.t. These circumstances 
render it probable that fire was the agent, or one 
of the agents, employed to send out the waters 
from the abyss; and this is no new hypothesis. 
“Tt is the opinion of geologists,” says Laplace, 
‘that, originally, there existed in the interior of 
the crust of the earth, a great magazine of fire, 
which according to them was the cause of the 
deluge.” Some writers suppose that the air was 
driven downwards into the earth, being forced 
through those chasms which opened towards the 
sky, and that then by its expansion it drove out 
the water.’ 

He who willed the deluge, and the destruction 
of the primeval earth and heavens by it,’ kept in 
his own hands the reins, and guided the whole 
body of means that he employed to fulfil the 
great purposes of his Providence, saying to every 
agent, “ Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.” 
It must always be kept in mind that this was not 
an event in the ordinary course of nature, and a 
result of the enforcement of her established code 


1 See Hooker’s Recollections of Iceland, 120. 
2 Rev. W. Jones’ Works, x. 264. 
3 Pet. ili. 6, 7, and see Appendix, note 10. 


28 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


of laws, but a miraculous deviation from it, in 
which their action was suspended, and in conse- 
quence of which, perhaps, some were abrogated 
and new ones enacted in their room. I may here 
further observe, that probably, the whole body 
of waters which before the creation of the firma- 
ment or expanse, with the earthy atoms sus- 
pended in it, formed the primeval chaos, were 
how again its masters; descending and ascend- 
ing from every receptacle or storehouse to which 
that powerful expansion had been the means 
employed to guide them. Whatever waters were 
suspended in the atmosphere, or could be formed 
in it, whatever were contained in the ocean, or 
_ the womb of our globe, now united their forces 
and subdued and destroyed the primitive earth, 
till they reduced it to the state, for the most 
part, in which we now behold it. 

I am next to inquire what has been said in 
scripture on the subject of subterranean animals. 
In the second commandment we are forbidden to 
“make any likeness of any thing that is in the 
waters under the earth.” These words, however, 
may be merely used to indicate the animals that 
inhabit the ocean, considering the waters under 
the earth as forming a part of it. But there is 
a passage in the Apocalypse, where the creatures 
under the earth are distinguished from those in 
the sea. ‘ And every creature which ts in heaven 
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 29 


are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I 
saying’,' Blessing, and honour, and glory and power, 
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb for ever and ever.” Some interpreters 
understand this passage as relating to those 
men that were buried under the earth, or in the 
sea, but admitting they were meant in the spirit, 
the creatures in general are expressed in the 
letter, and therefore the outward symbol must 
have a real existence, as well as what it symbo- 
lized. 

There is another place in scripture, which 
though highly metaphorical, seems to me, to 
point, if rightly interpreted, at subterranean ant- 
mals, and even a particular description of them. 
The passage I allude to is in the xlivth Psalm, 
“ Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of 
dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.’” 
In these words the place of dragons and the shadow 
of death evidently mean the same thing ; and the 
object of these metaphors is to express the lowest 
degree of affliction, depression, and degradation ; 
equivalent to being brought down to hell or hades 
in other passages. The shadow of death, properly 
speaking, is in the hidden or subterranean world. 
This appears from the passage of Job before 
quoted, in which the abyss, the gates of death, 
and the gates of the shadow of death, are used as 


1 Revel. vy. 13. 2 Ps. xliv. 19. 


30 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


synonymous expressions.' The place of dragons, 
then, according to this exposition, will be sub- 
terranean. In another Psalm, David couples 
dragons and abysses.* 

We must next inquire what is meant by the 
word dragons. The Hebrew word usually thus 
translated, but in some places rendered whales and 
sea-monsters, and in others serpents,’ is derived 
from a root, which signifies to wail or lament ; 
probably, alluding to the noise at certain times 
emitted by those animals, that are more properly 
regarded as dragons, by which I would under- 
stand the Saurian race, without excluding the 
others, which are sometimes certainly intended 
by that word. Thus, when Jeremiah alludes, 
under the name dragons, to animals that give 
suck to their young, it is clear that he meant 
some of the whale or seal kind, which are 
mammiferous. Our translators, therefore, very 
properly rendered the word sea-monsters, or as 
in the margin, sea-calves. I may here observe, 
though at first sight, the crocodile and the whale 
seem widely separated from each other, that 
there are certain species, at present found only 
in a fossil state, and fitted with paddles instead 
of legs, which are stated to combine characters 
observable in the Cetaceans with those of the 


1 Job, xxxviii. 16, 17. 2 Ps. cxlviii. 7. 
3 Genes. 1. 21. Lament. iv. 3. Exod. vi. 9, 10. 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 31 


Saurians, particularly the Plesiosaurus ;' the 
TLestudo also of the Greeks’ seems to approach 
some of the seals. The word we are considering, 
in the first chapter of Genesis, is rendered by 
our translators, whales. In the version of the 
seventy, a word is used,* which the Greek 
writers employ to signify any aquatic monster ; 
thus, Theocritus, when he describes the Nile as 
abounding in monsters, means the crocodile. 
Our Saviour, when he speaks of Jonah in the 
belly of the fish, uses the same word, probably, 
for a shark, the dog Carcharias of the Greeks, 
which was fabled to have swallowed Hercules, a 
fable, no doubt, derived from the history of Jonah. 

It appears clearly that the word is also used 
for a serpent, for it is employed to express the 
animal into which the rod of Moses and those 
of the Egyptian magicians were transformed as 
related in the book of Exodus. 

The typical animal, however, if I may so em- 
ploy that term, or the dragon proper of scripture, 
is undoubtedly a Saurian, especially the amphi- 
bious ones, such as the crocodile and its affinities. 
In the Septuagint version the Hebrew word is 
sometimes rendered by the term Siren, which 
in other places is used for the ostrich,‘ derived 


1 Mantell’s Age of Reptiles.—Sussex Gazette. 
* Sphargis coriacea. 

37a KnTn Ta peyada. 

4 Isai. xiii. 21.—Job, xxx. 29, &c. 


i CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


from a root which relates to its noise, but the 
Siren of the Greeks is very different from that 
of these Jews—the former being a fabulous, the 
latter a real animal. Travellers describe the 
noises of crocodiles and alligators as horrible. 
Crocodiles, during the whole summer, says Bosc, 
but especially immediately after they emerge from 
the earth, that is in the spring and the epoch 
of their amours, frequently send forth lowings 
almost as loud as those of an ox. They respond 
to each other often by hundreds, especially in 
the evening, which makes in the swampy forest 
a frightful and thundering din. Captain Jobson 
says, that those of the river Gambia utter cries 
that may be heard from a great distance, which 
seem as if they issued from the ground. 

The whale also, when it expels the water, is 
related to make a frightful noise, like distant 
thunder. Captain Cook represents the walrus, 
when in herds, as roaring or braying very loud, 


and some species of seals are stated to bellow 
like bulls. 


The hissing of serpents agrees less with the 
radical idea of the word dragon, than the noises | 
of either of the preceding tribes of animals. 
The aquatic and amphibious Saurians occupy-_ 


ing, as it were, a middle station between the 
Cetaceans and Ophidians, may be regarded, 
therefore, as the dragons par excellence. 

These, then, are the animals that I conjecture 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. sy 


may not improbably be still in existence in the 
subterranean ocean; I shall now, therefore, bring 
forward some arguments, independent of what | 
have alleged from Holy Scripture, which seem 
to afford grounds for such an hypothesis. 

It has been calculated that the depth of the sea 
in any part does not exceed 30,000 feet, or a little 
more than five miles; this, compared with the 
diameter of our globe, about 8000 miles, may be 
regarded as nothing. Whata vast space then, 
supposing it really hollow, may be contained in 
its womb, not only for an abundant reservoir of 
waters, but for sources of the volcanic action, 
which occasionally manifests itself in various 
parts, both of the ocean and terra firma. Rea- 
soning from analogy, and from that part of the 
globe which falls under our inspection, it will ap- 
pear not improbable that this vast space should 
not be altogether destitute of its peculiar inhabi- 
tants. We know that there are numerous animals, 
on the surface of the globe, that conceal them- 
selves in various places in the day time, and only 
make their appearance in the night. It would, 
therefore, be perfectly consistent with the general 
course of God’s proceedings, and in exact har- 
mony with the general features of creation, that 
he should have peopled the abyss with creatures 

fitted, by their organization and structure, to live 
there: and it would not be wonderful that some 
of the Saurian race, especially the marine ones, 
VOL. I. D 


q 
, 


34 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


should have their station in the subterranean 
waters, which would sufficiently account for their 
never having been seen except in a fossil state. 
The organization of many reptiles favours the 
idea of their being fitted for a subterranean 
habitation. It has been observed of them, that 
they not only perceive objects at a great distance, 
but are furnished with a nictitant membrane 
like birds; and that the greater part can con- 
tract the pupil like cats, which enables them to 
see in the dark. Their other organs furnish them 
with but few sensations: they communicate less 
frequently and less perfectly with external 
objects; their blood is cold, and will circulate a 
long time without communication with the air. 
They will bear very long fasts without injury ; 
and those of some tribes, the Chelonians at least, 
will survive for a time ‘the loss of their brain, 
their heart, and even their head. These circum- 
stances are found in those that only occasionally 
seek subterranean retreats,-or seclusion from the 
light and the air; but those whose existence is 
wholly subterranean, doubtless, like the Proteus, 
would be fitted by their organization for their 


destined abode. We see, in several of those we 


are acquainted with, except at certain times, a 
constant effort to escape not only from obser- 
vation, but from immediate contact with the 
hight and the air. 

. This leads me further to observe, that ae is 


one instance of a Saurian, at this time known to be 


: 
, 
7 

4 
] 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 35 


in existence, thatis perfectly subterranean, which 
never makes its appearance onthe earth’s surface, 
but is always concealed at a considerable depth 
below it; and, what is worthy of particular no- 
tice, by its structure, is connected with one of the 
larger Saurians, now found only in a fossil state. 
It will immediately be perceived that I allude to 
that most extraordinary animal, the Proteus an- 
guinus,' which is found in subterranean lakes and 
caves two or three hundred feet: below the surface 
of the ground in Illyria, breathing both by lungs 
and gills, and presenting characters which connect 
it with the Saurian monsters before alluded to, 
whose remains have occasioned so much astonish- 
ment, appear to have puzzled in some measure the 
most acute geologists, and have given birth to an 
hypothesis I shall hereafter notice. ‘Sir H. Davy, 
in his last singular work, thus expresses himself 
concerning the Proteus :—‘ My reveries became 
discursive, I was carried, in imagination, back to 
the primitive state of the globe, when the great 
animals of the Sauri kind were created under the 
pressure of a heavy atmosphere ; and my notion 
on this subject was not destroyed, when I heard 
from a celebrated anatomist, to whom I sent the 
specimens I had collected, that the organization of 
the spine of the Proteus-was analogous to that of 
one of the Sauri, the remains-of which are found 
in the older secondary strata.” ‘Sir Humphry 


1 PLaTeE xiv. Fic. 1. 


36 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


probably here alludes to a celebrated fossil found 
in the slate quarries of Giningen, which Scheuch- 
zer called an antediluvian man, but which Cuvier 
regards as a giant species of Proteus. 

All the circumstances above stated bemg duly 
weighed, and especially the discovery of a species 
in the depths of the earth, related to one of the 
fossil ones, I trust that my hypothesis of a sub- 
terranean metropolis for the Saurian, and perhaps 
other reptiles, will not be deemed so improbable 
and startling as it may at the first blush appear ; 
at the same time, I would by no means be thought 
to contend that none of these animals are extinct, 
but solely that al/ may not be so, and that their 
never having been found in a recent state may 
have arisen from the peculiar circumstances of 
their situation. 7 — 

I have been led into this discussion by Mr. 
Mantell’s Hypothesis of an Age of reptiles, which 
I have seen only in an extract from one of the 
Sussex advertisers for last year, which he was so 
kind as to send to me; in which he supposes” 
that the Saurians were the mighty masters, as 
well as monsters, of the primeval animal king- 
dom, and the lords of the creation before the 
existence of the human race. Since this hypo- 
thesis, as stated in the above extract, cannot be 
reconciled with the account of the creation of 
animals as given in the first chapter of Genesis, 
I shall not be wandering from the purpose 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 37 


of the present essay if I devote a few pages to 
the consideration of it. 

~ The hypothesis in question is based by its 
learned promulgator chiefly upon the supposed 
age of the beds and strata in which the remains 
of these fossil Saurians generally have been 
found, which he states as more ancient than 
those which contain the remains of viviparous 
animals; and upon the myriads which appear, 
when they were the lords of our globe, to have 
existed. But it is clear from his own statement 
that with the fossil remains of the Megalosaurus, 
a giant lizard, calculated to have been forty feet 
in length and eight in height, those of some 
viviparous quadruped related to the Opossum 
have been found, which he acknowledges cannot 
be satisfactorily explained. A fact that militates 
strongly against an insulated Saurian reign. Nor 
is it altogether true that the remains of these 
mighty lizards are found solely in what are deno- 
minated ancient deposites ; vertebral joints are 
not unfrequently found in other situations. I 
have one between three and four inches in 
diameter, which, from its being cupped, or 
deeply concave at each extremity, evidently 
belongs to one of these animals, which was 
found in a gravel-pit, at no great depth, in my 
own neighbourhood; and I have seen similar 
ones found in other parts of the county of Suf- 
folk. These dispersed bones seem to indicate 


38 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


that the individuals to which they belonged 
were deposited in situations more exposed to the 
action of the atmosphere, so as to decompose the 
_ ligaments that kept the skeleton entire. The 
interment of these animals was therefore various, 
and evidently regulated by cireumstances, so 
that no satisfactory hypothesis can be built upon 
it. When the whole globe was submerged, and 
the waters overtopped the highest mountains, 
the terrestrial animals would, in numberless 
cases, float upon the surface, and be deposited 
in countries far distant from those which they 
inhabited, while those that were aquatic, being 
in their native element, must have owed their 
death to other circumstances ; they must either 
have been overwhelmed by some sudden force 
that they could not resist or escape from; or 
some cause that we cannot now appreciate may. 
have overtaken and destroyed them. 

With regard to the numbers of these animals, 
which Mr. Mantell thinks prove their preva- 
lence, we can only judge of it by those that are 
found in a fossil state, and these, certainly, are 
sufficiently numerous; but surely it cannot be 
safely affirmed that for one individual found in 
a fossil state thousands must have been devoured 
or decomposed. These mighty monsters were 
more likely to devour than to be devoured ; and 
even the herbivorous ones, such as the vast 
Iguanodon, supposed to be sometimes one hun- 


I) tates 


I hae asia CT aT 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 39 


dred feet long and ten feet high! would have 
puzzled the crocodiles and alligators and other 
carnivorous ones to overpower and dispatch them. 

But, in fact, the question is concerning those 
that were alive upon this globe at the time when 
the great convulsion took place that buried them. 
The skeletons of all that were placed under 
similar circumstances. would be found in a 
sunilar state of preservation ; their flesh would 
be decomposed but not their skeleton ; the 
deluge would also interrupt all attacks of one 
animal upon another, every individual would be 
seeking to secure its own escape. But, setting 
aside these arguments upon the uncertain facts 
on which this hypothesis is built, if we turn our 
attention to the reason of the thing, who can 
think that a Being of unbounded. power, wisdom, 
and goodness should create a world merely for 
the habitation of a race of monsters, without a 
single rational being in it to glorify and serve 
him. The supposition that these animals were 
a separate creation, independent of man, and oc- 
cupying his eminent station and throne upon our 
globe long before he was brought into existence, 
interrupts the harmony between the different 
members of the animal kingdom, and dislocates 
the beautiful and entire system, recorded with so 
much sublimity and majestic brevity in the first 
chapter of Genesis. 

How grand and at the same time how simple 


4O CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


is this record, proceeding step by step from one 
Almighty operation to another! each the natural 
consequence, as it were, of that which preceded 
it. When the earth was formed, and planted, 
and was receiving the influences of the sun 
and other luminaries, and thus was prepared to 
welcome and maintain her locomotive inhabitants, 
the perfect sphere of animals, if I may so speak, 
adapted to the wants of the primeval state of the 
globe of dry land and sea, both external and in- 
ternal, and to the instruction and uses of man, 
each individual form gifted and fitted to play the 
part assigned to it in the general plan of Provi- 
dence, was brought into existence. The supposed 
extinct animals all exhibit a relationship to those 
that we now find existing, and many of them 
evidently fill up vacant places in the general 
system, and therefore there is no cause to sup- 
pose that they were originally separated from 
and. anterior to their fellows. It is observed that 
those herbivorous Saurians now inhabiting the 
surface of our globe, as the Momitor and Iguana, 
though these can scarcely be called herbivorous 
since they live principally on insects, are pigmies 
compared with their affinities, the Megalosaurus 
and Lguanodon ; and a similar disproportion ob- 
tains between the existing Proteus and the fossil 
one. If any of these races are subterranean, 
perhaps these smaller ones may be regarded, as 
inhabiting the outskirts of the proper station, or 
metropolis of their tribe. 


OO ,.,t<C 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. Al 


It appears, I hope, from what has been ob- 
served, in the present chapter, on the subject of 
animals brought into being subsequent to the 
fall, and upon those that have since that sad 
event become extinct from whatever cause, that 
Divine Providence, after the first creation of man 
and: the animal kingdom, did not leave all things 
to the action of the original laws which had 
received his awful sanction before the fall, but 
altered those by which this system, especially 
our own globe, was guided and governed before 
that fatal event, to suit them to what had taken 
place, and to the altered and deteriorated moral 
state of man. We learn from the Apostle Saint 
Peter, that the primeval globe and its heavens 
or atmosphere, perished at the deluge,’ by which 
expression less cannot be intended, than that the 
atmosphere and the earth were then, as it were, 
new mixed, so as to render the former less 
friendly to life and health, whence would gradu- 
ally follow the shortening of human, and pro- 
bably animal life; and subject to raging storms 
and hurricanes; to the fury and fearful effects of 
thunder and lightning; to the overflowing vio- 
lence of torrents of rain: while the latter, from 
the breaking up, inversion, mixing, depression, 
or elevation of its original strata, and the addition 
of new ones from animal and vegetable deposites,’ 
was rendered in many places utterly barren, and 


1 Gr. awoXero. 2 Pet. iil. 6. * See Appendix, note 11. 


42 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 


in others much diminished in fertility, so that the 
general productiveness of the globe must have 
been considerably diminished, and the permission 
to eat flesh must have been extremely useful in 
increasing the amount of food, and diminishing 
that of labour. Such a change having taken 
place, both in the heavens and the earth, and 
vast countries. being essentially altered both in 
the temperature of the atmosphere, from what- 
ever cause, and the productions of the soil, the 
extinction of many of the original animal forms, 
that were extra-tropical, or at least were inhabi- 
tants of high latitudes, and were incapable of 
bearing the changes, whether it was ante-diluvial 
or post-diluvial, would necessarily follow; and 
again as man was become by his nature prone to 
sin, he as necessarily was made subject to evil. 
Hence he became exposed, from the new consti- 
tution of the earth and atmosphere, to various 
diseases and sundry kinds of death, the term of 
his existence was shortened, and it was chequered 
with days of darkness as well as of light: and 
he was infested by various animals, either newly 
created, or then first let loose against him and 
his property. 

All these things indicate a change in the me- 
chanical as well as other original powers set and 
kept in action by the Creator, and a certain 
dependence of two distinct classes of events upon 
each other. If a great alteration generally takes 


— 


CREATION OF ANIMALS. 43 


place in the moral condition of man, a corres- 


ponding change affects his physical one ; and. 
this alternation and conflict between good and 
evil, in this double series, after a long and 
arduous struggle, will finally be determined by 


the destruction of this diluvial earth and heavens, 


_which we are assured will, in the end, be re- 
placed by “ New Heavens and a new Karth 


wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 


Cuapter II. - 
Geographical and Local Distribution of Animals. 


Havine considered the first creation of the ani- 


_ mal kingdom, and the larger features of its his- 
tory to the time of the Deluge, bringing us to 


that era when our globe had assumed its present 
general characters, and its population was in 
those circumstances that led to their present ha- 
bits and stations: the next subject to be discussed 
is their geographical and local distribution. 
What had taken place in this respect before the 
Deluge we have no means of ascertaining. That 
the original temperature of the earth was once 
more equal than it is now, seems to be the ge- 
neral opinion of men of science, however they 


44 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


may differ as to its cause. If this was the 
case, as it probably was, any individual species 
might have been located in any country, north 
or south, and suffer no inconvenience from un- 
accustomed heat or cold, so as to interfere 
with its complete naturalization: the only other 
requisite would be a kind of food suited to its 
nature; and it is singular and worthy of par- 
ticular attention, that a large proportion of the 
plants, as well as animals, that are found in a 
fossil state in our northern latitudes are of a 
tropical type or character. 

After their creation, and perhaps the expulsion 
of the first pair from Paradise, we may suppose 
that the various animals of the antediluvian world 
were guided to those regions in which it was the 
will of Providence to place them, by a divine im- 
pulse upon them, which caused them to move in 
the right direction. Probably before the Deluge 
took place, the world was every where peopled 
with animals: and perhaps, as Professor Buck- 
land has suggested, the sudden change of tem- 
perature that destroyed the northern animals 
might be one of the predisposing causes of that 
event. anioas 
Under the present head, the geographical dis- 
tribution of our postdiluvian races of animals, the 
first thing to be considered is the means by which, 


1 See above, p. 17, &c. 


ie “(pie eae eT 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 45 


after quitting the ark, they were conveyed to the 
other parts of the globe. The disembarkation of 
the venerable patriarch and his family, followed 
by all the animals preserved with him in the ark, 
a scene of universal jubilee to man and beast, 
such as the world till that day had never wit- 
— nessed, took place on Mount Ararat: the stream 
of interpreters, ancient and modern, place this 
mountain in Armenia; but Shuckford, after Sir 
Walter Raleigh, seems to think that Ararat was 
further to the east, and belonged to the great 
range anciently called Caucasus and Imaus, 
which terminates in the Himmaleh mountains to 
_ the north of India. This opinion seems to receive 
some confirmation from Scripture, for it is said, 
“< As they journeyed from the east, they found a 
plain in the land of Shinar.” Now the Armenian 
Ararat is to the north of Babylonia, whereas the 
Indian is to the east. Again, as the ark rested 
upon Ararat more than ten weeks before the tops 
of the mountains were seen, it seems to follow that 
it must have been a much higher mountain than 
the generality of those of the old world. The mo- 
dern Ararat (Agri-Dagh) is not three miles above 
the level of the sea, whereas the highest peak of 
the Himmaleh range, Dhawalagiri, is five, and 
the highest mountain in the known world: so that 
the tops of a great number of mountains would 
have appeared previously had the ark rested upon 
the former Ararat, but not so if upon the latter. 


46 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


The traditions also of various nations, given ‘by 
Shuckford, add strength to this opinion. In ad- 
dition to these, the following lines, quoted in a 
late article on Sanscrit poetry, in ‘the Quarterly 
Review, shew what -was the creed in India on 
this subject :— 


In the whole world of creation 

None were seen but these seven sages, Menu and the fish ; 

Years on years, and still unwearied, drew that fish the bark along, 

Till at length it came where reared Himavan—its loftiest peak ; 

There at length they came, and, smiling, thus the fish addressed 
the sage :-— 

Bind thou now thy stately vessel to the peak of ma 

At the fishes’ mandate, quickly to the peak of Himavan : 

Bound the sage his bark, and even to this day that loftiest peak 

Bears the name of Naubandhana. 


Both these opinions have their difficulties, which 
I shall not further discuss, but leave the decision 
of the question to persons better qualified than 
myself to direct the public judgment: I shall only 
observe, that perhaps the Indian ‘station was more 
central and convenient for the ready dispersion of 
men and animals than the Armenian one. Every 
naturalist is aware that there are many animals 
that, in a wild state, are to be found only in 
particular countries and climates. ‘Thus the 
Monkey and Parrot tribes usually inhabit a warm 
climate, the Bears and Gulls with many other 
Sea-birds, for the most part‘a’cold-one. ‘The Kan- 
garoo and Emu are only found in New Holland ; 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 47 


the Lama in Peru; the Hippopotamus and Ostrich 
in Africa. Now we may ask, how were all these 
local animals conveyed from the place of disem- 
barkation to the countries and climates that they 
severally inhabit? In considering this question, 
we must never lose sight of Him, according to 
whose will, and by whose Almighty guidance, 
they were all led to the stations he had appointed 
for them, and with reference to which he had 
organized and formed them. Whatever second 
causes he might commission to effect this purpose, 
they were fully instructed and empowered by him 
to accomplish the work intrusted tothem. I do 
not mean here to infringe the rule, Nec Deus 
intersit nist dignus vindice nodus. Where the 
faculties, senses, and wants of an animal were 
sufficient for its guidance, there was no need for 
Divine interposition, but where these are insuf- 
ficient guides, the animal must attain its destined 
station under some other influence. 

What brought the various animals to the ark 
previously to the deluge? Doubtless a divine 
impulse upon them, similar to that which caused 
the milch-kine to carry the ark of the covenant to 

-Bethshemesh, with the offerings of the lords of 
the Philistines. Noah, though he probably se- 
lected the clean animals, at least those that were 
domesticated, could ‘have little or no influence 
_over the wild ones to compel them to congregate 


: by pairs, at the time fixed upon for their entry 


AS GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


into the ark. So in the dispersion of animals, 
wherever man went he took his flocks and 
herds, and domestic poultry, and those in his 
employment for other purposes, with him: but 
the wild ones were left to follow as they would, 
or rather as God directed. 

Every one who looks at a map of the world, on 
Mercator’s projection, can easily conceive how 
the animal population of the greatest part of the 
old world made their way into the different coun- 
tries of which it consists, but when he looks 
at America and New Holland, he feels himself 
unable satisfactorily to explain the migration of 
animals thither, especially those that can live 
only in a warm climate, at least as far as regards 
the former. How, he might ask, did the Sloths, 
the Anteaters, and the Armadillos get to South 
America? If the climate of Behrings Straits, 
after the deluge, was as cold as it is at this day, 
they could never have made their way thither, 
and in those latitudes the temperature of which 
was adapted to their organization the vast Pacific 
presents an insuperable barrier. 

The same question may be asked with respect 
to the indigenous animals of New Holland; the 
Kangaroo, the Cola, the Ornithorhynchus, the 
Emu, and several others that are found in no 
other country ; how did they, leaving the conti- 
nent altogether, convey themselves to this their _ 
appointed abode? It is true the difficulty is not 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 49 


so great in this last case, on account of the 
numerous islands interposed between Malacca, 
Cochin-china, &c. and the North Coast of New 
Holland, but then it is unaccountable, if the 
transit of these animals was gradually effected by 
natural causes, and following that of mankind 
from island to island, till they reached the country 
to which their range is now limited, that they 
should have left no remains of their race in the 
countries and islands which they must have tra- 
versed in their route ; and those that would have 
accompanied man would be a different tribe of 
animals, more fitted to minister to his wants, so 
that with respect to these the difficulty still re- 
mains—they could not have reached the country 
unless under the guidance of Providence, and 
the same power that accomplished their removal 
to that appointed for their residence, prevented 
their leaving any of their race in the regions 
through which they passed. 

There is only one supposition that will enable 
us to account for the transport of these animals 
in a natural way, which is this, that immediately 
subsequent to the deluge, America and New Hol- 
land, and the various other islands that are inha- 
bited by peculiar animals, were once connected 
with Asia and Africa, by the intervention of lands 
that have since been submerged. Plato, in his 
Timeeus, relates a tradition concerning an island 


called Atlantis, which he describes as bigger than 
VOL. I. E 


00 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


Asia and Africa, situated before the pillars of 
Hercules, which after an earthquake was swal- 
lowed up by the sea. According to his state- 
ment, this account was given by the Egyptian 
priests at Sais, to Solon, the Athenian legislator. 
Catcott, in his history of the deluge, seems to give 
some credit to this tradition, and supposes that 
Phaleg took his name, not from the confusion of 
tongues at Babel, and the subsequent division of 
the earth amongst the families of the three sons 
of Noah, but from its division occasioned by the 
subsidence of this great island, by which the occi- 
dental were separated from the oriental countries 
of the globe. Philo Judezus speaks of this catas- 
trophe in terms that imply he gave credit to it, 
as does also Tertullian ; but it appears to me to 
rest on too uncertain a base, and to be too much 
mixed with evident fable and allegory, to claim 
full credit as a real fact in the history of our 
globe. Still that many violent convulsions have 
taken place since the deluge is generally sup- 
posed. Our own island is thought once to have 
formed part of the continent, Sicily to have been 
united to Italy, with many other instances men- 
tioned by Pliny. It is equally probable that the 
islands of the Indian Archipelago were at one time 
joined to that part of Asia. Whether such dis- 
ruptions from the continents were simultaneous, 
or took place at different periods, is uncertain ; 
but if such an event as the submersion of the 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. roe | 


vast island of Plato did really happen, it surely 
would affect the whole terraqueous globe, pro- 
duce convulsions far and wide, and cause various 
disruptions in its crust, and elevations in other 
parts from the bed of the ocean. It throws 
some weight into this scale, that thus a way 
would be open, though certainly a circuitous one, 
for the migration of those animals to America, 
that are found in no other part of the world, and, 
supposing Asia to have been disrupted from it at 
_ Behrings Straits, could scarcely have ascended 
to so high a latitude, in search of their destined 
home. 

Malte-brun, in his geography, after proving 
that the animals in question could have passed 
neither from Africa nor Asia, observes—‘“ Nothing, 
therefore; remains, but the accommodating re- 
source of a tremendous convulsion of nature, with 
a vast tract of country swallowed up by the 
waves, which formerly united America with the 
temperate regions of the old world. Such con- 
jectures as these, however, being devoid of all 
historical support, do not merit a moment’s con- 
sideration ; consequently we cannot refrain from 
admitting, that the animals of America originated 
on the very soil, which, to this present day, they 
still inhabit.” 

That it might have been the will of the Creator 
_to people the country in question by the imme- 
diate production of a new race of animals, suited 


o2 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


to its climate and circumstances, I will not deny, 
but I would only ask, is it consistent with 
what occurred at the Deluge? Surely the task 
of Noah would have been much less difficult and 
laborious, had it been merely necessary for him 
to construct a vessel fitted for the reception of 
himself and family, and of food for their suste- 
nance during their confinement ; and a new race 
of animals had been created, adapted to the then 
state of the earth and mankind. But such was 
not the will of God, and, doubtless, for wise rea- 
sons. He would neither create a new race of men, 
nor a new race of animals, when the world might 
be repeopled by those already in being. This 
would not have harmonized with the ordinary 
proceedings of his providence. Whoever exa- 
mines the animals of North America, will find a 
vast number that correspond with European spe- 
cies, distinguished only by characters that mark 
varieties. On the Rocky Mountains, and in the 
country westward of that range, Asiatic types are 
discoverable, both in the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms.’ Several animals, likewise, of the 
southern part of that Continent belong to old. 
world genera, and also species. I have received 
from Val Paraiso a beetle, common in Britain,’ 
and Molina mentions several other European ge- 
nera, as natives of Chili; so that part of the animal 


1 See Appendix, note 14. 2 Sphodrus Terricola, 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 53 


population of the New World appears to have 
been derived from Europe and Asia; and if so, 
there is a door open, through which Providence 
might also have conducted those North American 
animals that are found in no other country. 

But besides the probable, or possible, modes 
by which the transit of animals to their respect- 
ive settlements might have been accomplished, 
Mr. Lyell, in the second volume of his Principles 
of Geology, has suggested one which might, 
amongst others, have been employed for this 
purpose. 

“Captain W. H. Smyth informs me,” says he, 
“that, when cruising in the Cornwallis, amidst the 

Philippine islands, he has more than once seen, 
after those dreadful hurricanes called typhoons, 
floating islands of (matted) wood, with trees 
growing upon them; and that ships have some- 
times been in eminent peril, in consequence of 
mistaking them for terra firma.” Mr. Lyell 
conjectures, not improbably, that by means of 
such an insular raft, or wandering Delos,—“ if 
the surface of the deep be calm, and the rafts 
carried along by a current, or wafted by a slight 
breath of air fanning the foliage of the green 
trees, it may arrive, after a passage of several 
weeks, at the bay of an island, into which its 
plants and animals may be poured out as from 
an ark; and thus a colony of several hundred 
_ new species may at once be naturalized.” Thus 


o4 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


he accounts for the peopling of the volcanic and 
coral islands in the Pacific. Mi) 
It must be borne in mind that nothing really 
happens by chance, or is the result of an acci- 
dental concourse of fortuitous events: second 
causes are always under the direction of the first, 
who ordereth all things according to the good 
pleasure of his will ; and therefore the elevation of 
a new island from the bosom of the deep, whether 
immediately produced by volcanic agency, or by 
an earthquake, or built by Zoophytes, still may 
be denominated his work ; so likewise the same 
Almighty Guardian of the universe, whose name 
is Jehovah of Hosts, directs all the actions and 
motions of the hosts that he hath created, to the 
full accomplishment of every purpose that, in his 
wisdom, he hath formed. When we are assured 
that the hairs of our head are all numbered, and 
that not a sparrow falleth without our Heavenly 
Father, we are instructed to look beyond second 
causes for the direction and management of events 
that appear at first sight the most trivial, but 
which, in their immediate or remote conse- 
quences, may be productive of effects that are 
important to be attended to and provided for.’ 
We know that when animals of any kind 
exceed certain limits, though beneficial in the 
ordinary exercise of their instincts, they become 


1 Appendix, note 15. 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. oo 


noxious. God alone knows when they approach 
these limits ; it is he, therefore, that employs man 
or other animals to destroy a certain number of 
them, that they may bear a due proportion to 
other beings on which they act; or if he wills to 
punish mankind, he suffers their numbers to in- 
crease so as to answer this intention. But to all 
his hosts, he says, “‘ Thus far shalt thou go and 
no further.” Therefore, when the ocean, or fires 
below its bed, or other causes elevate islands 
above its surface, it is he that conducts to them 
the population he intends should occupy them. 
The islands of Bourbon and Mauritius both 
appear to be of volcanic origin: amongst their 
aboriginal animal inhabitants was a most extra- 
ordinary gallinaceous bird, called the Dodo ;' 
this bird, like the ostrich and cassowary, had 
only rudiments of wings, and of course was 
unable to fly; being unfit for food, though of 
the gallinaceous order, and a very ugly and dis- 
gusting object, it soon became extinct in those 
islands, and the only remains of it are a leg and 
foot at the British Museum, and a skeleton of 
the head in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. 
It has been contended that this bird, having 
never been discovered elsewhere, was peculiar 
to these islands, but there are reasons for be- 
leiving, that it was not the only species of its 


1 Didus ineptus. 


06 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


genus, for Latham has included in it two others,* 
both stated to have been found in African 
islands. This affords a strong presumption that 
the head quarters of the genus are on the conti- 
nent of Africa, and that these three species have 
been conveyed to the islands they are stated to 
have inhabited by some accidental cause. By 
the direction of Providence, a floating island, 
like that seen by Captain Smyth, might be the 
means of conveying this and their other inha- 
bitants to them. 

I think, therefore, that there is no necessity 
to have recourse to a new and more recent crea- 
tion, to account for the introduction of its pecu- 
liar animals into any given country. , 

The fact itself, that almost every country has 
its peculiar animals, affords a proof of design, 
and of the adaptation of means to an end, 
demonstrating the intervention and guidance of 
an invisible Being, of irresistible power, to whose 
will all things yield obedience, and whose wis- 
dom and goodness are conspicuous im all the 
arrangements he has made. Wherever we see a 
peculiar class of animals we usually see peculiar 
circumstances which require their presence. 
Thus the Elephant and Rhinoceros, the Lion 
and the Tiger, are found only in warm climates, 
where a rapid vegetation, and infinite hosts of 


' Didus solitarius and nazarenus. | 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. O7 


animals, seem to require the efforts of such 
gigantic and ferocious devourers to keep them in 
check : but on this subject I shall have occasion 
to enlarge hereafter. 

There is another point of view, illustrative of 
the Divine attributes in this partial location of 
various animals. If every region, or nation, 


‘contained within its limits the entire circle that 


constitutes the animal kingdom, and the remark 
may be extended to every natural object, how 
weak and trifling would be the incitement for 
man to visit his fellow-men. Were the pro- 


ductions of every country the same, there would 


be little or no temptation for commercial spe- 
culation, therefore the merchant would stay at 
home; the animal, and plants, and minerals 


would be the same, therefore the naturalist would 


stay at home; the astronomer indeed, and 


geographer, and the student of his own species, 
might be tempted sometimes to roam, but the 
ocean would be truly dissociable, and those ties 
that now connect the different nations of the 
globe would, for the most part, be broken. They 


are now linked to each other, in a bond of amity, 


by the intercourse which their mutual wants 
produce, and the body geographical, if I may 
use such a metaphor, as well as the body na- 
tural, is so tempered, and so furnished in every 
part, that constant supplies of things, necessary 
or desirable, are uninterruptedly circulating, by 


08 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


certain channels, through the whole system ; 
and thus keep up a kind of systole and diastole, 
which diffuses every where a healthy tempera- 
ment, and is universally beneficial. . It is, more- 
over, calculated to generate those kindly feel- ~ 
ings which ought to reciprocate between beings 
inhabiting the same globe, and sprung from the 
same original father. And the cultivation of 
these feelings of mutual good will was, no doubt, 
the principal object of the Deity in the distribu- 
bution of various gifts to various countries, en- 
dowing some with one peculiar production and 
some with another : so that one might not say to 
another, “‘ I have no need of you.” 

Herein is the Divine wisdom and goodness 
most conspicuous. Had chance, or nature, as 
some love to speak, directed the distribution of 
animals, and they were abandoned to themselves 
and to the circumstances in which they found 
themselves in their original station, without any 
superintending power to guide them, they would 
not so invariably have fixed themselves in the | 
climates and regions for which they were evi- 
dently intended. Their migrations, under their 
own sole guidance, would have depended, for 
their direction, upon the season of the year, at 
which the desire seized them to change their — 
quarters: in the height of summer, the tropical 
animals might have taken a direction further 
removed from the tropics; and, in winter, those 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 59 


of colder climates might have journeyed towards 
instead of from them. Besides, taking into con- 
sideration other motives, from casual circum- 
stances, that might have induced different 
individuals belonging to the same climates to 
pursue different routes, they might be misled 
by cupidity, or dislike, or fear. On no other 
principle, can we explain the adaptation of their 
organization to the state and productions of the 
country in which we find them—lI speak of local 
species—but that of a Supreme Power, who 
formed and furnished the country, organized 
them for it, and guided them into it. 

_ There is another question relating to local 
animals which here requires some notice. Are 
they really distinct species? Have not the cha- 
_racters which separate them from their affinities 
_ been produced, in the course of years, by pecu- 
liar circumstances in which they are placed, such 
as climate, temperature, nature of the country, 
food, and the like? Every person who knows 
any thing of the history of animals must admit, 
that great changes do take place in them from the 
long action of these causes. For instance, some 
varieties of the common ox are polled, having 
only rudiments of horns; others have very short 
and others very long ones; in some they are not 
fixed to the skull, but attached to the skin, and 
moveable with it. The same thing, likewise, 
takes place with sheep; some have no horns, 


60 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


others have two, and one breed, the Icelandic, 
is distinguished by having four. How these 
variations have been produced, and by what 
circumstances they are ruled, has not been as- 
certained, nor what differences, in other re- 
spects, obtain between the armed and unarmed 
varieties. Linné indeed observed, with respect 
to the polled sheep, which he denominates 
English sheep,—but whether they are strictly 
entitled to that name is not clear, for in the 
pillars of Trajan and Antoninus, though there 
are no polled oxen, there are polled sheep,— 
that their tails and scrotum reach to the knees ; 
but this does not appear a certain and invariable 
fact. A young zoologist, when his attention is 
first arrested by these facts, will probably be 
inclined to think that animals, exhibiting such 
striking differences, cannot belong to the same 
species ; but in the progress of his experience, 
especially in what takes place in almost all ani- 
mals that man has taken into alliance with him, 
he will see reason to change his sentiments. 
Again, the ears of some animals also exhibit 
differences that might seem to indicate specific 
distinction. We see this both in the horse and 
the swine. In the wild horse the ears lie back, 
in the domesticated or cultivated one they are 
erect. The horse was not originally a native 
of America; but when the Spaniards and other 
nations obtained a footing in that country, they 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 61 


carried this animal with them, which is now 
become wild, and numerous herds of them are 
found in the Llanos, these generally, we are 
told, are of a chestnut bay, and have recumbent 
ears. Those that are found wild in the Steppes 
of Tartary, have the hair of the mane and tail 
very long and thick, and their ears also are 
recumbent. A writer, quoted below, has con- 
cluded from some observations of Xenophon and 
Varro, that the military horses of the Greek and 
Roman republics were much nearer those in the 
wild state, as just described, than in a subse- 
quent period.’ In all the war horses, however, 
-seulptured in Trajan’s and Antoninus’ pillars, 
the ears are erect, as I think also are those of 
the Elgin marbles in the British Museum—at 
least, none of them appear to be recumbent ; and 
in some figured in Hamilton’s Agyptiaca,: from 
sculptures at Medinet Abou, in Egypt, which 
are still more ancient, the ears of all are erect. 
In England we have two breeds of swine, one 
with large flapping or pendent ears; of this 
description are those fattened in the distilleries 
in and near London ; the other with small, erect, 
acute ears, common in the county of Suffolk. 
When it is considered, that the varieties of 
the above animals with erect ears appear to 
exhibit altogether a better character, if I may 


1 Roulin. Anim. Domest. Ann. Des. Sc. Nat. xvi. 26. 
2 Pl. vili. ix. 


62 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


so speak, than their less spirited brethren, whose 
ears are pendent or laid back, and that this 
circumstance seems to indicate some approach — 
to civilization in them; it may, probably, be 
deemed to result from some developement of the 
brain produced by education, and present some 
analogy to the effects of the latter in the human 
species. | 

There is a certain protuberance growing on 
the back, between the shoulders, and consisting 
chiefly of fat, which distinguishes the Indian 
oxen, both the larger and smaller varieties, from 
our own, which is known sometimes to attain to 
the enormous weight of fifty pounds; the ox of 
Surat is stated to have two of these bosses, or 
humps. Now, Burckhardt has observed, with 
respect to the camel, that—“ While the hump 
continues full, the animal will endure consider- 
able fatigue on a very short allowance, feeding, 
as the Arabs say, on the fat of its own hump. 
After a long journey the hump almost entirely 
subsides, and it is not till after three or four 
months’ repose, and a considerable time after 
the rest of the carcass has acquired flesh, that it 
resumes its natural size of one fourth of the 
whole body.” This conjecture of the Arabs 
may, very probably, be well founded, for it is 
known that animals which become torpid in the 
winter, are very fat and have several cauls 
abounding in that substance; but when they 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 63 


awake from their long repose in the spring, they 
have absorbed a large proportion of it, and are 
comparatively lean, and more fit for action. 
During their torpidity the fat is absorbed into 
the system by means of the lymphatic vessels 
and the ramifications of the veins. It is stated, 
however, that the Bear comes out of its winter- 
quarters as fat as it went into them, but that in 
a few days, it becomes very lean.’ In this 
case it would seem as if there was little or no 
absorption during hybernation, and that it be- 
comes very rapid upon the animal’s emersion 
from its hiding place. 

Reasoning from analogy, the hump on the 
Zebu may have some such use, and during the 
dry season, when the food is scorched up, may 
minister to the nutriment of the animal. If this 
be the case, this variation from the common 
type is evidently designed, and furnishes a proof 
of the care of the Creator for all his creatures, 
and likewise of such an adaptation of means to 
an end, as evince both the wisdom, power, and 
prescience of Him who has so arranged circum- 
stances and agents in every climate as to fulfil 
his benevolent purposes. 

_. The allwise Governor of the universe, when 
he gave to the sheep its covering, appears to 
have had in view not solely the protection of the 


1 Dr. Richardson, Faun. Boreali-Americ. i. 16, 20. 


64 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


animal from the effects of cold, but more par- 
ticularly the benefit of him whom he had en- 
throned at the head of his creation, by thus 
placing at his disposal a material so inestimable, 
for his use and comfort, as wool. It has been — 
observed that all the wild sheep are clothed with 

long hair; but the Guinea sheep,’ which is — 
found in the tropical countries, both of Africa 
and India, is the most truly hairy of any, evi- 
dently a provision of the Author of nature, suited 
to the climate in which they are found. The 
fine fleeces of the cultivated breeds appear to 
have been engrafted, as it were, on the long hair 
of the wild ones, which, doubtless, have been | 
very much improved by the attention paid by 
man to his flocks. The influence of climate, 
the quality of pasturage, a due supply of whole- 
some food in winter ; and washing and shearing 
when summer approaches, have all, certainly, — 
contributed to the improvement of this staple of 
our commerce. But it was God who endowed 
these animals with those facilities, if I may so 
speak, of which man availing himself, might | 
produce by culture the valuable article, in its 
highest perfection, of which I am here speaking. — 
What a difference between the hair of the 
Guinea sheep, and the beautiful fleece of the 
Merino, which even seems to be exceeded, in — 


' Ovis aries africana.—L. 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 65 


fineness and softness, by the straight wool of the 
Parnassian breed. 

No animal, if indeed all belong to one original 
species, varies more than one that is most domes- 
ticated of any, the dog: some, as the water-dog,’ 
being covered with curled hair almost as thick 
as the fleece of a sheep, while others, the Turk- 
ish-dog,’ are absolutely naked ; others again, the 
grey-hound,’ being very slender, with long 
slender muzzle and legs, remarkable for their 
velocity and the quickness of their sight ; others 
lastly, the hound,* more robust in form, less 
swift in motion, with a short obtuse muzzle, 
depending chiefly upon their scent in_ pur- 
suit of their prey. Whoever studies all these 
supposed varieties, and the diversified functions 
which they exercise in our service, as our faith- 
ful and attached companions, the watchful 
guardians and defenders of our property, the 
purveyors of our table, and the ministers of our 
pleasures, must acknowledge the wisdom, good- 
ness, and power of the Creator in the production 
of so versatile a race, applicable, in so many 
ways, to such a variety of purposes, many of 
them of the first importance. Without them 
some nations would have no means of con- 
veyance from place to place;? and others would 


' Canis familiaris aquaticus. 2 Canis familiaris egyptius. 
— 3 Canis familiaris graius. 4 Canis familiaris molossus. 
_ 5 The Kamtchadales. 
| VOL. I. EF 
: ; 


66 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


scarcely be able to supply themselves with a 
sufficiency of food.’ 

Amongst the birds there is one tribe peculiarly 
domesticated, which likewise is subject to nu- 
merous variations (it will be readily seen that I 
allude to our common poultry), but the diffe- 
rences that obtain in them are chiefly confined 
to their plumage ; some are crowned with a tuft of 
feathers ; others, as the Friesland-hen, have the 
feathers on their body recurved ; another breed, 
as the rumplets, have no tail; the generality 
have their legs naked, but the bantams have 
them covered with feathers; and, to name no 
more, the silk-hens, instead of feathers, are 
clothed with a kind of silken hair. 

We cannot state the object of all these diffe- 
rences, but probably it is connected with the 
climate and other circumstances of the country 
in which they were produced. India and its 
islands appears to be the metropolis of this 
valuable species of fowl, and the jungle fowl is 
supposed to be the original breed ; but this is one 
of those animals which will live and thrive in 
every climate except the Polar; and when we 
consider the benefits we derive from them, we 
shall be disposed with grateful hearts to adore 
and glorify our Almighty benefactor, who fitted 
them, as well as so many other useful animals, 


' Many of the North American Indians, Esquimaux, &c. 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 67 


to become, like ourselves, denizens of the whole 
earth. It is a remarkable circumstance, and 
worthy of particular attention, that the animals 
most subject to variation, are chiefly those which 
man has taken into alliance with him from their 
adaptation to his purposes. Now this tendency to 
vary multiplies their uses, or, at least, contributes 
to fit them for following him into different cli- 
mates, enabling them to accommodate themselves 
gradually to any change of circumstances to 
which they may therein be exposed, without 
diminishing their utility. 

Amongst the other races, especially the feline, 
this appears not to take place, at least only with 
respect to colour. The cat, though every where 
domesticated, exhibits no other differences than 
what obtain in the colour of her fur. If we 
recollect that this favourite quadruped is prin- 
cipally employed to destroy those minor animals 
that are noxious in and about our houses, to 
which indeed her instinct impels her, and that 
she is solely led by that instinct, and adds nothing 
to it from instruction, her sole savage object 


_ being, like that of her congeners, to seize and 


devour her prey; that she never assists man, 
like the dog, as the companion of his sports 
in various ways, but exercises her single func- 
tion always in the same way, and under the same 
influence: if we further recollect that these are 
the general habits of the genus to which she 


68 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


belongs, which appear subject to very trivial mo- 
difications from altered circumstances, and: that 
almost all animals that do not follow in the train 
of man are equally constant, we may hence infer 
that the Creator has not gifted them with. the 
capability of improvement, and the develope- 
ment of latent qualities not apparent in their 
wild state. 

There is one circumstance, however, in which 
predaceous or carnivorous animals, when domes- 
ticated, shew some aberration from their instinct, 
they do not refuse farinaceous food. The cat 
and the dog will both eat bread with great 
eagerness and thrive upon it. 

It has been questioned by some stielilign the 
present races of animals have not all, in the 
lapse of ages, undergone some alterations from 
the primitive types. The only way by which 
this can be at all ascertained is by consulting 
the oldest descriptions of them, and the oldest 
sculptures; and these, I think, will prove that 
no such alteration has taken place. . 

In considering the general distribution er 
animals we may further remark that some are 
stationary, while others, at certain periods, mi- 
grate or shift their quarters from one climate or 
region to another. 

In considering the former, I shall not shail 
enlarge on the stations of the different tribes 
further than as they are connected with the great 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 69 


object, which it is my duty to illustrate. With 
respect to many it may be observed, that though 
perhaps widely dispersed, yet they have their 
metropolis... Thus the gigantic whales, though 
they are sometimes found in low latitudes, not, 
however, within the tropics, yet their grand 
rendezvous is in the arctic and antarctic seas; 
furnishing a strong proof that in these they find 
the greatest supply of their appropriate food. 
The giant terrestrial Mammalia, on the contrary, 
confine themselves to intratropical regions, where 
the luxuriance of vegetation best corresponds with 
their enormous consumption of food. Amongst 
the birds the Vulture, though one species, the 
Lammer-Geyer,’ comes as far north as the Swiss 
Alps, generally most abounds in hot climates, 
and is often of essential service in preventing the 
infection, likely to be produced by putrid ani- 
mals; to these birds our Saviour’s words, doubt- 
less, allude, ‘‘ Wheresoever the carcass is, there will 
the eagles be gathered together ;” the species he 
had in his eye, was probably the Egyptian Vul- 
ture,* the services of which in Egypt are strik- 
ingly described by Hasselquist. After noticing 
its disgusting appearance, he says: ‘ Notwith- 
standing this, the inhabitants of Egypt cannot 
be enough thankful to Providence for this bird. 


t See Introd. to Ent. iv. Lett. xlix. 2 Vultur Barbatus. 
3 Vultur percnopterus, L. | 


70 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


All the places round Cairo are filled with the 
dead bodies of asses and camels; and thousands 
of these birds fly about and devour the carcasses, 
before they putrify, and fill the air with noxious 
exhalations.”” Belon observes, which proves their 
prevalence there, that in Palestine they devour 
an infinite number of mice, which would other- 
wise be a great pest. The cognate tribe, the 
eagles, though they are widely dispersed, have 
their metropolis in more northern climates, and 
are distinguished also from the vultures, by 
making living animals chiefly their prey: for 
this they are gifted with a wonderful acuteness 
of sight, and indomitable strength of wing, and 
of legs and talons, fitting them for astonishing 
velocity of flight, and for resistless force, when 
they attack and bear off their prey. As they 
have no scent, their eyes are of infinite use, and 
enable them to discern a small bird at an almost 
incredible distance: and often to get a clearer 
view and more extensive horizon, when they 
leave their mountain aeries, they ascend to a 
great height. M. Ramond, when he had as- 
cended the highest peak of the Pyrenees, saw 
an eagle soaring above him, flying directly in 
the teeth of a violent south-wester, with incon- 
ceivable velocity. | 

Another genus of a tropical type, but not con- 
fined to the tropics, forming a striking contrast 
with the gigantic forms last adverted to, consists 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 71 


of the numerous species of the brilliant and di- 
minutive Humming birds, which like the butter- 
flies, whose analogues they are, suck the nectar 
of the flowers. This, strictly, American genus is 
in great force, also without the tropics, for they 
abound in Mexico, and go northward as far as 
Canada, and southward as far as Patagonia. 
There is no northern metropolis for any analo- 
gous form, to these living gems, which constitute 
the ornament and life of the new world. But 
the old shares with the new, in another beautiful 
type in the winged creation, I mean the Psitta- 
ceous or Parrot tribes, which chiefly support 
themselves upon fruits, and abound in all tro- 
pical countries, these the Creator has not only 
invested with the gayest colours and plumage, 
but gifted also with the power of speech, at least 
of imitating the speech of man, when brought 
into contact with him. Their principal residence 
is within the tropics, but not confined to them, 
as many are found in New Holland. The Aras! 
are confined to the new world, and one of its 
greatest ornaments; their plumage being the 
most brilliant of any of the Psittaceans. 

An analogous tribe of mammiferous animals 
inhabits the same station, and feeds on the same 
food with the parrots, these are what Zoologists 
call the Quadrumanes, or Four-handed beasts, 


1 Macrocercus. 


72 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


from their often using their hind as well as their 
fore feet as hands, and many of them even their 
tail. This tribe includes the Monkeys, Apes, 
and Baboons, and though these do not imitate 
man, by catching his phrases, like the birds last 
named, yet they mimic all his actions. 1 have 
often thought, when I have examined figures of 
this tribe, that their features are typical of the 
different kinds of face observable in the human 
species: as far as relates to body they approach 
us, but in the spzrdtual part of our nature, ele- 
vated by high expectations, and by knowledge 
not confined to this globe on which we tread, 
but traversing the heavens, and penetrating in 
thought to the throne of Him who sitteth upon 
them, we infinitely exceed them. 

Those animals that are of a predaceous or car- 
-nivorous character, are more widely dispersed, 
than many of the herbivorous ones, in fact they 
are co-extensive with their food, I do not mean 
specifically, but generically. Though the Lion 
and the Tiger, and the larger feline animals are 
generally tropical, yet the Cat is naturalized 
every where. Though the Hyzena and the Jackal 
shrink from the temperature of the greater part 
of Europe, yet Wolves and Foxes, as well as the 
great majority of the canine race, are found in- 
digenous, or have been formerly indigenous, in 
almost every part of it. | 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 738 


Many more instances might be adduced prov- 
ing that animals have been placed originally in 
certain stations, adapted to the habits resulting 
from their organization and general structure, 
from which some of them have sent forth their 
colonies far and wide, while others, owing to 
peculiarities in these respects, requiring a given 
temperature and kind of food, or to local obsta- 
cles stopping their further progress, have not 
wandered beyond certain limits. 


Having, in the preceding pages, endeavoured 
to account for the dispersion and present stations 
of the various members of the animal kingdom 
at large, not to leave the subject incomplete, I 
must next make a few observations relative to 
that of the human race. 

It has been a favourite theory of some modern 
physiologists that God “hath not made of one 
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the 
face of the earth,’ but that there are different 
species of men as well as of animals: others, 
who do not go quite so far, suspect—that at the 
last great deluge, besides Noah and his family 
who were saved in the ark, some others escaped 
from that sad catastrophe by taking refuge on 
some of the highest mountain ridges of Asia and 
Africa, and seem to insinuate that from these 
arose the three principal races, the Caucasian, 


74 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


the Mongol, and the Negro, that now hold pos- 
session of our globe.’ I shall say something in 
controversion of each of these theories, caress 
with the last. > iad 

This indeed furnishes a clue for its own refu- 
tation, since it admits three principal stems, which. 
is in accordance with the Mosaic account, that 
from the families of the three sons of Noah, the 
nations were divided in the earth after the flood. 
The author of the above theory seems disposed 
to admit the truth of the Mosaic account, but 
insinuates that it may have been only intended 
to instruct the Israelites in the history of the race 
to which they belonged, while that of other races 
may have been passed over in silence. It is too 
much the fashion, in this sceptical age, to evade 
the facts that are most clearly revealed in scrip- 
ture, by saying the language must not be taken 
strictly nor interpreted literally, even when it is. 
concerning events in which there is no room for 
metaphor. One would think that the terms in 
which God foretold the deluge were of this de- 
scription. ‘ And behold I, even I, do bring a 
flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh 
wherein is the breath of life from under heaven ; 
and every thing that is in the earth shall. die.” 
And again—‘ And the waters prevailed exceed- 
ingly upon the earth, and all the high hills that 
were under the whole heaven were covered : fifteen 


1 Outlines of Hist. Cab. Cycl. ix. 4. 


EY 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. To 


cubits upwards did the waters prevail, and the 
mountains were covered.” It is also stated that 
every living substance, both man and cattle, &c., 
was destroyed from the earth, and that Noah only 
remained alive, and they that were with him in the 
ark. Can language be more definite and ex- 
press? 

What can be more absurd than that an ark 
should be necessary for the saving of Noah and 
his family, and a world of animals, to be stored 
with a vast supply of provision, when they might 
have escaped according to this hypothesis by 
taking refuge on the summit of some lofty moun- 
tain to which Divine Wisdom might have directed 
them ? 

There is no occasion whatever for such an 
Hypothesis to account for the dispersion of man- 
kind and their breaking into nations. Two chap- 
ters in the book of Genesis’ set the whole matter 
in a clear light, both as to the first cause of their 
separation, and the various tribes into which they 
separated, in which we can trace the names of 
many nations still in existence. From Babel 
each in due time took the course, in that direc- 
tion, however led by circumstances, that Provi- 
dence had decreed. Europe became at last the 
head quarters of the descendants of Japhet, 
Asia of those of Shem, and Africa of those of 


1 Chap. x. xi. 


76 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


Ham; the Shemites in the lapse of ages, pass- 
ing over to America, were the progenitors of the 
red or copper race of that continent. Nor were 
there any insurmountable obstacles in the way 
to prevent the peopling of the globe from one 
common stock. Supposing Babel or Babylon 


to have been, so to speak, the centre of irradia- 


tion—how easy was the transit for Ham’s de- 
scendants into Africa by the Isthmus of Suez ; 
into Europe, the path was still more open for those 
of Japhet ; and as the stream of population 
spread to the East, the passage to America was 
not difficult to those who had arrived at Behrings 
Straits. But in all these countries mixtures with 
the aborigines have probably taken place, either 
from the irruption and colonizations of great 
conquerors, the spread of commerce and similar 
causes, which naturally tend to produce varia- 
tions in races from the primitive type. Hence 
writers on this subject now reckon six races dis- 
tinguished by their colour, viz. a white race; a 
tawny race; ared race; a deep brown race; a 
brown-black race; and a black race. 


This leads me to the other theory alluded to- 


above, that there are different species of men as 


- 


well as of other animals. The principal foun-— 


dation upon which those naturalists have built 


their theory, that have adopted the opinion, 
that there are several distinct species of men 


originally created, is not only their colour, but 


woe 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. TT? 


likewise certain parts of their structure, which 
are found to vary in different races, such as 
the shape of the head; the prominence, more 
or less, of the jaws, producing different facial 
angles; the comparative length of some of 
the bones, and shape of the feet; the degra- 
dation of intellect ; the peculiar acuteness of the 
senses; the tenacity of the memory; and, to 
name no more, the appropriation of a peculiar 
species of parasitic animal to a peculiar race.’ 

» Various are the circumstances, which, in the 
progress of generations, tend to produce differ- 
ences between the different races which are now 
found inhabiting our globe, without having 
recourse to a theory that boldly contradicts or 
nullifies the word of God; since the Scripture 
expressly declares, that God ‘“ hath made of one 
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the 
face of the earth, and hath determined the times 
before appointed, and the bounds of their habi- 
tation.” Climate, the elevation of country, its 
soil, waters, woods, and other peculiarities; the 
food, clothing, customs, habits, way of life, and 
state of civilization, often, of its inhabitants, pro- 
duce effects upon the latter that are important 
and durable, and contribute to impress a pecu- 
liar character upon the different races of men 


See N. Dict. D’Hist. Nat. xv. 150, Article Homme. White’s 
Regular Gradation in Man, &c. §. 2. 


78 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


as well as animals, that inhabit our globe, and 
will account for many distinctions, which indi- 
cate that such an individual belongs to such a 
people. But these circumstances will not explain 
and satisfactorily account for all the peculiar 
characters that distinguish nations from each 
other, without having recourse to the will of 
a governing and all-directing Power, influ- 
encing circumstances that happen in the com- 
mon course, and, according to the established 
laws of nature, to answer the purposes of his 
Providence. When he confounded the speech 
and language of the descendants of Noah, con-— 
eregated at Babel, he first made a division of 
mankind into nations; ‘‘ And from thence did 
Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the face of all 
the earth.” The same Divine Power that effected — 
this distinction, which may be called the origin - 
of nationality, also decreed that nations should 
be further separated by differences of form and 
colour, as well as speech, which differences ori- 
ginated not in any change operated miraculously, 
but produced by second causes, under the direc- 
tion of the First. When we are told expressly 
that “ The hairs of our head are all numbered,” 
and that in God’s ‘‘ Book all our members are 
written,” we learn, what in common parlance we 
acknowledge, that it is according to God’s will 
that we are made so and so. That persons, who, 
in some one or other of their parts and organs, 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 79 


exhibit an approximation to races different from 
that to which they belong, as thick lips, a pro- 
minent facial angle, a difference in the relative 
proportion of certain bones to each other, the 
curling of the hair, and the like, occur in all 
places, must be obvious to every one who uses 
his eyes and intellect. It is evident that all 
these variations are produced by circumstances 
that we cannot fully appreciate. Even in ani- 
mals, there is as much difference in general 
characters between the Arabian steed of high 
blood, fine form, indomitable spirit, and winged 
speed, and the brewer’s dray-horse, of a strikingly 
opposite character, as there is between the Euro- 
pean high-bred gentleman and the African negro. 
_ The long-legged swine of France, though exhi- 
biting such a marked difference in the relative 
length of some of their bones, are still the same 
species with the short-legged swine of England. 
The same argument is strengthened by the infi- 
nite varieties of the dog, the erect ears of the tame, 
and recumbent ones of the wild horse.’ It is 
evident, therefore, from fact and from what ordi- 
narily happens, that there are powers at work at 
and after conception, and while the foetus is in the 
womb, that can produce variations in the same 
people, approaching to those that distinguish the 
Negro, the red man, or the brown man; which, 


' See above, p. 60. 


80 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


indeed, can produce forms much more singular 
and extraordinary ; for instance, the monsters that 
sometimes make their appearance in the world, 
as the Siamese youths, children with two heads, 
&c. The mysterious influence that the excited 
imagination, or passions, or appetites of the mo- 
ther, have over the foetus in her womb, is well 
known, and produces very extraordinary conse-— 
quences, and malformations, and monstrosities. 
When we consider that all these facilities, if I 
may so speak-—these tendencies to produce 
variations in the foetus, are at the disposal of 
Him, who upholds all things by the word of his — 
power, and turns them to the fulfilment of his 
own purposes,—we may imagine that thus new 
types may be produced, which may be continued 
in the ordinary way of generation ; according to 
that observation of Humboldt, that “The exclu- 
sion of all foreign mixtures contributes to per- 
petuate varieties, or aberrations from the common 
standard.” That what at first were family 
characters, accompany the race when grown into — 
a nation, is evident from the case of the Jews, 
who, wherever dispersed, exhibit certain common 
characters by which they are every where 
known; and, with respect to complexion, they 
are said to vary according to the climates in 
which they reside. A singular exception to this” 


1 Personal Travels, v. il. 565. 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. ol 


is furnished by the black Jews of Malabar, men- 
tioned by Dr. Buchanan. At Cochin, he says, 
there are two classes of Jews, the white and the 
black Jews. The latter are supposed to have 
arrived in India soon after the Babylonian cap- 
tivity ; at least, they have that tradition amongst 
them, which seems confirmed by the fact that 
they have copies only of those books of the Old 
Testament which were written previously to the 
captivity. The white Jews emigrated from 
Europe to India in later ages. Now here is a 
singular fact, that in the lapse of so many ages 
a white or tawny race has become black. Mr. 
White endeavours to account for such an aber- 
ration from his principle, that colour does not 
result from climate, by an observation not alto- 
gether founded in fact—namely, that the Jews 
have gained proselytes in every country in which 
they have resided, and, being at liberty to marry 
‘those proselytes, this would produce mixed 
breeds. But though the Jews, in our Saviour’s 
‘time, would compass sea and land to gain one 
‘proselyte, this has not been their character since 
‘the destruction of Jerusalem, and we never hear 
now of their making proselytes. Indeed, these 
black Jews of Cochin seem to have been settled 
‘there long before any white ones came to that 
place. 
With regard to the degradation of the intellect, 
‘and the peculiar acuteness of the senses or 
VOL. I. G 


82 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


memory of certain races; these furnish no proof 
whatever of specific distinctions, or that they 
could not be descended from the common an- 

cestor of our species. 

Humboldt has an important observation which 
will explain how this might happen without 
having recourse to such a supposition. Speak- 
ing of the barbarism of certain tribes of Ame- 
ricans and Asiatics, he observes :—‘‘ The bar- 
barism that prevails throughout these different 
regions is, perhaps, less owing to a primitive 
absence of all kind of civilization, than to the 
effects of a long degradation. The greater part. 
of the hordes, which we designate under the 
name of savages, descend, probably, from nations 
more advanced in cultivation.”* And in another} 
place :—“ If it be true that savages are for the 
most part degraded races, remnants escaped 
from a common shipwreck, as their languages, 
their cosmogonic fables, a crowd of other indi- 
cations seem to prove.” 

Now, what is it that degrades man, and causes 
him to make an approach towards the brute? 
Setting up sense above reason and intellect; 
sight above faith; this world above the next. 
Experience teaches us, that those faculties of 
our nature that are most cultivated, become most 
acute: if intellectual pursuits are neglected, the 


1 Personal Travels. E. T. iu. 208. 


>¢ 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 85 


intellect itself becomes weakened ; in proportion 
as the senses are exercised, they are strength- 
ened; in proportion as the pleasures they afford 
us stand high or low in our estimation, we 
graduate towards the brute, which knows no 
pleasures but those of sense, or towards the 
angel who knows no pleasures but what are 
spiritual. There is a governing principle in 
man,' originally enthroned in him by his Creator, 
and to whose sway the senses were originally in 
complete subjection. But when man fell, a 
struggle was generated, the lower or sensual part 
of his nature striving to gain the rule over him, 
and to dethrone the higher or intellectual. This 
is the “ law in our members warring against the 
law of our mind,” mentioned by the Apostle. 
Now, we know that the same individual, at 
different periods of life, may be directed in his 
actions first by one and then by the other of 
these laws ; he may begin in sense, and end in 
spirit, or vice versa. If the former takes place 
in him, his nature and character are elevated, 
and he is become more intellectual ; if the latter, 
they are degraded, and he is become more 
sensual and nearer to a brute, and yet in both 
cases he remains the same man as before; his 
Species is not altered. Apply this to nations, 
will it follow, because one is now generally gifted 


1 To jyepovexor. 


84 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


with a greater degree of intellect, and another — 
remarkable for more acute sensation, that, there- 
fore, they cannot be derived from a common | 
origin? Nations are often led by custom as well 
as individuals ; they, therefore, usually walk in 
the path that their ancestors have trod before 
them, and, from circumstances connected with 
this, it happens that some apply their faculties 
to higher pursuits than others. Those that 
chiefly cultivate the intellect improve it by that 
very act; while those who are principally en- 
gaged in pursuits that require the constant and 
skilful use of the organs of sensation acquire a ~ 
degree of expertness in that use not to be met — 
with in the others; but the intellect bemg em- © 
ployed only upon low objects, becomes habitually 
degraded, and loses all taste for things that are — 
not visible and tangible. Though in an indi- ~ 
vidual, or in a long succession of individuals, this — 
might not produce a perceptible contraction and 
non-developement of the organ of the intellect, or 
in the chamber that contains it ; yet, in the lapse 
of ages and generations, this effect would gradu-_ 
ally be produced, for if an organ is not used for 
a long course of years, it becomes contracted, 
and from long habit unapt to perform its natural _ 
functions. Some American nations, by the ap- 
plication of boards properly shaped, depress the 
skull-bone of their infants, thinking a flat head 
a great beauty, whence the tribe is distinguished 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 80 


by the name of Pallotepallors, or Flat-heads. 
Others, by the same means, give them a conical 
form; there is no difficulty, therefore, in con- 
ceiving that with a gradual contraction of the 
brain, that of the skull might take place in the 
foetus, which would accommodate one to the 
other. With regard to the memory, it is not 
wonderful that a being who occupies his time 
and intellect with few objects, should have a 
more distinct recollection of certain events, than 
one whose attention is more divided. It may 
be observed of the lower orders in general, that 
their memory, for the same reason, of matters 
within their own sphere of comprehension, is 
often more clear than that of persons better 
educated and informed. 

_ I remember the case of a negro who resided 
near Bury St. Edmunds, who was an educated 
man, and published a volume of poems by sub- 
Scription, which did him no discredit... Hence, 
it is evident that there is a difference of capacity 
in negroes as well as whites, which admits of 
improvement from instruction and study, when 
they come among civilized people. Little stress 
will be laid on the parasite of the negroes,’ being 
specifically distinct from that which infests the 
whites, when we reflect that the horse and the 
ox have different insect parasites and assailants 


* He was called Ignatius Sancho. % Pediculus Nigritarum. 


86 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 


in different climates. There is atime fixed upon 
in the divine counsels when the curse shall cease; 
and it will then be found that by reversing the 


course that has degraded so many nations, the — 
apostacy, namely, from God to idolatries of the — 


most debasing kind—which has yielded them up | 


a prey to sensuality, clouded their understandings, 
and, instead of universal good-will, has taught 
them to regard those that are not of their own 
tribe or caste as objects of just hatred and injury 
—when this course has been reversed and they 
are brought back to God, which will take place 


in his time and at his word; and by the means — 


and instruments that he empowers and com- 
missions,’ they will become more elevated in 
their character, and assume a higher rank among 
the nations: and they will make good their claim 
to the same inheritance with the other members 
of the Christian family. He who decreed the 
end, decrees also the means. When the Lord 
gave the word, great was the company of those 
that published it. 'This was the case at the first 
preaching of the Gospel, when the gross darkness 
of heathen idolatry covered the earth; this also 
was the case at what may be called its republi- 
cation at the time of the Reformation, when the 
eross darkness of papal idolatry had almost put 
out the light of truth in the church ; and so shall 


1 See Appendix, note 16. 


DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 87 


it be again, should another and perhaps last 
cloud of error envelope the world with darkness,’ 
which seems even now beginning to gather, and 
may we not hope that it will be followed by that 
happy time, foretold by the prophet, when— che 
knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the 
waters cover the sea? The old curse on Hams off- 
spring shall then cease, he shall no longer be a 
servant of servants to his brethren ; then shall the 
curse also that has driven the children of Abra- 
ham after the flesh into every region of the globe, 
cease, and they shall look on him whom they 
pierced, and be restored to the favour of their 
God, and to their own land;* and next, in its 
own day, the original curse, also pronounced upon 
Adam and his posterity shall be obliterated and 
done away for ever. 
Taking all the circumstances I have noticed 
into consideration, I trust I have made it clear, 
that the variations observable in the different 
races of men are not of such a nature as to render 
it impossible, or improbable, that they should all 
_have been derived from a common stock ; and that 
the degradations observable in some of them, and 
approximation to the highest of the brutes, was 
caused not by the will and fiat of the Creator, 
but by their own wilful departure from him, and 
voluntary self-debasement. Because they did not 
lke to retain God in their knowledge, he gave 


1 See Appendix, note 17. 2 See Appendix, note 18. 


88 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


them over to a reprobate mind to do those things 
that are not convenient: further, that with re- 
spect to those characters, which distinguish one 


nation from another, they may be attributed to 


the action of physical causes directed by the 
Deity : who, to use the language of a pious and 
excellent poet, 


Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent. 


THERE is another interesting subject connected 
with the geography of animals, which may find 
its place here; a subject than which none shows 
more evidently or strikingly the hand of a benefi- 
cent and ever watchful Providence, holding the 
reins ; and upon certain occasions and at certain 
seasons, directing various animals to change their 
quarters, and seek often in distant countries a 
more genial climate, in which they may give birth 
to their young, or find a better supply of food for 
their own support. I shall, therefore, now devote 
a few pages to the migrations of animals. 


The most general principle that causes emigra- _ 
tion is common to man and animals. When — 
a country is over-peopled, and can no longer 


maintain its inhabitants, unless some means can 
be devised at home, by which the pressure may 
be lightened, and the suffering classes enabled 
to procure the necessaries of life, there must in- 


MIGRATIONS. 89 


evitably be some outbreak ; when the rivers can 
no longer be contained within their natural chan- 
nel they will overflow, and spread desolation 
around, till they have passed away and found a 
place in the great receptacle of waters. Thus, in 
ancient times, the great northern hive sent forth 
its numberless swarms, and overturned and di- 
vided amongst them a considerable portion of 
that mighty empire which extended its iron 
sway over the fairest portion of the globe.’ 

With regard to their migrations, animals may 
be divided into two classes. The first will consist 
of those that migrate casually, under a certain 
pressure ; and the second of those that migrate 
perrodically, or at certain seasons. 

1. Of the first description, are those infinite 
armies of Locusts, which, when they have laid 
bare one country, as an overshadowing and dark 
cloud pregnant with the wrath of heaven, pass on 
to another ; mighty conquerors of old, of whom 
they were the symbols, from Sesostris to Senna- 
cherib and Nebuchadnezzar, also mark their pro- 
gress by devastation and ruin; to use the graphic 
language of the prophet—‘ The land is as the 
garden of Eden before them, and behind them a 
desolate wilderness.” 

This plague has generally been considered 
as belonging to the old world, in which they 


1 See Appendix, note 19. 
2 See on the Locusts Introd. to Ent. 1 Lett. vii. 


90 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


seldom exceed latitude 42°. but in N. America, 
there is a species of Locust or Grass-hopper, as 
Dr. Richardson informs me, according to the 
report of the Indians, becoming prevalent about 
once in twenty years, which committed great 
devastations at lord Selkirk’s colony of Red river, 
as high as latitude 52°. They made their first 
appearance in vast flights coming from the plains 
to the westward, and soon destroyed the crops of 
grain, and every thing green. They re-appeared 
for three or four successive summers, each year 
in smaller numbers, and now for several years 
they have not been seen. 

These were evidently insects of the same order 
and tribe with the locust, though perhaps of a dif- 
ferent genus; but, probably the tradition of the 
Indians might relate to another North American 
devastator, which is also called there the Locust, 
but belongs to a genus beloved by the Greeks for 
its song, and hated by the less imaginative Romans 
for its stunning noise, which may be called the 
Tree Locust; a species of which is said to ap- 
pear, about once in every seventeen years,’ in 
such prodigious numbers as to do incalculable 
damage to the fruit and forest trees, in which it 
deposits its eggs, and upon which it feeds inter- 
nally in the grub state, but the oral organs of the 
perfect insect are only calculated for suction. 

Amongst quadrupeds, the analogues, in some 


1 Cicada septendecim.—L. 


MIGRATIONS. 91 


respects, of the locusts, are the Lemming's, a kind 
of mouse or rat. These little animals, which 
usually inhabit the mountains of Norway and 
Lapland, in certain:seasons, emigrate in prodi- 
gious numbers to the south; the most common 
species‘ is said not to lay up any winter store, 
but to form burrows under ground in summer, 
and under the snow in winter in search of food ; 
but that found in Kamtschatka,’? which is larger 
than a rat, is stated to be occupied during the 
summer in laying up provisions for the winter 
in holes under the turf divided into compart- 
ments, they consist of various kinds of roots, 
some even poisonous, but which agree with this 
animal, and of which it collects from twenty to 
thirty pounds. It is called in Kamtschatka Te- 
gulchitch. In fine weather its instinct teaches 
it to spread its harvest of roots in the sun to dry 
and fit them for keeping. When these different 
species of Lemmings make their excursions, which 
take place only in certain years and seasons, and 
in different directions, the species last mentioned 
going towards the west, the others towards the 
south, like certain ants, they always march 
straight forward, neither turning to the right 
hand nor to the left, and if their course is inter- 
rupted by a river, they cross it by swimming. 
The common Lemmings, when they migrate, are 
regarded as a terrible scourge; they devastate 


1 Lemmus vulgaris. 2? Lemmus ceconomus. 


92 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


the fields and gardens, ruin the harvest, and only 
what is kept in the houses escapes them, into 
these happily they never enter. Their number 
is so prodigious, that, when they die, the air is 
infected, and much sickness is the consequence. 
All this tribe of mice appear to live on roots, 
bulbs, grain, nuts, &c. and have generally a very 
short tail. | 

The Campagnol,’ or short-tailed rat of Pennant, 
is equally destructive ; in some years their num- 
bers are so prodigious, that they overflow, as it 
were, a whole district, and by their ravages pro- 
duce famine and desolation. This effect is stated 
to have been produced in certain parts of France 
where an extent of forty square leagues was de- 
vastated by them. In their progress these ani- 
mals are preyed upon by the predaceous quadru- 
peds and birds, by whose incessant attacks their 
numbers, in ordinary seasons, are kept within the 
bounds assigned them by the Creator, as are the 
Locusts by the Locust-eating Thrush,* and the 
Aphides or Plant-lice which may be denominated 
the Locusts of Britain, and which are stated 
sometimes almost to darken the air, by the lady- 
birds and aphidivorous flies. 

Allthese migrations are produced by a different 
cause from those periodical ones which take place, 
after certain intervals, or at certain seasons, in 
various other animals of every grade ; and though 


1 Arvicola arvalis. 2 Turdus gryllivorus. 


MIGRATIONS. 93 


a scarcity of food, or straitened circumstances or 
accommodations may be the impelling motives, 
yet these are produced by an unusual increase in 
the numbers of the migrating species, so that 
they are driven to seek an outlet by which their 
supernumeraries may pass off and relieve them 
from the pressure, or the whole population, de- 
serting an exhausted country, may establish 
themselves in better quarters. 

In all the instances that I have here adduced, 
the object, at the first blush, as far as the Deity 
may be supposed to be concerned in these out- 
breaks, appears rather punitive than beneficent, 
but when we dip below the surface, and look to 
ultimate consequences, what appears to be alto- 
gether an evil, instead of a dark side, turns 
round and shews one bright with good. It is 
true, in some cases, the object is punishment of 
an offender, and in hopeless cases, the sentence 
is pronounced, ‘“‘ Cut it down, why cumbereth it 
the ground.” But before this, Divine Mercy, 
which willeth not that any should perish, employs 
those correctives, which at the same time that 
they give pain, and wear the appearance of evil 
and punishment, tend to produce that change of 
the mind and conversion of the heart, that will 
reconcile the sinner to God, and ensure to him 
the blessed inheritance of his children. But 
temporal good, as well as spiritual, is often the 
result of these visitations, the devastations of 


9A GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


which they are the instruments, as was observed 
by Sparrman of the locusts, are often followed 
by fertility, and the fearful scourge is replaced 
by Amalthea’s horn. 

2. We are next to consider those migrations 
that take place periodically, and usually at certain 
seasons of every year; the general intention of 
which appears to be a supply of food, and often 
a temperature best suited to reproduction. Pro- 
vidence, in this, taking care that their instincts 
shall stimulate them to change their quarters, 
when these two objects can be answered at the 
same time, and by a single removal. 

In North America, that ferocious and lion-like 
animal, the Bison,’ called there the Buffalo, 
forms regular migrations, in immense herds, from 
north to south, and from the mountains to the 
plains, and. after a certain period returns back 
again. Salt-springs, usually called salt-licks or 
salines, found in a clay, compact enough for 
potter’s clay, are much frequented by these 
animals, whence they are called Buffalo salt- 
licks. Dr. Richardson informs me that the 
periodical movements of these animals are regu- 
lated almost solely by the pastures: when a fire 
has spread over the prairies, it is succeeded by a 
fine growth of tender grass, which they are sure 
to visit. How the Bison discovers that this has 


1 Bos Americanus. 


MIGRATIONS. 95 


taken place seems not easily accounted for; 
perhaps stragglers from the great herds, when 
food grows scarce, may be instrumental to this. 

The Musk Ox, a ruminating animal between 
the ox and sheep,’ has the same habit, extending 
its migratory movements as far as Melville, and 
other islands of the Polar sea, where it arrives 
about the middle of May, and going southward 
towards the end of September, where it has been 
seen as low as lat. 67° N., which, as Dr. Richard- 
son states, approaches the northern limit of the 
Bison : its food, like that of the Rein-deer, called 
in North America the Caribou, is grass in the 
summer and lichens in the winter. Its hair is 
very long, and, as well as that of the Bison, 
which has been manufactured both in England 
and America into cloth, might be woven into 
useful articles. This animal inhabits strictly the 
country of the Esquimaux, and may be regarded 
as the gift of a kind Providence to that people, 
who call it Oomingmak, and not only eat its 
flesh but also the contents of its stomach, as well 
as those of the Rein-deer, which they call Nor- 
rooks, which consisting of lichens and other 
vegetable substances, as Dr. Richardson remarks, 
are more easily digested by the human stomach 
when they are mixed with the salivary and 
gastric juices of a ruminating animal. 

The wild Rein-deer in North America, in the 


' Ovibos moschatus. 


96 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


summer, as the excellent man and author lately 
mentioned states, seek the coast of the Arctic 
seas: it is singular that the females, driven from 
the woods by the musquitos, migrate thither 
before the males, generally in the month of May 
(some say in April and March), while the latter 
do not begin their march till towards the end of 
June. At this time the sun has dried up the 
lichens on the Barren Grounds, and the moist 
pastures in the valleys of the coast and islands of 
the above seas afford them sufficient food. Soon 
after their arrival the females drop their young. 
They commence their return to the south in 
September, and reach the vicinity of the woods 
towards the end of October. After the rutting 
season, which takes place in September, the 
males and females live separately ; the former 


retire deeper into the woods, while the pregnant 


herds of the latter remain in the skirts of the 
Barren Grounds, which abound in the rein-deer' 
and other lichens. In the woods, they feed on 
lichens which hang from the trees, and on the 
long grass of the swamps. The males do not 
usually go so far north as the females. Co- 


these Caribous, so numerous are they in North 


America, may be seen annually passing from | 


north to south in the spring, infested and attacked | 


1 Cenomyce rangiferina, Achar. 


? 


lumns, consisting of eight or ten thousand of — 


MIGRATIONS. 97 


in their progress by numbers of wolves, foxes, 
and other predaceous quadrupeds, which attack 
and devour the stragglers. 

The Pronged-horned Antelope,’ as well as the 
Rein-deer, appears to go northward in the sum- 
mer, and return to the south in the winter. 

Dr. Richardson remarks to me in a letter,— 
“The Musk-ox and Rein-deer feed chiefly on 
lichens, and therefore frequent the Barren Lands 
and primitive rocks, which are clothed with these 
plants. They resort in winter, when the snow is 
deep, to the skirts of the woods, and feed on the 
lichens which hang from the trees, but on every 
favourable change of weather they return to the 
Barren Grounds. In summer they migrate to the 
moist pastures on the sea-coast, and eat grass, 
because the lichens on the Barren Lands are then 
parched by the drought, and too hard to be 
eaten. The young grass is, I suppose, better 
fitted for the fawns, which are dropped about the 
time the deer reach the coast.” In all this we 
see the hand of Providence directing them to 
those places where the necessary sustenance may 
be had. 

The same gentleman has remarked a singular 
circumstance with regard to the American Black 
Bear.* In general, this species hybernates in 
the northern parts of the fur countries; but it 


1 Antilope furcata. 2 Ursus Americanus. 
| 
| VOL. a. H 


98 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


has been observed in certain years, and very 
severe winters, that great numbers enter the 
United States from the northward. 'These were 
all lean, and generally males. The natives 
assert, that a bear that is not fat cannot hyber- 
nate; therefore, those that have not acquired 
sufficient fat when winter overtakes them, neces 
sarily emigrate to a milder climate.* 

A migration of an animal of the equine genus 
was observed by Mr. Campbell in South Africa. 
The Quagga, a kind of wild ass, travels in bands 
of two or three hundred, in winter, from the 
tropics southward to a district, in the vicinity of 
the Malalaveen river, reported to be warmer than 
within the tropic of Capricorn, when the sun has 
retired to the northern hemisphere. They stay 
here for two or three months, which is called the — 
Bushmen’s harvest. The lions, who follow the 
quaggas, are the chief butchers. During this 
season, the first thing the bushman does, when 
he awakes, is to see whether he can spy any 
vultures hovering in the heavens at a great 
height; under them he is sure to find a quagga, 
which a lion has slaughtered in the night, 7 

F 

But the animals which are most noted for ther 
migrations, from a cold to a warm climate, and 
vice versa, are the birds, which, as having domi+ 
nion in the air, are enabled to transport them- 


1 Faun. Boreal-americ. i. 16. 


MIGRATIONS. 99 


selves with greater ease, and with the interpo- 
sition of fewer obstacles, than the quadrupeds, 
the theatre of whose motions is the earth, inter- 
sected by rivers and mountain ridges, which 
renders their periodical transit less easy to 
accomplish. The number of birds that migrate, 
if we take Dr. Richardson's scale, for those of 
North America, as a rule, compared with those 
that reside the whole year in a country, is about 
five-sixths, a very large proportion; but as the 
summer residents are replaced by winter ones, 
the difference is less striking, and the desertion 
less apparent and annoying. The celebrated 
Dr. Jenner, in a very ingenious posthumous 
paper, in the Philosophical Transactions for 
1824, has produced many arguments to prove 
that the periodical migrations of birds are the 
result, not of the approach of the cold or hot 
seasons, but of the absence or presence of a 
stimulus connected with the original law, ‘“ Jn- 
crease and multiply.” That when they feel it 
they seek their swmmer, and when it ceases its 
action, their winter quarters. In one case, the 
animal winging its way to a climate and country 
best suited to the great purpose impressed upon 
at by its Creator, of producing and rearing a 
progeny ; and in the other returning to a home, 
‘most congenial to its nature, and best supplying 
its wants. 

_ The cause of emigration, in both cases, had 


100 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


previously been attributed to the changes of 
the temperature gradually produced by the 
change of seasons, and the growing scarcity of 
food resulting from it. But Mr. Jenner has ob-, 
served that these cannot be the causes that 
occasion the migration of those birds that leave 
us early in the year, as the cuckoo, which dis-, 
appears in the beginning of July ; and the swift,” 
which takes its departure early in the following 
month. At these times they can feel no cold 
blast to- benumb them, and the food that forms 
their usual support is in the greatest abundance. — 
There seems to be some analogy between the — 
birds that migrate annually to warmer climates 
to spend their winter, and those animals, which 
remaining in a country, seek a subterranean, or 
other close retreat, to shelter them from the: 
rigours of that season, and in which they: con-- 
tinue in a torpid state, till spring revives them 
and they issue from their hiding-places to fulfil— 
the first law of their Creator. . Several instances! 
also. are upon record, even with regard to 
birds that usually migrate, of their having 
been found torpid in the clefts and cavities of 
trees ; and Spallanzani relates experiments which 
prove that swallows can bear a certain degree of 
cold when torpid. I do not recollect any obser-) 
vations which serve to prove that hybernating 


1 Cuculus canorus. 2 Cypselus apus. 


MIGRATIONS. 101 


animals are regulated by the temperature as to 
the season at which they prepare to retire for 
the winter, except as to insects, which, with few 
exceptions, are of that description. My learned 
coadjutor, Mr. Spence, in our Introduction to 
Entomology, has some remarks on this subject, 
which seem, at first sight, to prove that the disap- 
pearance of insects, at least those of the Coleoptera 
order or beetles, is not preceded by any remark- 
able lowering of the temperature ; on the con- 
trary, he observed a great number of various 
genera congregating with this view when the 
thermometer was fifty-eight degrees in the shade.’ 
This was about the middle of October. But there 
‘is one circumstance to which he has not adverted, 
which may tend to reconcile this fact with the 
received opinion. The nights, at this time of the 
year are often cold when the days are hot, the 
latter also are much shortened and the former 
lengthened, so that the sum-total of heat received 
from the sun is very much diminished, which 
may be the exciting cause of their hybernating 
at this time, when the diurnal temperature is so 
considerable. 

‘With regard to the swift, these birds seem to 
avoid heat, they lie by in the middle of the day, 
and only appear in the morning and evening. 
Their early migration from this country may 


' Introd. to Ent. ii. 433. 


102 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


probably be caused by the heat ; and Buffon says 
that instead of warmer, they seek colder climates. 


The house-swallow,' which remains with us till 


October, is stated to winter in Africa, so that its 
object is evidently a warmer climate. It is re- 
markable that the birds of this tribe, when they 
visit us in the spring, return to their old haunts. 


Dr. Jenner ascertained this by cutting off two 


claws from the foot of a certain number, several 
of which were found in the following year, and 
one was met with after the expiration of seven. 


The instinct that directs these little beings so 


unerringly across continents and oceans, and 


leads them to their native clime is wonderful, — 


and inexplicable under any other principle than 


that of Divine superintendence. But upon this — 


I shall have occasion to enlarge hereafter. 


From what is here stated, it seems most pro-— 


bable, that it is not only the increasing heat of 


the southern regions which induces the swallow 
to seek a less ardent clime to transact her loves - 
and rear her young; but also a stimulus, caused 


by the heat, acting upon her organization, which 
aids to accomplish that important purpose, and 
is the leading star by which her Creator impels 
her to the land of her own nativity, and which 
is destined to be that of her offspring. Only 
the swift leaves a colder climate for one more 
genial and better suited to the same par 


' Hirundo ruskica. 


MIGRATIONS. 103 


and both return from whence they came, when 
the errand of their voyage is fully accomplished. 
One sent away by too great heat, and the other 
by a gradual decreement of the amount of heat, 
and also of their customary food. 

_ Vieillot says, that all the swallows do not quit 
the warm countries to which they betake them- 
selves in winter—that one part migrates, while 
another remains stationary, during the whole 
year, in Egypt, Ethiopia, and other tropical 
countries and islands. 

But, besides the insectivorous emigrators, many 
of the higher and more powerful tribes are ac- 
customed to change one country for another. 
When the carcasses of animals putrify, and birds 
multiply under the influence of the northern 
sun, vultures, eagles, falcons, hawks, &c. leave 
the south and go to partake of the feasts pro- 
_ vided for them in higher latitudes. 

But, besides the birds that visit us during the 
_more genial part of the year, and add so greatly 
to the beauty and music of our groves in spring 
-and summer, there are others, and those a 
/numerous tribe, that wing hither their way when 
_the reign of winter has commenced. The most 
‘numerous of these are the birds which the 
_ Author of nature has fitted to disport themselves 
and seek their food in the water, or which fre- 

quent humid and watery places. When the 
Arctic seas, and lakes, and rivers, present an 


104 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


unbroken field of impenetrable ice, the various 
web-footed. birds, the swans’ and geese,’ and 
ducks*® and divers,‘ and coots,> and an infinity 
of others, forming their angular and sometimes 
triangular phalanxes, each in turn taking the 
lead and first cutting the air,° fly off, often at a 
great height, to seek in more southern climates, 
not a region devoid of the usual concomitants of 
winter, frost and. snow, but where their rigours 
are mitigated, so as to afford to these creatures 
the means of life. Now, also the waders, usually 
distinguished by their long legs and long beaks, 
as the woodcock,’ the curlew, and the snipes,® 
leave their native marshes and haunts to seek 
others whose unfrozen or partially frozen mo- 
rasses afford them a supply of the worms and 
vermicles or similar animals that form their 
usual nutriment.. Many a time, when a boy; 
have I pursued the field-fare,? which is one of 
our winter guests, from tree to tree, without its 
affording me an opportunity of taking aim at. it, 
as if it was aware of my purpose, and could smell 
the contents of my musket ; no sooner did. 1 get 
within a couple of hundred yards, than, with.all . 
its company, it flew a little further, and thus 
kept tantalizing me for hours, without my even 


Cycnus. 2 Anser. 3 Anas. shy 
Mergus and Colymbus. 5 Fulica. 

N. Dict. D’Hist. Nat. xx. 544. 

Rusticola vulgaris Vieill. Numenius arquatus.—Lath. 
Scolopax Gallinago and Gallinula. 9 Turdus pilaris> 


= 
Lig 


2 


ont oO fe} 


MIGRATIONS. 105 


being able to secure one. These birds, if the 
weather becomes very severe here, are said to fly 
further south in search of food, and to return 
again. 

' Thus, we see the change of seasons brings 
with it a change in the winged inhabitants of 
every country ; and the winter immigration of 
a vast variety of birds, fit for food and other 
useful purposes, makes up in some degree for 
the summer or autumnal emigration of those, 
which being constantly before our eyes moving 
in every direction, and rendering vocal every 
grove or tree and even the very heavens, enter- 
tain our senses of seeing and hearing in a most 
delightful manner. Thus, also, all countries 
partake in some degree, by this shifting scene 
of animal life, of the same blessings and plea- 
sures derived from the same instruments. 


Though the production and rearing of their 
young forms a principal feature in most of the 
migrations before noticed, yet it is most promi- 
nent and conspicuous in the animals, whose an- 
nual motions I shall next advert to. And here 
mankind is more conspicuously indebted to the 
fatherly care and bounty of a beneficent Provi- 
dence for a supply of their wants, than in any of 
the cases above detailed ; which most of them 
minister to our pleasures, rather than our sus- 
tenance. When the time of the singing birds is 


106 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


come, and the voice of the nightingale is heard 
zn our land; when the swallow and the swift 
delight us by their rapid and varied motions, now 
skimming the surface of the waters, now darting, 
either aloft or with more humble flight over the 
earth ; when the carolling lark ascends towards 
heaven, teaching us to look up and learn from her 
where to direct the best affections of our hearts’; 
these all excite in us delightful sensations, and 
merit our grateful acknowledgment, but still they 
contribute little or nothing to the means of life. — 
The locusts indeed, who headed the list of emi- 
grators, at the same time that they lay waste a 
country, supply its inhabitants with food, and 
thus make some recompense for their ravages; 
and a considerable proportion of the winter 
birds mentioned under the last head, as the 
swimmers! and the waders,’ furnish our tables 
with dainty meats; but they come not in such 
numbers as to add materially to the general 
stock of food, or to contribute to the main- 
tenance of the poor, as well as to the enjoy- 
ments of the rich. The animals I allude to 
under the present head, form the sole food. of 
some nations, and contribute a vast and cheap 
supply, that covers the table of the poor man 
with plenty. The migrating fishes are one of 
the greatest and most invaluable gifts of the 
Creator to his creature man, by which thousands 


1 Natatores. 2 Grallatores. 


MIGRATIONS. 107 


and thousands support themselves, and their 
families; and which, at certain periods, form 
the food of millions. Of the proceedings of the 
principal of these fishes, I shall now give a 
brief account. 

I begin with one of the cartilaginous fishes— 
the Sturgeon. There are two noted species of 
this fish, which is related to the shark, the one 
is called the sturgeon! by way of eminence, and 
the other the huso.? The latter is found only in 
the Caspian and Black seas, and the Don, the 
Volga, and other rivers that flow into them. It 
is stated to be much larger than the sturgeon: 
Pallas describes one that weighed 2800 pounds, 
which it is conjectured must have been nearly 
forty feet long. Its ordinary length is stated to 
be twenty-five feet, which is the maximum of the 
‘sturgeon. The numbers of this species far ex- 
‘ceed those of the latter, the caviar is usually 
made of its spawn, which equals nearly a third 
of the weight of the whole fish, from whence we 
may conjecture the infinite number of eggs that 
‘it contains. Professor Pallas gives a very inter- 
esting history of the manner in which these 
enormous fish are taken in the Volga, and the 
‘Saiek, which discharge their waters into the 
Caspian. And it seems really wonderful that 
‘so wild and illiterate a people as the Tartars, 


1 Accipenser Sturio. 2 A. Huso. 


108 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


who have no acquaintance with the arts and: 
sciences, should on this occasion, shew as much 
genius and invention as the most enlightened 
nations. The huso enters the rivers to spawn 
earlier than the sturgeon, generally about mid- 
winter, when they are still covered with ice. At 
this time the natives’ construct dikes across the 
rivers in certain parts, formed with piles, leaving 
no interval that the huso can pass through ; in 
the centre of the dike is an angle opening to the 
current, which consequently is an entering angle 
to the fish ascending the stream ; at the summit 
of this angle is an opening, which leads into a 
kind of chamber formed with cord, or osier hur-. 
dles, according to the season of the year. Above 
the opening is a kind of scaffold, and a little 
cabin, where the fishermen can retire and warm. 
themselves or repose, when they are not wanted 
abroad. No sooner is the huso entered into the 
chamber, which is known: by the motion of the 
water, than the fishermen on the scaffold let fall 
a door, which prevents its return to seaward, they 
then by means of ropes and pullies lift the mov- 
able bottom of the chamber, and easily secure 
the fish. 

Gmelin has related, in a very lively way, the 
solemn fishing which takes place at the be- 
ginning of winter, in the neighbourhood | of 
Astracan, when these fish have retired into 
vast caves under the seashore, which form their 


MIGRATIONS. 109 


winter quarters. A great number of fishermen 
assemble, over whom are placed a director 
and inspectors, who possess considerable au- 
thority and influence; every kind of fishing is 
prohibited, in the places known to be the haunt 
of the husos; a numerous flotilla of boats are in 
readiness; every thing is prepared as it were 
for an important military operation; all approach 
in concert and with regular manceuvres the 
asylum in which the fish are concealed, the 
slightest noise is severely interdicted, so that 
the most profound silence every where prevails. 
In an instant, at a given signal, a universal 
shout rends the heavens, which echo multiplies 
on every side. The astonished husos, in the 
greatest alarm, rush from their hiding places, 
and are taken in nets of every kind, prepared 
to intercept them. 

The huso fishery is of great. importance, prin- 
cipally on account of the caviar prepared from 
the roe of these fishes, and the isinglass that is 
made from their air-vessel. The former is much 
in demand amongst many nations, as the Rus- 
sians, Turks, &c.; the Greeks particularly make 
it almost their sole food during their long fasts, 
and the latter is almost universally an article of 
commerce. ‘The common sturgeon furnishes the 
same articles, as do other fishes also. — 

The next kind of fishes that migrate for the 
purpose of spawning, which I shall notice, is 


110 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


one, which though it falls far behind the stur- 
geons in size, exceeds them infinitely in numbers 
and dispersion, and in the vast supply of food 
with which it furnishes the human race; it will 
readily be seen that I am speaking of the Cod- 
fjishs This valuable animal belongs to the class 
of fishes with a bony skeleton, and the tribe of 
Jugulars, or those whose ventral fins are nearer 
the mouth than the pectoral. It frequents shal- 
lows and sandbanks, between the fortieth and 
sixtieth degrees of North Latitude, both in the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it is taken 
in infinite numbers. The fishery for it employs 
both European and American seamen and ves- 
sels in abundance. The most celebrated is 
that on the great bank of Newfoundland, where 
thousands of men are employed in catching, 
salting, and barrelling these fish, and whence 
they are dispersed principally into the Catholic 
countries, where they form a considerable portion 
of the food of the people, especially during lent 
and other fasts. 

The cod-fish makes for the coast at spawning 
time, going northward, this takes place towards 
the end of winter, or the beginning of spring. 
Leeuwenhoek counted more than nine millions 
of eggs in a cod-fish of the middle size; allowing 
for a large consumption by other fishes which 
devour them, still enough are left, that when 


1 Gadus Morhua. 


MIGRATIONS. 111 


hatched produce a superabundant supply. They 
are deposited in the inequalities of the bottom 
amongst the stones. 

\ The Haddock’ is another species belonging to 
this genus, which frequents our coast in great 
numbers in mid-winter; they are stated some- 
times to form a bank twenty-four miles long by 
three broad. They pursue and devour the her- 
rings, and are themselves in their turn devoured 
by Sharks, which follow their shoals. 

The next tribe of migratory fishes is one 
which supplies our tables with a very acceptable 
successor, when the cod-fish is out of season, 
and which at last usually becomes so plentiful 
and cheap as to form a part of the poor man’s bill 
of fare, as well as of that of his rich neighbour. 
Every one will see that I here allude to the 
Mackarel, This is one of the thoracic fishes, or 
those whose ventral fins are situated below the 
pectoral. It is very widely dispersed, being 
found in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Mediter- 
ranean Seas, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean. 
It hybernates in the seas first mentioned, where 
it is stated to select certain depths of the sea 
ealled by the natives Barachouas, which are so 
land-locked, ‘that the water is as calm at all 
times, as in the most sheltered pools ; the depth 
of these asylums diminishes in proportion to the 


1 Gadus Gigelfinus. * Scomber Scombrus. 


112 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


proximity of the shore, and the bottom is gene- 
rally muddy and covered with marine plants. 
It is in these muddy bottoms that the mackarel; 
directed by their instinct, pass the winter. They 
plunge their head and the anterior part.of their 
body in the mud, keeping their tails elevated 
vertically above it. In the spring they emerge, 
in infinite shoals from their hiding .places, and 
proceed southward for the purposes of depositing 
their eggs in more genial seas ; more than half 
a million of these have been discovered in a 
single female.*. These fish die as soon as they 
are taken out of the water, and then they emit 
a phosphoric light. The Scomber is one of the 
fishes, which, according to Pliny, was used for 
making the celebrated Roman pickle named 
Garum, and he calls it a fish good for nothing 
else: if he means our mackarel, it is singular that 
its value, as an article of food, should not have 
been discovered. The Garus or Garum derived 
its name from a crustaceous animal so called, 
from which it was sometimes made. Apicius is 
said by Pliny to have employed the liver of the 
mullet in concocting it. | 

What the mackarel is to the north of Bhsdies | 
the Thunny is to the south. It deposits its eggs _ 
in May and June, when it enters the Mediterra- _ 
nean, seeking the shores in shoals arranged in — 


1 Scomber Thynnus. 


MIGRATIONS. 113 


the form of a parallelogram, or as some say, a 
triangle, and making a great noise and stir. 
They appear to have been much in request with 
the Greeks and Romans, and are now an impor- 
tant article of food with the inhabitants of the 
coasts and islands of the Mediterranean. 

But no fish is so important a gift of Heaven, 
as affording employment to a large number of 
individuals both in the catching and preparing 
it, and as adding very largely to the general 
stock of food, especially in Catholic countries, 
as that of whose history I shall next give a brief 
sketch. 

Three thousand decked vessels, of different 
sizes, besides smaller boats, are stated to be 
annually employed in the herring-fishery, with 
a proportionable number of seamen, besides a 
vast number of hands that, at certain seasons, 
are occupied in curing them. 

— The herring to which I now allude belongs to 
the tribe called abdominal fishes, or those whose 
ventral fins are behind the pectoral, and may 
be said to inhabit the arctic seas of Europe, 
Asia, and America, from whence they annually 
migrate, at different times, in search of food 
and to deposit their spawn. Their shoals con- 
sist of millions of myriads, and are many 
leagues in width, many fathoms in thickness, 

i and so dense that the fishes touch each other ; 

| they are preceded, at the interval of some days, 

VOL. I. I 


114 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


by insulated males. The largest and strongest 
are said to lead the shoals, which seem to move 
in a certain order, and to divide into bands 
as they proceed, visiting the shores of various 
islands and countries, and enriching their in- 
habitants. Their presence and progress are 
usually indicated by various sea-birds, sharks, 
and other enemies. One of the cartilaginous 
fishes, the sea-ape,’ is said to accompany them 
constantly, and is thence called the king of the 
herrings. They throw off also a kind of oily 
or slimy substance, which extends over their — 
columns, and is easily seen in calm weather. 
This substance, in gloomy still nights, exhibits a — 
phosphoric light, as if a cloth, a little luminous, 
was spread over the sea. 

Some conjecture may be formed of the infniel 
numbers of these invaluable fishes that are taken — 
by European nations from what Lacepede relates — 
—that in Norway twenty millions have been © 
taken at a single fishing, that there are few years 
that they do not capture four hundred millions, 
and that at Gottenburgh and its vicinity seven 
hundred millions are annually taken ; ‘‘ but what — 
are these millions,” he remarks, “to the incre- — 
dible numbers that go to the share of the Eng- — 
lish, Dutch, and other European nations.” .__ 

Migrations of these fishes are stated to take — 


t Chimera monstrosa. 


MIGRATIONS. 115 


place at three different times. The first when 
the ice begins to melt, which continues to the 
end of June; then succeeds that of the summer, 
followed by the autumnal one, which lasts till 
the middle of September. They seek places 
for spawning, where stones and marine plants 
abound, against which they rub themselves 
alternately on each side, all the while moving 
their fins with great rapidity. According to 
‘Lacepede, William Deukelzoon, a fisherman of 
Biervliet, in Dutch Flanders, was the first person 
who salted herrings, this was before the end of 
the fourteenth century ; others attribute this in- 
vention to William Benckels or Benkelings of 
Bierulin. To shew his sense of the importance 
of this invention, the Emperor Charles V. is 
stated to have visited his tomb, and to have 
eaten a herring upon his grave. The smoking of 
this valuable fish, we are told, was first practised 
by the inhabitants of Dieppe in Normandy. 

Next to the herring, the pilchard? is valuable 
to our own country, especially to the inhabitants 
of Cornwall and Devonshire, to whom this fish 
is as important as the herring to other parts of 
the kingdom ; they frequent the southern coasts 
from the middle of summer to the end of autumn, 
and many thousand barrels are annually cured. 
_Lacepede says that, in one year, a milliard? of 
these fishes has been taken. 


1 Clupanodon Pilcardus. 2 One thousand million, 


116 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


The sprat' and the anchovy,” are two other 
fishes of the present tribe, the former, at certain 
seasons, furnishing a considerable supply of food 
to the lower orders, and also a fertilizing kind of 
manure to the farmer and hop-grower, though, 
it must be confessed, very annoying to the tra- 
veller passing through a country where it is so 
employed, by its disagreeable stench, and to 
those who inhabit it by its putrid effluvia, which 
I have known to produce fevers ; the other minis- 
tering to the enjoyment and luxury of the wealthy 
by its piquancy when pickled, or reduced to an 
essence ; but on these I shall not further enlarge. 

The next tribe of migratory fishes is one whose — 
several species are intermediate between marine — 
and fresh-water fishes, roving indifferently in the — 
sea, and rivers, and lakes, and thus is fitted by 
Providence to make up to the mhabitants of — 
inland countries their distance from the other 
migrators, by a supply brought, as it were, to © 
their very doors. The fishes in question belong — 
also to the abdominal class, and form the salmon 
genus, including the salmon,’ the salmon-trout,’ — 
the trout,’ the grayling,® the charr,’ the smelt,* 
the hucho,® and many other species. I shall, — 
however, confine my observations principally to” 


1 Clupea Sprattus. 2 C. encrasicolus. 
5 Salmo Salar. 4S. Trutta. 

5 §. Fario. 6 §. Thymallus. 
7 S. Alpinus. 8S. Eperlanus. 

9 S. Hucho. 


MIGRATIONS. 117 


the king, as it may be called, of the river mi- 
grators,—the Salmon. In our own country this 
noble fish is too high-priced to form a general 
article of food, and may be reckoned amongst 
the luxuries of the rich man’s table; but in 
others, especially amongst some of the North- 
western American tribes, they are gifts of Pro- 
vidence, which form their principal food at all 
seasons. One, which Sir George Mackenzie 
fell in with, in his journey from Canada to the 
Pacific, were perfect Ichthyophagites, and would 
touch no other animal food. These people con- 
struct, with great labour and ingenuity, across 
their streams, salmon weirs, which are formed 
with timber and gravel, and elevated nearly four 
feet above the level of the water; beneath ma- 
chines are placed, into which the salmon fall 
when they attempt to leap over the weir. On 
either side is a large frame of timber-work, six 
feet above the level of the upper water, in which 
passages are left for the salmon, leading into the 
machines. When they catch their salmon they 
string them and suspend them, at first, in the 
river. The women are employed in preparing 
and curing these fish ; for this purpose they ap- 
pear to roast them first, and then suspend them 
on the poles that run along the beams of their 
houses, in which there are usually from three to 
five hearths, the heat and smoke from which 
contribute, no doubt, to their proper curing. 


118 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


The salmon, indeed, frequents every sea, the 
arctic as well as the equatorial ; it is found even 
in great lakes and inland seas, as the Caspian, 
into which it is even affirmed to make its way 
by a subterranean channel from the Persian 
Gulf—it goes as far south as New Holland and 
the Australian seas; but, it is said never to 
have been found in the Mediterranean, and 
appears to have been unknown to Aristotle. 
Pliny mentions it as a river fish, preferred to all 
marine ones by the inhabitants of Gaul. It 
traverses the whole length of the largest rivers. 
It reaches Bohemia by the Elbe, Switzerland 
by the Rhine, and the Cordilleras of America 
by the mighty Maragnon, or River of Amazons, 
whose course is more than three thousand miles. 
In temperate climates the salmon quits the sea 
early in the spring, when the waves are driven 
by a strong wind against the river currents. It 


the autumn, in September; and in Kamtchatka 
and North America still later. In some countries 
this is called the salmon-wind. They rush into 
rivers that are freest from ice, or where they are 
carried by the highest tide, favored by the wind; 
they prefer those streams that are most shaded. 
They leave the sea in numerous bands, formed 
with great regularity. The largest individual, 
which is usually a female, takes the lead, and is 
followed by others of the same sex, two and two, 


3 


enters the rivers of France in the beginning of — 


MIGRATIONS. 119 


each pair being at the distance of, from three 
to six feet from the preceding one; next come 
the old, and.after them the young males in the 
same order. 

_ The noise they make in their transit, heard 
from a distance, sounds like a far off storm. In 
the heat of the sun and in tempests, they keep 
near the bottom; at other times they swim a 
little below the surface. In fair weather they 
move slowly, sporting as they go at the surface, 
and wandering again and again from their direct 
route; but when alarmed they dart forward with 
such rapidity that the eye can scarcely follow 
them. They employ only three months in 
ascending to the sources of the Maragnon, the 
current of which is remarkably rapid, which is 
at the rate of nearly forty miles a day; in a 
smooth stream or lake, their progress would 
increase in a fourfold ratio. Their tail is a very 
powerful organ, and its muscles have wonderful 
energy ; by placing it in their mouth they make 
of it a very elastic spring, for letting it go with 
violence they raise themselves in the air to the 
height of, from twelve to fifteen feet, and so 
clear the cataract that impedes their course ; if 
they fail in their first attempt, they continue 
their efforts till they have accomplished it. The 
female is stated to hollow out a long and deep 
excavation in the gravelly bed of the river to 


120 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


receive her spawn, and when deposited to cover 
it up, but this admits of some doubt. 

Amongst the migrations of fishes, I must not 
neglect those that take place in consequence of 
the water in the ponds or pools that they inhabit 
being dried up: some of these are very extra- 
ordinary, and prove that when the Creator gave 
being to these animals, he foresaw the circum- 


stances in which they would be placed, and. 
mercifully provided them with means of escape 


from dangers to which they were necessarily 
exposed. 

In very dry summers, the fishes that inhabit 
the above situations, are reduced often to the 
last extremities, and endeavour to relieve them- 
selves by plunging, first their heads, and after- 
wards their whole bodies, in the mud to a con- 
siderable depth; and so, though many in such 
seasons perish, some are preserved till a rainy 
one again supplies them with the element. so 
indispensable to their life. Carp, it is known, 
may be kept and fed a very long time in nets in 


a damp cellar, a faculty which fits them for re- 
taining their vitality when they bury themselves 
at such a depth as to shelter them from the 


heat. 
But others, when reduced to this extremity, 


desert their native pool, and travel in search of 


ye " os: an ee 


another that is better supplied with water. This — 


has long been known of eels, which wind, by 


MIGRATIONS. 121 


night, through the grass in search of water, when 
so circumstanced. Dr. Hancock, in the Zoolo- 
gical Journal, gives an account of a species of 
fish, called, by the Indians, the Flat-head Hassar, 
and belonging to a genus’ of the family of the 
Siluridans, which is instructed by its Creator, 
when the pools, in which they commonly reside, 
in very dry seasons, lose their water, to take the 
resolution of marching by land in search of 
others in which the water is not evaporated. 
These fish grow to about the length of a foot, 
and travel in large droves with this view; they 
move by night, and their motion is said to be 
like that of the two-footed lizard.* A strong 
serrated arm constitutes the first ray of its pec- 
toral fins Using this as a kind of foot, it should 
seem, they push themselves forwards, by means 
of their elastic tail, moving nearly as fast as a 
man will leisurely walk. The strong plates 
which envelope their body, probably, facilitate 
their progress, in the same manner as those 


under the body of serpents, which in some de- 


f 
i) 
' 
: 


gree perform the office of feet. It is affirmed 
by the Indians, that they are furnished with an 
internal supply of water sufficient for their 


1 Doras. 2 Bipes. 
* Prate XII. Fie. 1. is a species of Callicthys, a fish of the 
same habits with the Doras. Fic. 2. is the pectoral ray of ano- 


_ ther Siluridan, which was dug up in a village near Barham, but 


| 


which is not a fossil bone. 


122 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


journey, which seems confirmed by the cir- 
cumstance that their bodies when taken out 
of the water, even if wiped dry with a cloth, 
become instantly moist again. Mr. Campbell, 
a friend of Dr. Hancock’s, resident in Esse- 
quibo, once fell in with a drove of these animals, 
which were so numerous, that the Indians filled 
several baskets with them. 
Another migrating fish was found by siaces 
sands in the ponds and all the fresh waters of 
Carolina, by Bosc; and as these pools are sub- 
ject to be dry in summer, the Creator has fur- 
nished this fish, as well as one of the flying 
ones,’ by means of a membrane which closes 
its mouth, with the faculty of living out of water, 
and of travelling by leaps, to discover other pools. 
Bosc often amused himself with their motions 
when he had placed them on the ground, and he — 
found that they always direct themselves towards _ 


the nearest water, which they could not possibly _ 


see, and which they must have discovered by — 
some internal index; during their migrations — 
they furnish food to numerous birds and reptiles. — 
They belong to a genus of abdominal fishes,’ — 
and are called swampines. It is evident from — 
this statement that these fishes are both fitted 
by their Creator, not only to exist, but also move — 
along out of the water, and are directed by the in- 
stinct implanted by him, to seek the nearest pool 
* Exocetus. 2 Hydrargyra. 


MIGRATIONS. 128 


that contains that element; thus furnishing a 
strong proof of what are called compensating con- 
trivances; neither of these fishes have legs, yet 
the one can walk and the other leap without 
them, by other means with which the Supreme 
Intelligence has endowed it. I may here ob- 
serve that the serrated bone, or first ray of the 
pectoral fin, by the assistance of which the flat- 
head appears to move, is found in other Siluri- 
dans, which leads to a conjecture that these 
may sometimes also move upon land. 

Another fish,’ found by Daldorff, in Tranque- 
bar, not only creeps upon the shore, but even 
climbs the Fan palm? in pursuit of certain Crus- 
taceans which form its food. The structure of 
this fish peculiarly fits it for the exercise of this 
remarkable instinct. Its body is lubricated with 
slime which facilitates its progress over the bark, 
and amongst its chinks; its gill-covers are armed 
with numerous spines, by which, used as hands, 
it appears to suspend itself; turning its tail to 
the left, and standing, as it were, on the little 
spines of its anal fin, it endeavours to push itself 
upwards by the expansion of its body, closing 
at the same time its gill-covers, that they may 
not prevent its progress; then expanding them 
again it reaches a higher point; thus, and by 
bending the spiny rays of its dorsal fins to right 
and left, and fixing them in the bark, it con- 


1 Perea scandens. 2 Borassus flabelliformis. 


124 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


tinues its journey upwards. The dorsal and 
anal fins can be folded up and ee i into a 
cavity of the body. 

How exactly does this structure fit it for this — 
extraordinary instinct. These fins assist it in © 
certain parts of its route, and, when not em- — 
ployed, can be packed up so as not to hinder its 
progress. The lobes of its gill-covers are so _ 
divided and armed as to be employed together, — 
or separately, as hands, for the suspension of — 
the animal, till, by fixing its dorsal and anal | 
fins, it prepares itself to take another step; all 
showing the Supreme Intelligence and Almighty 
hand that planned and fabricated its structure, 
causing so many organs, each in its own way, to — 
assist in promoting a common purpose. The fan — 
palm, in which this animal was taken by Daldorff, — 
grew near the pool inhabited by these fishes. He — 
makes no mention, however, of their object in — 
these terrestrial excursions; but Dr. Virey ob- — 
serves that it is for the sake of small Spountaernie é 
on which they feed. | 

I shall name only one more animal that 4 


migrates for the great purpose of reproduction, * 


and this is not the least interesting of them; and, 
though it does not furnish so large a supply of 


food to the countries it passes through, as the _ 


migratory fishes, still it is useful in that respect: 
the animal I allude to is the dand-crab. | 
Several, indeed, of the crabs forsake the waters 


MIGRATIONS. 125 


for a time, and return to them to cast their 
spawn; but the most celebrated of all is that 
known by the above appellation, and alluded to 
by Dr. Paley, under the name of the violet crab, 
and which is called by French the tourlourou.’ 
These crabs are natives of the West Indies and 
South America. In May and June, when the 
rainy season takes place, their instinct impels 
them to seek the sea, that they may fulfil the 
great law of their Creator, and cast their spawn. 

They descend the mountains, which are their 
usual abode, in such numbers, that the roads 
and woods are covered with them. They feel 
an impulse so to steer their course, that they 
may travel by the easiest descent, and arrive 
most readily at the sea, the great object at which 
they aim. They resemble a vast army march- 
ing in battle array, without breaking their ranks, 
following always a right line; they scale the 
houses, and surmount every other obstacle that 
lies in their way. They sometimes even get 
into the houses, making a noise like that of rats, 
and when they enter the gardens they commit 
great devastations, destroying all their produce 
with their claws. They are said to halt twice 
every day, and to travel chiefly in the night. 
Arrived at the sea-shore, they are there reported 
to bathe three or four different times; when 


1 Gecarcinus carnifex. 


126 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


retiring to the neighbouring plains, or woods, 
they repose for some time, and then the females 
return to the water, and commit their eggs to the 
waves. ‘This business dispatched, they endea- 
vour to regain, in the same order, the country — 
they had left, and by the same route, but only — 
the most vigorous can reach the mountains. The — 
greater part are so weak and lean, that they are 
forced to stop to recruit their strength in the first _ 
country they reach. When arrived again at their — 
habitations, they have a new labour to undergo, 
for now is the time of their moult. They hide 
themselves in their subterranean retreats for this 
purpose, so that not a single one can be seen: — 
they even stop up the mouth of their burrows. 
Some writers, however, affirm that they change — 
their shells immediately after their oviposition. 


The respiration of these land-crabs, for along _ 


time, had puzzled comparative anatomists.— 
They could not explain how animals, breathing 
by gills, could subsist so long out of the water 
without these organs becoming useless). M.M. 
Audouin, however, and Milne Edwards, cleared _ 
up the mystery by the discovery of a kind of — 
trough, formed by the folds which line and con- 
stitute the parietes of the branchial cavity, and 
destined to contain and preserve a certain quan- _ 
tity of water proper to moisten the gills. One ? 
species! has more than one pocket, or vesicle, — 


1 Gecarcinus Uca,. 


MIGRATIONS. 127 


filled with that fluid. This trough exists in the 
horsemen land-crabs,' but it is smaller, and a 
spongy mass furnishes the requisite moisture. 
The gills of the land-crabs, in other respects, do 
not differ from those of the tribe in general. 
God, when he formed these animals, would not 
separate them from their kind by a different 
mode of respiration, but by this compensating 
contrivance he fitted them for the circumstances 
in which he decreed to place them, and for a 
long sojourn out of the water. 

What is the great object of this law of the 
Creator, that impels them to seek, in many cases, 
a mountain retreat, at a distance from the ocean, 
which forms the liquid atmosphere fitted to the 
great body of the Crustaceans, has not hitherto, 
for want of sufficient and accurate details of their 
history, been made fully obvious. When insects 
leave the waters to become denizens of the earth 
and air, the object appears evidently an increase 
of food, not only for terrestrial animals, whether 
moving on the one or in the other, but to mul- 
tiply even that of the inhabitants of the waters. 
When the day-flies* burst in such myriads from 
the banks of rivers which they inhabited in their 
first state, the fishes are all in motion, and often 
jump from the water to catch the living flakes 
that are every moment descending. When in the 


1 Ocypode. 2 Ephemera. 


128 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


water, or under it, these animals and the may- 
flies are defended, or concealed from the fishes, 
and therefore are not so easy to come at; but 
now is their harvest, and when they drop their 
eges, they fall towards the stream, and it is 
deemed a shower of manna. | 
The same object brings the several kinds of | 
land-crabs at stated times to sea, to deposit 
their eggs where their young may reach a cer- — 
tain maturity, if not undergo a metamorphosis; 
probably at this period there is an assemblage of — 
aquatic devourers of Crustaceans, to share in the 7 
expected harvest. And during the route-of the 
myriads that thus migrate to the sea, beasts and 
birds, and man himself, all partake of the feast 4 
thus provided for them. . 
If we give this subject of the migration of 
animals due consideration, and reflect what — 
would be the consequence if no animals ever — 
changed their quarters, we shall find abundant — 
reason for thankfulness to the Almighty Father — 
of the universe, for the care he has taken of his 
whole family, and of his creature man in patr- — 
ticular, consulting not only his sustentation and — v 
the gratification of his palate by multiplying — 
and varying his food, but also that of his other 
senses, by the beauty, motions, and music of the — 
animals that are his summer or winter visiters : 
did the nightingale forsake our groves, the. 1 
swallow our houses and gardens, the cod-fish, 


MIGRATIONS. 129 


- mackarel, salmon, and herring our seas, and all 
the other animals that occasionally visit us their 
several haunts, how vast would be the abstraction 
from the pleasure and comfort of our lives. 

By means of these migrations, the profits and 
enjoyments derivable from the animal creation 
are also more equally divided, at one season 
visiting the south, and enlivening their winter, 
and at another adding to the vernal and summer 
delights of the inhabitant of the less genial 
regions of the north, and making up to him for 
the privations of winter. Had the Creator so 
willed, all these animals might have been organ- 
ized so as not to require a warmer or a colder 
climate for the breeding or rearing of their 
young: but his will was, that some of his best 
gifts should thus oscillate, as it were, between 
two points, that the benefit they conferred might 
be more widely distributed, and not become the 
sole property of the inhabitants of one climate : 
thus the swallow gladdens the sight both of the 
Briton and the African; and the herring visits 
the coasts, and the salmon the rivers of every 
region of the globe. What can more strongly 
mark design, and the intention of an all-powerful, 
all-wise, and beneficent Being, than that such 
a variety of animals should be so organized 
and circumstanced as to be directed annually, 
by some pressing want, to seek distant climates, 
and, after a certain period, to return again to their 

VOL. I. K 


130 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. st 


former quarters; and that this instinct should be 3 
productive of so much good to mankind, and, at: — 
the same time, be necessary, under its present: 
circumstances, for the preservation or propaga~ 
tion of the species of these several animals. 
There is another view that may be eakelo of 
this subject, equally shewing the attention of the — 
Almighty Father to the wants of every descrip=_ 
tion of his creatures. The migrating tribes of — 
almost every kind are attended by numerous 
bands of predaceous animals, which, as well as’ 
man, partake in the general harvest ; the bears, — 
wolves, foxes, dogs, and, in tropical countries,” 
other beasts of prey, hang on the flanks of the” 
bands of emigrators, and capture and devour the’ 
stragglers. The vultures, and other carnivorous’ 
birds, follow and share in the spoil: and the emi-» 
grating fishes are attended by whole tribes of: 
predaceous birds and fishes, which thin. their” 
numbers before they are taken by the nets of the? 
fisherman. i? 


I am next to say something on the local distri-” 
bution of animals. By their Jocal distribution, 1 
mean their station in any given country. Under” 
this head they may be divided into terrestrial, 
amphibious, and aquatic. a 

The local distribution of terrestrial animals is hl 


LOCAL. 151 


very diversified. Some inhabit the loftiest moun- 
tains, here the eagle builds its aérie, and the 
condor’ deposits its eggs on the bare rock ; and 
here the chamois? often laughs at the efforts of 
the hunter, astonishing him by the ease with 
which it scours over the rocks, or with which 
it ascends or descends the most inaccessible 
-precipices. 

_ Some animals, that in high latitudes are found 
in the plains, in a warmer atmosphere seek the 
mountains. Of this description is the beautiful 
Apollo butterfly,* which, in Sweden is very com- 
mon in the country and gardens about Upsal, 
while in France it is found only on mountains 
between three and four thousand feet above the 
level of the sea. I received very fine specimens 
collected by a friend in the Pyrenees. The 
common viper‘ also, which in northern Europe 
is found in the plains, in southern is found only 
on Alpine or Subalpine mountains. 

It has been observed by an ingenious and 
learned writer, that the terrestrial globe seems 
to be formed of two immense mountains, set 
base to base at the equator, and that upon each 
of these hemispheres the vegetables and animals 
we generally placed in parallel zones, according 


Antilope Rupicapra. 
Coluber berus. 


1 Sarcorhamphus Gryphus. 
3 Parnassius Apollo. 


> we 


| - 
1382 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. ; 


to the degree of heat or cold. The exceptions to 
this rule, he further observes, are easy to be ap- : 
preciated, and confirm its truth, since the moun= i 
tains, the various elevations and depressions of — 
the country, which even under the same parallel — 
modify the ordinary temperature, produce vege- — 
tables, and often animals, analogous to their 
several degrees of heat or cold. The lofty moun= 
tains in tropical countries, exhibit from their base 
to their snow-clad summits, the same gradation — 
as these hemispheres present in going from the 
equator towards the poles. | 

The majority, however, of animals do not 
ascend such heights, but seek their subsistence — 
in the plains, and less elevated regions ; yet here — 
a considerable difference obtains according to 
the nature of the soil and country. The vast 
sandy desarts of Africa and Asia, the Steppes of 
Tartary, the Llanos and Pampas of South Ame-— 
rica have their peculiar population ; in the for-_ 
mer the camel, and his master the Arab, whose — 
great wealth he constitutes, are indigenous; in” 
the latter the horse and the Tartar who rides and 
eats him; or the Hispano-American, and the - 
herds of horses and oxen, returned to their wild 
and primitive type, who snares them with his 
lasso, and reduces them again to the yoke of man. | 
Numerous also are the peculiar animal produc 


LOCAL. 135 


and forests, arable lands, pasture, meadow and 
marsh, all are thus distinguished ; every plant 
almost is inhabited by insects appropriated to 
it, every bird has its peculiar parasite or louse ;' 
and not only are the living animals so infested, 
but their carcasses are bequeathed to a nume- 
rous and varied army of dissecters, who soon 
reduce them to a naked skeleton; nay, their 
very excrements become the habitation of the 
grubs of sundry kinds of beetles and flies. 

But not only is the surface of the earth and its 
vegetable clothing, thickly peopled with animals, 
but many, even quadrupeds and reptiles, as well 
as insects and worms, are subterranean, and seek 
for concealment in dens, caves and caverns, or 
make for themselves burrows and tortuous paths 
at various depths under the soil, or seek for 
safety and shelter, by lurking under stones or 
clods, and all the dark places of the earth. 

_ To other animals, in order to pass gradually 
from such as are purely terrestrial, to those that 
are aquatic, Providence has given the privilege 
to frequent both the earth and the water; some 
of which may be regarded as belonging to the 
former, and frequenting the latter, as water fowl 
of various kinds, the amphibious rat,’ the archi- 
tect beaver,’ many reptiles, and some insects ; 
others again as belonging to the latter, and fre- 


1 Nirmus. 2 Lemmus amphibius. 3 Castor Fiber. 


134 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


quenting the former; for instance, the sea-otter,' 
and the different kinds of seal? and morse,’ the © 
turtle,t the penguin,’ several insects,° and the 
water-newts.’ Other amphibious animals, if 
they may be so called, are aquatic at one period - 
of their life, and terrestrial at another; this is" 
particularly exemplified in some insects, thus the — 
grubs of water-beetles,® those of dragon-flies,’ 
may-flies,’” ephemeral-flies," water-moths,” gnats 
or mosquitos,” and several other two-winged flies, 
live in the water, while the perfect insect is— 
either amphibious as the beetle, or terrestrial as _ 
the remainder. q 
But no part of this terraqueous globe is more - 
fully peopled, and with a greater variety and — 
diversity of beautiful, or strange, or monstrous 
forms, than the waters, from the infinite ocean to. 
the most insignificant pool or puddle. Every part 
and portion of the supposed element of water; 
nay, almost every drop of that fluid teems with — 
life. Thousands of aquatic species are known, 
but myriads of myriads never have been seen 
and never will be seen by the eye of man. 


' Enhydra marina. * Phoca. ? 
° Trichechus. * Chelonia Mydas. ae 
° Aptenodytes. ° Dyticus, Gyrinus, Ranatra, &e. 
’ Salamandre aquatice. * Dyticide, Hydrophilide, Gyrinide. — 
° Libellulina.  Trichoptera. 

"! Ephemeride. ° Hydrocampa. 


13 Culex. 


LOCAL. 135 


_ Amongst those that inhabit fluids, none are 
more wonderful than those that are termed In- 
_ fusories ;' because they are usually found in in- 
‘fusions of various substances, &c.; when dry, 
‘these animals lose all signs of life, but upon im- 
-mersion, even after the lapse of years, they im- 
-mnediately awake from their torpor and begin to 
“move briskly about. Even the air, according to 
-Spallanzani, seems to contain the germes or 
-eges of these infinitesimals of creation, so that 
we swallow them when we breathe, as well as 
-when we drink. . 
With respect to animals more entirely aquatic, 
some inhabit, as the majority of sea-fishes and 
animals, salt waters only, some salt at one time 
and fresh at another, as the species of the salmon 
genus, the sturgeon, &c.; and some frequent 
_ brackish waters, as some flat-fish, and shell-fish. 
-. The bed of the mighty ocean is not only 
planted with a variety of herbs, which afford pas- 
ture to many of its animal inhabitants, but it has 
other productions which represent a forest of 
trees and shrubs, and are, strictly speaking, the 
first members of the zoological world, connecting 
it with the vegetable ; these are denominated 
Zoophytes or animal plants, and Polypes (Poly- 
pus). ‘This last name has been adopted from 
Aristotle ; with him however and the ancients, 


' Infusoria, Acrita, Agastria, Amorpha, Microscopica. 


136 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


it 1s evidently used to designate the Argonaut! 
and Nautilus of the moderns, and also to include 
some terrestrial shells. The Zoophytes however 
are not confined to the ocean, every rivulet, and 
stagnant ditch or pool affords to some kinds, 
more commonly denominated Polypes, and also — 
to some sponges, their destined habitation. An — 
infinite army of shell-fish, whether multivalve, 
bivalve, or univalve, also cover the bed of the — 
ocean, or move in its waters, and some dance i 
gaily on its surface with expanded sails, or dash- 
ing oars when tempted by fair weather. — 

From this brief view of the local distribution of — 
animals and their various haunts, we see the care — 
of Divine Providence, that no place, however, 
at first sight, apparently unfit, might be without — 
its animal as well as vegetable population: if — 
the hard rock is clothed with a lichen, the 
lichen has its inhabitant: and that inhabitant, 
besides affording an appropriate food to the bird — 
that alights upon the rock, or some parasite that — 
has been hatched in or upon its own body, — 
assists in forming a soil upon it. There is 
no place so horrible and fetid from unclean and — 
putrid substances, that is not cleansed and puri- — 
fied by some animals that are either its constant _ 
or nomadic inhabitants. Thus life, a life at- — 


1 Argonauta. 


LOCAL. 137 


tended in most cases, if not all, with some enjoy- 
ment, swarms every where—in the air, in the 
earth, under the earth, in the waters—there is no 
place in which the will of an Almighty Creator 


is not executed by some being that hath animal 


life. What Power is manifested in the organiza- 
tion and structure of these infinite hosts of exist- 
ences! what Wisdom in their adaptation to their 
several functions! and what Goodness and stu- 
pendous Love in that universal action upon all 
these different and often discordant creatures 
compelling them, while they are gratifying their 
own appetites or passions, and following the lead 
of their several instincts, to promote the good of 
the whole system, combining into harmony almost 
universal discord, and out of seeming death and 
destruction bringing forth life and health and 


universal joy! He who, as an ancient writer 
_ speaks, ‘‘ Contains all things,’' can alone thus 


> eg 


act upon all things, and direct them in all their 
ways to acknowledge him by the accomplish- 
ment of each wise and beneficent purpose of his 
will. Philo Judzus, in his book upon agricul- 
ture,’ speaking of those words of the Psalmist, 
“ The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack 
nothing,’ has the following sublime idea, illus- 
trative of this subject. ‘‘ God, like a shepherd 


1 Hermas. 
2 Ilepe yewpyeac. 152. A. Ed. Col. Allod. 


138 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 


and king, leads, according to right and law, the 
earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, 
and whatever plants or animals are therein, 
things mortal and things divine; the physical 
structure also of the heavens, and the circuit of 
the sun and moon; the revolutions and harmo- 
nious choirs of the other stars; placing over 
them his right Word the first born Son, who hath 
inherited the care of this Holy Flock, as the 
Viceroy of a mighty King.” 


Cuaprer II. 
Functions and Instincts of Animals. 


Havine, in the last chapter, stated how the dis- — 
persion and distribution of animals, under the — 
Divine superintendence and direction, probably _ 
took place after the Deluge; and having like- — 
wise considered those temporary changes of — 
place, either casual or periodical, which are still — 
in operation, I shall next endeavour to give a — 
general sketch of the animal kingdom, its 

classes and larger groups, and so much of their _ 


history, habits, and instincts, as may be neces- 


sary to indicate their several functions and offices — 


in the general plan of creation, so as to illustrate 4 | 


more strikingly the Goopness that willed, the 


FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTYS. 139 


Wispom that planned, and the Power that exe- 
cuted the wondrous whole; so that each in its 
place and station, by employing the faculties 
and organs, with which he has gifted it, in 
accomplishing his will, praises, though uncon- 
sciously, its Almighty and Beneficent Creator, 
thus loudly calling upon man, the rational head 
of the creation, to take up the strain and. lead 
the general choir. 

Before I descend to particulars, I must say a 
few words upon the general functions of the 
animal kingdom. These, like Janus, have a 
double aspect;—on one side they affect the 
vegetable world, and on the other their own 
body. 

There is a singular contrast and contrariety 
between the majority of animals and vegetables. 
The head of the animal and the root or base of 
the vegetable perform the same office, that of 
collecting and absorbing the nutriment of each. 
The animal derives this nutriment from organic 
matter, the vegetable from inorganic. The plant 
gives oxygen to the heaven, and falling leaves 
and other matters to the earth. The animal 
gives nitrogen to the former, and the rejecta- 
menta of its food to the latter. The most beau- 
tiful and admired, and odorous and elevated 
parts of the plant are its reproductive organs 
and their appendages, while in the animal they 
are the very reverse of this. 


140 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


But, in all this, we see the wisdom and fore- 
thought of the Creator. We see how exactly, 
by this mutual inversion, each class of beings is 
fitted for its station and functions. The plant 
to take root in, invest and ornament the earth, 
and keep the atmosphere pure by a constant 
supply of vital air; the animal to browse and trim 
the vegetable, and by checking its luxuriance 
promote its welfare, to furnish it with a product 
calculated for its health and necessary to its 
existence; and by the manure, various in kind 
as the animals themselves, which it produces, 
supplying to the earth fresh pabulum for its 
vegetable tribes, and making good what it lost 
by the exhaustion, occasioned by the infinite 
myriads that, investing it on all sides like a 
earment, derive their nutriment from it, some 
plunging deep, and others, as it were, skim- 
ming the surface: if we contrast this with the 
returns they make, we shall be convinced that, 
in this case, the expenditure would vastly exceed 
the income, and that a class of beings was 
essentially necessary as a counterpoise, which, 
by taking little or nothing immediately from 
the soil, at the same time that they added to it, 
some in a greater and some in a less degree, 
might afford a sufficient supply of those princi- 
ples which are indispensably requisite for the 
due nutriment and developement of the various 
members of the vegetable kingdom, and thus 


FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 141 


maintain an equilibrium, and make good the 
deficiency just stated. 

There is another function which is devolved 
upon animals with respect to the vegetable 
kingdom ; to keep the members of it within due 
limits, and to hinder them from encroaching too 
much upon each other. All organised beings 
have a natural tendency to increase and mul- 
tiply ; and while there is space this tendency is 
beneficial ; but when plants or animals exceed 
certain limits, they stand in each other's way, 
and prevent all further growth or healthy pro- 
eress. The herbivorous animals, in various 
ways, serve as a countercheck to this tendency, 
and keep the vegetable tribes from encroaching 
too much upon each other. As I have detailed the 
effects of this when I spoke of the ravages of the 
locusts, and shall have occasion again to notice 
it, 1 shall not now enlarge further upon it. 

I am next to consider another general function 
of animals, or the effects they produce upon their 
own body: and here the reason just alluded to, 
their constant tendency to multiply so as to be 
injurious to each other, and also to vegetable 
productions, especially those that are important 
to man or beast, which in the present state of 
things is so constantly recurring, renders it 
necessary that some bounds should be set to 
their increase, which Providence effects by let- 
ting them loose against each other. The great 


142 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


object of the Creator is the maintenance of the 
whole system of creation in order and beauty, 

and this he is pleased to accomplish, not always 

by the concord but by the seeming discord of the 

agents he employs. 

When we take a first view of nature we are 
struck by a scene which seems to be one of 
universal conflict, for the very heavens appear 
not clear from the charge: the philosopher who 
studies them tells us of antagonist powers, that. 
are perpetually striving with each other, the one 
to absorb all things in a common centre, the 
other to dissever them, and scatter them in illi- _ 
mitable space, and when we turn to the earth, 
what a scene of destruction is before us! The 
king of the terrestrial globe, man, constantly - 
engaged in a struggle with his fellow man, often | 
laying waste the earth, slaughtering its inhabit-_ 
ants, and deforming its productions—his subjects 
of the animal kingdom following the example of _ 
their master, and pitilessly destroying each _ 
other—the strong oppressing the weak, and 
most seeming bent to annihilate the races to — 
which they are opposed; so that, humanly — 
speaking, in the lapse of ages, we might expect 
that one species of animals would be annihilated 
after another, till the whole were obliterated 
from the face of creation, and the sublime lan-_ | | 
guage of the prophet literally verified; “J | 
beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form | 


FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 143 


and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 
T beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and 
all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, 
there was no man, and all the birds of the ar 
were fled.” 

But if, with ourspirits depressed, bythe prospect 
of so universal a scene of mutual struggles and 
destruction, we listen again to the philosopher, 
he will tell us that the ceaseless struggle of the 
antagonist powers of the heavens prevents, instead 
of causing disorder and confusion, that by the 
powerful and mutual counteraction of these 
mighty opponents, all the heavenly bodies of our 
system are prevented from rushing to the centre, 
or being driven, dispersed into their atoms, 
beyond the flammantia meenia mundi; that thus 

their annual and diurnal revolutions are main- 
tained, that each observes its appointed course, 
keeps its assigned station, and ministers to the 
good and well-being of the whole system. If 
then we turn our view again to the earth, and 
take a nearer survey of things—if we consider 
the present tendency to multiply, beyond mea- 
sure, of all things that have life, we shall soon 
be convinced that, unless this tendency was 
met by some check, the world of animated beings 
would be perpetually encroaching upon each 
other, and would finally perish for want of suffi- 
cient food; and that the partial evils inflicted 
by one individual or one class upon another, to 
borrow a term from the Political Economist, 


144 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 3 


proportions the demand to the supply ; that thus 
both vegetables and animals are so accurately 
distributed, weighed so nicely against each other, 
as never to go a step beyond what God decrees, 
and what is most beneficial to the whole system ; 
and that the actual number of every kind bears 
due relation to the work it has to do; and, upon 
closer inquiry, we find, that though since the — 
creation, probably in consequence of the great 
change in the moral state of the world, superin- 
ducing physical changes also, some species no 
longer necessary may have perished, yet that, in- 
general, they have maintained their ground from : 
age to age, in spite of the attacks of the great 
army of destroyers. ‘To maintain things in this ~ 
state, thus to “order all things in measure, ea 
ber, and weight,” as the wise man speaks, t 
cause all so to harmonize, and so out of death 
and destruction to bring forth life, indicates | 
still more strongly the constant and wise super- 
intendence, and powerful arm of a watchful 
Providence, and demonstrates irrefragably. that 2 
there is a Great Being constantly at work, either — 
mediately or immediately, to produce effects” 
that, without his constant superintendence an i 
intervention, could never take place. And thus, 
as sings the bard of Twickenham, fi 


<¢ All nature is but art unknown to thee, 

All chance direction which thou canst not see, 
All discord harmony not understood, 

All partial evil, universal good.” 


CHAPTER LV. 


Functions and Instincts of the Infusory Animals. 


As at the original creation of the animal king- 
dom, it was the will of the Supreme Being to 
begin at the foot of the scale and to terminate 
with man, who was at its summit, thus making 
a gradual progress towards the most perfect 
being it was his will to create, and ending with 
him: so I think it will best manifest his power 
and perfections if I endeavour to trace out the 
footsteps of the Deity in the same direction as 
he proceeded ; and instead of beginning, as is 
usually done by systematical writers, with the 
highest grade of animals, if I ascend upwards 
from the lowest. 

Our first inquiry must be what are these 
lowest animals? And are there any organized 
bodies that partake of two natures, that are either 
animal at one period of their existence and vege- 
table at another, or else are partly animal and 
partly vegetable? These doubtful forms must be 
sought for amongst what have been denominated 
first-plants* and _first-animals ;* amongst the 
former is a certain genus or tribe? of plants, 
49 2 Protophyta.  % Protozoa. 3 Oscillatorie. Vauch. 

VOL. I. L 


146 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


which are distinguished not only by their simple 
structure, but also by an oscillatory movement 
which seems to connect them, in some degree, © 
with the animal kingdom. When collected in — 
masses they resemble a piece of green velvet. 
Some cover considerable spots in moist places; 
others live in the water, either fixed to sub- — 
stances contained in it, or floating on the surface. © 
They are generally based on a mucilaginous ~ 
substance, the remains of those that, having — 
fulfilled their functions, are become a caput — 
mortuum. The filaments of which the living — 
plant is composed continually oscillate from — 
right to left, or from left to right, but very irre- ? 
gularly, some going in one direction, others in 
another ; some remaining stationary while oe 
continue in motion. ont 

Professor Agardh inclines to the opinion that 
these oscillating plants owe their existence to 
different species of animalcules, which at first — 
swim about as animals, and afterwards fix 
themselves as plants. This opinion has been 
adopted by others; and lately Mr. Unger has — 
stated that he has seen animated particles sepa- 
rate from the parent plant, in a few hours con-_ 
verted into globules of vegetable matter, which 
subsequently became plants perfectly similar to 
the individual from which they were produced. __ 

But surely the motions of these seeds or — 
germes, may be merely mechanical, and may be 


INFUSORIES. 147 


necessary to enable them properly to fix them- 
selves, somewhat analogous to those mechanical 
contrivances by which the seeds of numerous 
plants, as those of the dandelion and cranesbill, 
are transported to a distance and enabled to 
enter the soil and fix themselves in it. 

That any creature should begin life as an 
animal and end it as a plant seems to contradict 
the general analogy of creation, and requires 


much stronger proofs than appear to have been 
adduced in the present case, before it can be 


admitted. The motions of the oscillating plants 
are not very different from those of the stamina 
of some, and of the leaves of others, as the 
Hledysarum gyrans; yet Adanson has proved 
that the vibrations of the filaments are the same 
both in hot and cold weather, and that the 
aquatic species are equally sensible with the 
terrestrial, therefore the movement can scarcely 
be caused by the temperature. But as analo- 
gous motions were observed by Mr. Brown in 


spherical and other molecules obtained from 


vegetables, it is evident that such motions do 
not necessarily indicate an animal, but only a 


kind of attraction and repulsion produced by an 
uncertain cause. Another argument proves their 


vegetable nature, these plants give out oxygen, 


_ whereas if they were animals they would absorb 
oxygen and give out azote. 


Professor Agardh illustrates his opinion just 


148 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


stated by the following fanciful allusion. When 
thus fixed he considers these beings as no longer 
having any animal life, but as preserving the — 
appearance of it, “‘ Like those men of Plato,” — 
adds he, “agitated by eternal regret with which — 
the remembrance of a happy life, the sweets — 
of which they formerly tasted, inspires them; — 
always oscillating, never tranquil, they seem 
aiming at the recovery of that happy life which — 
they have lost.” The locomotions, however, of 
the germes of these Hydrophytes, and their 
oscillatory movements when fixed, indicate at — 
least a semblance of animality, and an approach — 
to the confines of the animal kingdom. va 
Leaving, therefore, these doubtful forms, as © 
having no just claim to be considered as ani- — 
mals, I shall now proceed to those whose right 
to that title is generally acknowledged. And — 
here two very different tribes start up and prefer — 
their claim to be first considered ; the Infusories, — 
namely, and those which have been called — 
Polypes and Zoophytes.. But since the first of — 
these two classes, by means of one of its tribes, as 
its great oracle, Ehrenberg, remarks, approaches __ 
the oscillating plants,—I shall consider it as the | 
basis on which the Deity has built the animal 
kingdom. Indeed, though the Polypes at first 
sight appear most to resemble the higher plants, — 
in their general configuration, the Infusories, as_ 
well as coming nearer to the lowest by some of _ 


INFUSORIES. 149 


their members, in others exhibit no slight ana- 
logy to seeds. 

Of all the groups of animals those of the least 
consequence, one would think, must be those 
that for the most part escape the inquiring eye 
unless aided by a microscope. The infusories, 
or as they have been also called animalcules, 
microscopic animals, acrita or indiscernibles, 
amorpha or without form, are of this description. 
These wonderful little creatures, though they 
are every where dispersed, remain like seeds, 
without apparent life or motion, perhaps after 
animation has been suspended for years, till 
they come in contact with some fluid, when they 
are immediately reanimated, move about in va- 
rious directions, absorb their proper nutriment, 
and exercise their reproductive powers according 
to the law of their several natures. Yet these 
little animals, though in some respects they 
exhibit no slight analogy to vegetables, are not 
only distinguished from them by their irritability, 
but likewise by their organization, and powers of 
locomotion and voluntary action. Their mode 
of reproduction, however, is not far removed 
from that of some vegetables; they are sponta- 
neously divisible, some longitudinally and others 
transversely, and these cuttings, if they may be 
so called, as in the Hydra or common Polype, 
become separate animals. They are also propa- 
gated by germes, and some appear to be vivipa- 


150 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


rous. The species of Vibrio found in diseased 
wheat by M. Bauer is oviparous, as is evident 
from his observations and admirable figures. 
Lamarck indeed regards them as having no 
volition, as taking their food by absorption like 
plants ; as being without any mouth, or internal 
organ; in a word, as transparent gelatinous 
masses, whose motions are determined not by 
their will, but by the action of the medium in 
which they move. That they have neither head, 
eyes, muscles, vessels, nerves, nor indeed any 
particular determinable organ, whether for respi- 
ration, generation, or even digestion. On account 
of these supposed negative characters, they were — 
called by De Blainville, Agastria, or stomachless, 
as having no intestines ; but Ehrenberg, who has — 
studied them in almost every climate, has dis- — 
covered, by keeping them in coloured waters, — 
that they are not the simple animals that La- 


marck and others supposed, and that almost all 
have a mouth and digestive organs, and that num= 
bers of them have many stomachs. Spallanzani, 
nd other writers that preceded Lamarck, had 


observed that their motions evidently indicated — 
volition: this appeared from their avoiding each — 
other and obstacles in their way; from their — 
changing their direction and going faster or 
slower as occasion required ; from their passing ; | 
suddenly from a state of rest to motion without 
any external impulse; from their darting eagerly — 


INFUSORIES. 151 


at particles of infused substances; from their 
incessantly revolving on themselves without a 
change of place; from their course against the 
current; and from their crowding to shallow 
places of the fluid in which they are: each species 
seems also to exhibit a peculiar kind of instinct. 
Lamarck thinks all this delusion proceeding 
from errors in judgment, and the result of preju- 
dices inducing people readily to believe what 
accords with their persuasions. But to apply this 
remark to such observers as Spallanzani, &c., is 
drawing rather largely on the credulity of his 
readers, who might very justly change the tables 
and apply it to himself, who is certainly as much 
chained by system as any one can be. Admit- 
ting that the observations of Spallanzani just 
stated record facts, it appears clearly to follow 
from them that these animals fave volition, and 
therefore cannot properly be denominated apa- 
thetic, or insensible. The fact that they almost 
all have a mouth and a digestive system; many 
of them eyes, and some rudiments of a nervous 
one, implies a degree, more or less, of sensa- 
tion in them all, and consequently that they 
have all, whether it be molecular and diffused in 
their substance, or confined to particular organs, 
I say that they have all a nervous influence and 
excitement sufficient for their several wants, cor- 
responding with their several natures. 


152 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


These minim animals may be said almost. to 
be universally dispersed; they inhabit the sea, 
the rivers, and other waters ; are supposed to float 
in the air; they are found in the blood and urine; 
in the tartar of the teeth; in animal substances; 
in vinegar; in paste; in vegetable substances; 
in fruits, seeds, and grain; in sand; amongst 
tiles; in wells; on mountains, &c: Their num- 
bers are infinite; hundreds of thousands may 
be seen in a single drop of water; their minute- 
ness is extreme, some being not more than zs 
part of a line in length, and yet these atoms of — 
animals have a mouth and several stomachs. . 

Let a man, says Dalyell, the translator of 
Spallanzani, conceive himself in a moment 
conveyed to a region where the properties, and — 
the figure and motions of every animal are 
unknown. The amazing varieties of these 
will first attract his attention. One is a long — 
slender line; another an eel or serpent; some — 
are circular, elliptical, or triangular; one is a — 
thin flat plate; another like a number of reticu- — 
lated seeds; several have a long tail, almost 
invisible; or their posterior part is terminated — 
by two robust horns; one is like a funnel; 
another like a bell, or cannot be referred to — 
any object familiar to our senses. | Certain 
animalcules. can change their figure at plea-— 
sure :' sometimes they are extended to immo- — 


1 Ppare ly Frey 3; 


2 


INFUSORIES. 153 


derate length, then almost contracted to nothing ; 
sometimes they are curved like a leech, or 
coiled like a snake; sometimes they are in- 
flated, at others flaccid ; some are opaque while 
others are scarcely visible from their extreme 
transparence. No less singular is the variety of 
their motions ;—several swim with the velocity 
of an arrow, so that the eye can scarcely follow 
them; others appear to drag their body along 
with difficulty, and move like the leech; and 
others seem to exist in perpetual rest ; one will 
revolve on its centre, or the anterior part of its 
head ; others move by undulations, leaps, oscil- 
lations, or successive gyrations ;—in short, there 
is no kind of animal motion, or other mode of 
progression, that is not practised by animalcules. 

Their organs are equally various. Some ap- 
pear to take their food by absorption, having no 
mouth, to this tribe belong what have been 
ealled vinegar eels; others have a mouth and 
several stomachs, but no orifice for the trans- 
mission of their excrements; others, again, 
have both a mouth and anal passage, and what 
is wonderful, in such minute creatures, some- 
times as many as forty or fifty stomachs ;? though 
many are without eyes, others are furnished 


with these useful organs, some having one, 
others two, others three, and others four; some 


' Leucophrys, Enehelis, &c., 


154 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


have processes resembling legs. In the second 
Class of these animals, the Rotatories, to which 
the wheel-animalcules belong, the internal or- — 
ganization approaches to that of the higher 
classes, for they exhibit the rudiments of a 
nervous system ; their alimentary canal is simple; _ 
they have a branching dorsal vessel, but without 
a systole and diastole; their pharynx is usually 
furnished with mandibles, which are sometimes — 
armed with teeth. The mouth of the majority, 
especially amongst the rotatories, is fringed with 
ray-like bristles, which Cuvier thinks are con- 
nected with their respiration. This circum- 
stance of a circle of rays surrounding the oral 
orifice, is found in the polypes and several other — 
animals of a higher grade. Their use in the 
present instance, I speak more particularly of 
the wheel-animalcules, is by their rotation to 
produce a current in the water to the mouth of © 
the animal, bringing with it the still more minute 
beings which constitute its food. 

These invisible inhabitants of the. iaibhe | 
world created an early interest in inquisitive 
minds; Dr. Henry Power, and after him the 
celebrated Hooke, about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, or earlier, noticed, what were 
called vinegar eels. Sir E. King, in the Phi- 
losophical Transactions, described some experi- 


1 Vibrio Anguilla. 


INFUSORIES. 155 


ments on the animalcules found in pepper water ; 
and, subsequently, Mr. Harris made observa- 
tions upon a variety of these minute crea- 
tures. The subject was afterwards taken up 
by various writers, both here and on the con- 
tinent. Amongst these none was more eminent 
than Spallanzani. O. F. Miiller, who seems to 
have been the first who treated the subject sys- 
tematically, embodied these animals in a Class 
by the name of Jnfusories... He was followed 
by Bruguiere and Lamarck, who divided it into 
Orders and Sections. But the system of these 
zoologists has for the most part been set aside 
by Ehrenberg, a Prussian naturalist, before-men- 
tioned, who devoted ten years of his life to the 
investigation of these animals, for which he was 
particularly qualified by his previous studies and 
employment, the anatomy of the Molluscans of 
the’ Red Sea, by which he had been accustomed 
to the use of microscopes and micrometers. His 
: researches on the Infusories, during Baron de 
Humboldt’s last journey, extend to more than 
fifty degrees of longitude, and fourteen degrees 
of latitude ;—he went as far as Dongola in Africa, 
and the Altai mountains in Asia, and examined 
these animals in a great variety of situations. He 
found them on Mount Sinai; swarms of various 
species in the wells of the Oasis of Jupiter 


1 Infusoria. 


156 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Ammon; and at a considerable depth in some 
Siberian mines, in places entirely deprived of 
light. 

He considers them, it should seem, as forming 
a Sub-kingdom, which he denominates Plant- 
animals... This sub-kingdom he divides into two 
Classes. The first, from the number of stomachs,’ 
with which the genera belonging to it are fur- 
nished, he names, Polygastrica, or many-sto- 
mached, probably, to contrast with De Blainville’s 
name before-mentioned. The second class he 
calls Rotatories,’ consisting of the ciliated Polypes 
of Lamarck ;* each of these classes he subdivides 
into two parallel orders, the first containing those 
that are naked, and the second those that are 
loricated,® or covered with some kind of shell. 

In the first of these classes, the Polygastrics, 
the animals recede further from the organization 
of the higher tribes, and approach nearer to 
that of vegetables ; but in the second, as I before 
observed, rudiments of the organization of those 
tribes make their appearance. Many of the 
former are known to derive their nutriment from 
vegetable substances, but what the majority 
subsist upon is not certainly known ;—but the 
latter class, the Rotatories, are ascertained to be 
predaceous, as above stated. Their mode of 


1 Phyto-zoa. 2 Pratrs.l. Bigs 
3 Rotatoria. 4 PLATE I. Fre. 2. 
5 See Appendix, note 20. 


gz 


INFUSORIES. 157 


drawing their corpuscular food within the vortex 
of their mouth is thus amusingly illustrated by 
Spallanzani. As a certain species of whale, 
says he, (sic magnis componere parva solebat ) after 
having driven shoals of herrings into a bay or 
strait, by a blow of its tail produces a whirlpool 
of vast extent and great rapidity, which draws 
the herrings into its vortex; the monster then 
presenting its open mouth, the herrings are pre- 
cipitated into its throat, and it is soon satiated : 
so the carnivorous Infusories produce a vortex by 
their tentacles, and satisfy their appetite. 

I have been more diffuse upon the history of 
the animals whose functions in nature I am next 
to consider, because to them in a more particular 
manner, applies Pliny’s observation with regard 
to insects. Jn his tam parvis, atque tam nullis, 
que ratio, quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio! 
In nothing is the power and wisdom of their 
Almighty Author more signally conspicuous. Or- 
ganization so complex, and life, and spontane- 
ous motion, and appetite, and means to satisfy 
it, and digestion, and nutrition, and powers of 
reproduction in animals of such infinite minute- 
ness! Whocan believe it? Yet so itis, and that 
each of these should be varied in the different 
tribes and genera—that these less than the least 
of all the creatures that present themselves to 
_ the observation of mankind, and which till within 
a century or two were not suspected to exist, should 


158 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


out-number beyond all statement of numbers, all — 
the other animals together that people the whole — 
globe, that they should probably enter into us — 
and circulate in our blood, nestle between our 
teeth, be busy every where, and perceived no — 
where, till the invention of the microscope drew 
aside the veil between us and these entities, and — 
we saw how God had filled all things with life, 
and had based the animal kingdom upon living 
atoms, as well as formed the earth and the world — 
of inert ones. But to us the wondrous spectacle 
is seen and known, only in part; for those that 
still escape all our methods of assisting sight, and — 
remain members of the invisible world, may 
probably far exceed those that we know. ar 

We may conclude that this vast, or rather infi- 
nite, host of animalcules was not created merely 
to be born and die; was not sown, as it were, 
over every part of the earth’s surface, lurking in 
seeds, and other vegetable and animal substances, 
till coming into contact with fluid matter of what-— 
ever description it starts into life, and swarming 
in the ocean, and its tributary streams; it was 
not thus dispersed every where, either alive, or 
in a state to revive and live, but for some great 
purpose, for which its organization, structure and 
station amongst animals, particularly adapt ital 

With respect to its immediate action upon the 
vegetable and animal kingdoms, it has been as- 
certained, as to many species, that they ascend 


-INFUSORIES. . 159 


with the sap in vegetables,’ and are found in the 
blood and excretions of animals,? who knows but 
they may act an important part in the animal 
frame; somewhat similar to what devolves upon 
the larves of certain insects, with regard to stag- 
nant waters, they may be depurators where they 
are thus employed, and contribute to preserve a 
healthy action. It is true, as far as vegetables 
are concerned, especially grain, they appear to 
destroy, where they take up their residence, but 
when we discover the same or similar species, in 
sour paste or vinegar, they seem destined to con- 
sume substances that cease to be wholesome ; and 
in fact, in all fluids, in which they usually so 
abound, they may be destined to fulfil a similar 
office, and it is a remarkable circumstance in 
their history confirmatory of this idea: that 
these animals, though animation in them is 
often suspended for a long time; when they 
swarm in infusions, having fulfilled their office, 
perish in a few days. 

It is probable that in the waters of our globe 
an infinity of animal and vegetable molecules 
are suspended, that are too minute to form the 
food of even the lowest and most minute animals 


_ 1 Mr, Bauer found Vibrio Tritirz, in the stalk as well as in the 
ear and grain of plants of wheat, which were raised from seeds 
inoculated with it. Phil. Trans. 1823. 3. 


* See above, p. 152. 


160 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


of the visible creation, and therefore an infinite — 
host of invisibles was necessary to remove them 
as nuisances. | A 

But the principal point, and that in which — 
their utility most evidently appears, is their fur- — 
nishing a principal portion of the food of innumer- — 
able animals of a higher order than themselves. — 
Those infinite armies and forests of locomo-— 
tive and fixed Polypes, that give to the ocean 
one of the features that distinguish earth, have 
their mouths surrounded with tentacles, when 
expanded assuming the appearance of so many 
blossoms, with these they collect their food, — 
which, amongst the more minute ones, con- 
sists often of our Infusories. A single stem of 
these compound animals, having often innumer- 
able oscula or mouths, requires a vast supply of 
food ; others equally compound, as the Ascidians 
or Alcyons, by alternately absorbing and expelling 
the sea water, draw in with it a supply of animal 
food, consisting, in part, of the creatures in ques-_ 
tion, which abound in the oceanic waters; some 
of these have a common organ for this purpose, 
and in others each individual of the system is” 
fitted with one; the Molluscans and an infinity 
of the smaller inhabitants of the ocean, doubt- 
less also derive a considerable portion of their 
nutriment from them, the minute Crustaceans 
probably do the same, and many insects, 
whose larve inhabit the waters, some by pro- 


INFUSORIES. 161 


ducing a vortex like the rotatories,’ thus find an 
abundant supply to carry them to their interme- 
diate state. But not only do these creatures 
furnish the more minute animals that inhabit 
the waters, with a considerable portion of their 
food, but, it should seem, even some of those 
that are of a higher grade, and larger stature. 
Whoever has been in the habit of keeping gold 
and silver fish,’ in glass or other vessels, is aware 
that they require no other food than a fresh 
supply of water every second or third day. 
Their nutriment therefore must be derived 
from what they find in the water. In this may 
often be seen minute Branchiopods swimming 
here and there, sometimes with a bundle of eggs 
appended to each side: but these are not 
sufficiently numerous to form the whole of their 
food, the water must therefore contain other 
nutritive substances which may contribute to 
their subsistence, and as it is known that various 
infusory animalcules inhabit it, we may conclude 
that they are inserted in their bill of fare. It 
has been observed by an eminent writer, 
speaking of the gold fish, “The water, when 
care is taken to renew it frequently, appears suf- 
ficient for the nutriment of these fishes during 
many months; but it should be considered that 
though this water appears to us very pure, 


* Culex, Stratyomis, &c. 2 Cyprinus auratus. 
FOL, I. M 


162 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


it always contains a multitude of animalcules — 
and very minute plants, which the fishes are — 
continually swallowing.” 
When Creative Wisdom cavenedl the éartili . 
with plants, and peopled it with animals, he laid 
the foundations of the vegetable and animal — 
kingdoms with such as were most easily con- 
vertible into nutriment for the tribes imme-~ 
diately above them. The first plants and the 
first animals are scarcely more than animated 
molecules,’ and appear analogues of each other; 
and those above them in each kingdom represent — 
jointed fibrils* It is singular and worthy — 
of notice, that the Creator after the creation — 
of inanimate matter, probably first imparted the 
living principle to bodies of the same form 
with the molecules and fibrils into which that 
matter is resolvable, thus uniting, by common 
characters, things essentially distinct, and pre-— 
serving unbroken that wonderful chain which 
links together all created things. — | ie 
Every body, who has eyes, is aware, that 
vegetation takes place upon almost. every 
substance, upon the bark of trees, upon naked 
rocks, upon brick walls and tiled roofs, and even 
upon glass when not constantly cleaned. The 
first plants, that take on these their station, 
“1a 


1 For instance, Globulina and Monas. 
2 Oscillatoria and Vibrio. See Appendix, note 21. 


INFUSORIES. 163 


usually look like green or yellow powder, when 
they decay forming a little soil, in which others 
more conspicuous find sufficient nutriment, and so 
one succeeds another till a sufficient portion of soil 
covers the rock, &c. to afford the means of life 
and growth to more perfect plants, and often to 
arborescent ones. An analogous process takes 
place in the water. The matiere verte of French 
authors makes its appearance, and other Hydro- 
phytes, in conjunction with the Infusories, form 
as it were a first soil for the support and main- 
tenance of animal life, both for those which 
derive their nutriment from vegetables, and 
those that feed on beings of their own class. 
Thus a maintenance is provided for higher forms, 
and, at last, for the highest; and a table is 
spread, both on the earth and in the waters, for 
every living thing, from that which the eye can- 
not discover, to man, the head and king of all... 
_ How wonderful and adorable is that Almighty 
Being, who thus made all things dependant upon 
each other, and based the visible world, in the 
three great departments into which we see it 
divided, upon an invisible basis, and in which 
cohesion and life are maintained by those powers 
which God has placed as rulers in the physical 
world, and by which he still acts upon the uni- 
verse of existences. 


164 


CHAPTER V. 


Functions and Instincts. Polypes. 
Tue tribe of animals to which we are next to 
direct. our attention, though not invisible like — 
the last, are almost equally concealed from our 
view by the medium that they inhabit; so that, 
with the exception of those that abound in fresh — 
water, and are easily kept alive for examination, 
the great body of them inhabiting the ocean, — 
can seldom be studied in a living state. All the 
polypes are aggregate animals, in which they 
differ from the majority of the preceding class. 
The most imperfect of them, as the sponges and 
some of the alcyons, seem to consist merely of 
a gelatinous mass, without any organs of pre- 
hension, which by its alternate contraction and 
dilatation, imbibes or sends out the water from 
which the animal derives its nutriment; but the 
great majority have a mouth furnished with 
arms or tentacles varying in number. These 
are described as tubes, filled with fluid, expand- 
ing at the base into a small cavity, which when 
contracted necessarily propels the fluid into the 
tentacles, and thus extends them; but when 


POLYPES. 165 


the tube contracts, the fluid flows back into 
the cavity, and the points of the tentacles con- 
verge over the mouth. 

These parts are not only organs of sense, but 
also serve many other purposes, particularly 
those of prehension and motion; and they very 
probably assist in respiration, which appears 
evidently connected with the alternate contrac- 
tion and expansion of these animals. They are 
also so constructed as to lay hold of every sub- 
stance that floats within their reach, whether by 
means of any gummy excretion like bird-lime, 
as some suppose, or whether they are furnished 
with very minute suckers by which they can 
adhere to any substance, has not been ascer- 
tained. Trembley observed, that when the 
common polype of fresh water touched any little 
animal with one of its long tentacular arms, it 
was immediately arrested, and in spite of the 
most violent efforts to liberate itself, which he 
compares to those of a fish that had been 
hooked, was held fast, and carried to the mouth 
of the polype and swallowed. 

_ The body of polypes is formed of a kind of in- 
Spissated mucus, with confusedly agglomerated, 
and probably nervous, molecules equally distri- 
buted ; it is covered by no skin, is extremely con- 
tractile, and forms an alimentary sac open at 
one end, serving both for mouth and anal pas- 
sage. The equal distribution of nervous mole- 


166 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


cules through the whole substance of these 
animals, will account for their extreme tenacity 
of life. In fact, this uniform gelatinous mass, — 
which is without any organized structure, may — 
be regarded as a kind of primary substance, 
which possesses characters, in some respects, 
common to both animal and vegetable matter. 
This substance without any nervous centre 
—though nervous influence, one would think 
must be in most force round the orifice where — 
the tentacles are in action,—yet full of cere- 
bral matter, sensible to the light without any 
organ of sight; extremely irritable ; alternately — 
contracting and expanding, and thus moving — 
without any apparatus of muscles; with no trace 
of organization but the tubular rays that sur- 
round its mouth, which appear to perform the 
office of eyes, hands, feet, and lungs; this 
singular substance lends a clue to form the 
class into Orders according to the circumstances — 
in which it is placed. 14 
1. In the common Polypes' of our ditches and 
stagnant waters, it is a naked branching elemen- 
tary sac or canal, without any internal support, 
and endued with powers of locomotion. | 
2. In the Madrepores and others,’ its Maker foal 
mighty purposes has enabled the animal to form 
for itself a fixed calcareous house or polypary 
b 
1 Hydra viridis, fusca, &c. * Lamellifera, Lam. — 


POLYPES. 167 


as it is called, consisting often of innumerable 
cells, each containing a separate individual with 
its mouth and tentacles, united to the general 
body at its other extremity, and each with an 
external aperture, by which they are protruded, 
and expand like a flower. 

3. In the Coral and affinities,’ it forms an 
internal calcareous axis, which it envelopes as 
the bark does the tree: it is fixed by its base 
like the preceding tribe; and from this crust, 
or bark, the tentaculiferous mouths of the 
polypes emerge. In some the axis appears 
articulated. 

N.B. In these two last the base by which the 
compound animal is fixed to rocks, or other 
substances, expands like the base or root of a 
tree ; and by their ramifications these polypes, 
whether the polypary is external or internal, 
resemble its branching stem. 

4. The Sponges’ and Alcyons* have been 
generally arranged with the last Order, but, from 
M. Savigny’s observations, it appears that cer- 
tain of these animals have neither stomach, 
mouth, nor tentacles, the animal life of which he 
thinks might be disputed; but Mr. Bell has 
discovered that they alternately imbibe and 
expel that fluid, which seems to prove their 
animal nature. Perhaps they ought to be con- 


1 Corticifera, Lam. 2 Spongia. 3 Alcyonium. 


168 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


sidered as nearer to vegetable matter than the 
other polypes. Gch 
5. Other Alcyons' seem to have a more com- 
plex organization than any of the preceding 
polypes; they are stated to have eight parallel — 
stomachs. Only four genera belonging to this — 
Order have been described, and its proper Ata fion » 4 
seems doubtful. 4 pee 
6. In the Sea-Pen, and others,’ the animal 
envelopes an axis, as in the third Order, and — 
has a tentacular mouth, but it is not fixed by its 
base. The greater part of these animals floatin _ 
the waters, but others remain at the bottom, — 
either upon the surface or partly plunged in the _ 
sand. cog 
Polypes are invariably aquatic animals, some _ 
inhabiting fresh water, but the great body are _ 
marine, and most numerous in tropical seas. In 
very high latitudes, only cellarians,’ sertularians,* 
alcyons, and some sponges occur, and in the — 
vicinity of volcanic islands in the Polar seas, 
corallines and gorgonians. These multiply a 
little from 6° to 9° N. L.: then, as they ap- — 
proach the tropics, the coral reddens, and the — 
madrepores whiten, and at 33° they attain their 
full powers of growth and multiplication. Some — 
frequent the mouths of rivers, where there is a 
conflux of fresh and salt water. Some love 


1 Polypi tubifert, Lam. 2 Polypi natantes, Lam. 
3 Cellaria. 4 Sertularia. 


POLYPES. 169 


atmospheric influence, while others avoid it. The 
marine ones frequently plant themselves on 
rocks, in different aspects, often regulated by the 
climate. They rarely expose themselves to vio- 
lent currents, or the direct shock of the waves. 
They are often found in the hollows of rocks 
or submarine grottoes, and in gulfs where the 
water is less agitated. 

It was observed above that the Infusories pre- 
sent some analogy to the seeds of vegetables ; 
the polypes go further, and represent, often most 
exactly, the developed plant from the tree, by 
almost all the intermediate stages, to the fungus,! 
at least the fixed polypes: these appear, as it 
were, to take root, to send forth branches which 
produce seeming blossoms, composed of what 
appear to be petals arising from a calyx, 
arranged sometimes in a single and at others 
in a double circle, and in some including the 
semblance of stamina; they are also very 
sensible to the light, and turn to its source, and 
like plants are readily propagated by cuttings 
and buds; so that all the older naturalists re- 
garded them as real plants, without apparently 
suspecting their animal nature. Ancient natu- 
ralists were very apt to mistake analogical 
resemblances for proofs of affinity, but in the 
progress of science, when natural objects were 


1 Prate II. 


170 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


submitted to a stricter examination, more correct — 
ideas were substituted for these mistaken ones, — 
and the zoophytes, or polypes, were generally — 
admitted to be real animals, though some, after ; 
Linné, still regard them as something between — 
animal and vegetable. Trembley was one of — 
the first who ascertained their animal nature; — 
he saw the fresh-water polypes,’ by means of — 
their long tentacles, seize and swallow certain — 
grubs, and also many minute Hntomostracans, — 
common in stagnant water. These polypes so — 
used their tentacles as evidently to indicate By ; 
degree of volition, sometimes using one and some: 
times many, as circumstances required. When 
they had secured their prey, they contracted and — 
gave a curve to these organs, so as to bring it near 
the orifice, or mouth, at their anterior extremity, — 
which then began to open, and the animal they — 
had caught was gradually absorbed. He has” 
seen them attack small fishes, also worms, larvee 
and pupe of gnats, parts of slugs, entrails, and 
even pieces of meat. ° it 

The marine polypes are equally ravenous with 
the river ones, feeding upon whatever they can 
lay hold of, sometimes, like the licens 
or rotatories, producing a vortex in the water, 
and thus causing a flow to their mouth of the 
infusory, and other animalcules contained in that 


| Monocula. Lose 


POLYPES. 171 


element. It is to be observed that these inhabit 
a common house, from which they cannot sepa- 
rate themselves; their sole character is that of 
_ being attached to an animated mass, so that each 
individual partakes of the life common to the 
whole, and also of a separate life, independent 
of that of the others. Yet the nutriment that 
one of these individuals takes, extends its influ- 
ence to parts the most distant from the place it 
occupies. . . 

Having made these general remarks, I shall 
next give a history of some of the best known 
and most interesting species. 

1. The common polypes of stagnant waters, 
belonging to the first Order, have met with an 
admirable historian in M. Trembley, and what 
I have to communicate with respect to them will 
be chiefly derived from him. With regard to 
their reproduction, it is by germs and cuttings. 
‘The former issue gradually from the body of the 
parent polype, as the trunk of a tree sends forth 
a branch. The bud that forms the commence- 
ment of a young one, is a continuation of her 
skin, and its stomach of her stomach. When 
she takes her food, the bodies of her young are 
seen also to inflate themselves as if they had 
taken it with their own mouths, and the food may 
be seen passing from one to the other. After 
they have grown thus as branches for some time, 
and even have pushed forth germes themselves, 


172 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


they detach themselves from the parent stem, 
and become separate animals. ne 
It is stated that, by this mode of generation, 
in the space of a month a single polype may be — 
the parent of a million of descendants. Trembley | 
observed some long branches of trees that had — 
fallen into the water, which he describes as — 
being as full of polypes as a peruke of hairs; — 
and that though their innumerable arms were at — 
work, there was no confusion amongst them. 
But these animals, as is well known, do not 
multiply solely by germes, but also by cuttings; 
as they may be called; their substance is so — 
instinct with life, that nothing appears able to — 
destroy it—a circumstance, perhaps, arising from 
the nervous molecules of which it seems almost 
to consist. If divided transversely, each segment 
will become a distinct animal, send forth ten- 
tacles round its upper aperture, and close the — 
lower one; if it is divided longitudinally, each 
half will form a separate tube in an hour, and — 
begin to ply its tentacles in a day; even if 
divided into longitudinal strips, instead of the 
sides turning in, as in the former case, each strip — 
becomes inflated, and a tube is formed within it: 
and what is still more wonderful, and seems next — 
to a miracle, these animals may be turned inside — 
out, like the finger of a glove, without destroying — 
either their vitality, their power of producing — 
germes, and of catching, swallowing, or digesting — 


POLYPES. 173 


their food : so that they have, properly speaking, 
neither a within nor without, both surfaces of their 
alimentary canal being equally fitted for digestion. 
This, however, is not so entirely anomalous as it 
may at first sight appear; for cuttings of some 
vegetables, if planted inversely, will take root, the 
top bearing the root, and the bottom the branches 
and inflorescence. 

The fresh-water polype mins remains fixed 
by its closed extremity to one spot, from which 
it seldom moves, exhibiting no other trace of an 
animated being than the motions of its arms; 
but when the want of light or heat causes it to 
shift its quarters, it moves slowly by fixing 
alternately, like a leech, its head and tail to what 
itis Moving upon. 

The majority of the marine polypes are: at- 
tached, in some way, to a calcareous support 
formed by themselves, which is called by Amou- 
-reux, Lamarck, and other continental writers, 
their Polypary;' and they are none of them 
locomotive except the last order. 

4. The polypes of the second Order, the 
sheathed polypes of Lamarck,’ as the most im- 
portant and interesting of this class of the animal. 
kingdom, I wish to leave last upon the reader’s 
memory. I shall, therefore, next make a few 
brief observations upon those sponges and alcyons 


' Fr. Polypier. * Polypr vaginati. 


174 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


that have no tentacles, and form the fourth Order. 
These are included by Lamarck amongst those — 
just mentioned, but they appear not properly to — 
belong to them, and to have a still more simple — 
organization. In this tribe, as was before observed, 
nutrition seems carried on by a kind of systole — 
and diastole, the sea water being alternately 
absorbed and rejected by the tubes composing 
the substance of the sponge, they having no~ 
organs to collect their food in any other way. 

Many of these productions are remarkable for — 
being hollowed internally, and in their external — 
shape resembling cups, bowls, and vases: several 
gigantic specimens of this kind were collected in 
India by the late lamented Sir Stamford Raffles, — 
to whose indefatigable exertions, judicious ar-_ 
rangements, and uncommon ardour in her cause, 
science is so deeply indebted, and presented by 
him, with the rest of his valuable collections, to 
the Museum of the Zoological Society, where 
they are now to be seen. Their general structure — 
also, as well as form, fits them for receiving a 
large quantity of water, as well as for parting 
with it, in proportion to the pressure, when 
received: in the living animal, this pressure is" 
produced by its expansion. — 14 

What particular function, or office, has beet 
devolved by the All-wise Creator upon these 
zoophytes, which are produced so rapidly, and in 
such numbers, on the bed of the ocean and its — 


POLYPES. 175 


rocks, has not been ascertained. As in the case 
of a vast variety of other marine animals, they 
probably derive their nutriment from the contents 


_of the water absorbed by their tubes; they may 


contribute their part to the depuration of the 
eceanic waters, and to the maintenance of the 
equilibrium amongst their inhabitants, however 
minute, which is necessary to the general welfare. 
Doubtless, in their creation, He, who inhabiteth 
Eternity, to whose view all time as well as all 
space is present, had in view the benefit of his 


ereature man, to whom they form a very useful 
_ present, and which he has long applied to his pur- 
poses. Sponges were in use as early as Aristotle’s 
time, when the people that employed themselves 
in collecting them observed, that when they 
attempted to pluck them up they appeared to 


EEO oOOeeeeeeeeoooeeoeereoreeemrrleeeo 


resist, whence they concluded they had some 
sensation.» They now form a very considerable 
article of commerce. The fishery for them is 
chiefly carried on in the Mediterranean, particu- 
larly in the Grecian Archipelago. The collection 
of them is attended with danger, as they are 
fixed to the rocks at the depth of several 
fathoms, so that the sponge-fishers must be excel- 
lent divers. Tournefort says, that no youth in 
these islands is allowed to marry, till he has 
given proofs of his capacity in this respect. 


' Aristot. Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 1, comp. B. v. c, 16. 


176 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Amongst plants, as Mr. W. 8. Mac Leay has, I 
think, remarked, sponges present some analogy 
to the puff-balls.’ 

5. A fifth Order of polypes, worthy of atten- 
tion, is that to which the red coral belongs, in 
these the animal instead of being covered, or in 
any way sheltered by its polypary, invests it 
completely, so as to form a kind of bark over 
every part of it; on this account the name has 
been changed by writers on these animals, and it 
is denominated their axis, since upon it they are, 
as it were, suspended, and run their prescribed 
race. This axis consists of a much more rigid, 
solid and lapidose substance, than the polypary 
of the really sheathed polypes, presenting when 
polished the smooth substance and lustre of 
marble, without any appearance of pores or other 
orifices—when broken it exhibits the same kind 
of fracture as a stick of red sealing-wax; this 
description refers particularly to the red coral,” 
for in some other genera belonging to the Order 
the axis is jointed,’ and in others, very flexible.’ 
The sheathed. corallines appear in some sort, to 
be analogues of those animals whose bodies are 
covered and defended by an external crust or 
shell, like the Testaceous Molluscans, the Crusta- 
ceans and the Insects; while the tribe in question, 


" Lycoperdon. * Corallium. 
5 Isis, &e. * Antipathes, Gorgonia. 


POLYPES. 177 


especially those having a jointed axis, present 
some analogy to the vertebrated animals, in 
which the muscles cover the bones. It should 
seem, from the solid and compact substance 
generated by them, that these Polypes absorb 
from the sea-water a greater quantity of the 
matter which is converted into carbonate of lime 
than the rest of the class, so as to enable them 
to condense it into the smallest compass, and 
therefore Providence has gifted them with the 
faculty of making up in virtue, so to speak, what 
they may want in volume. A single-stemmed 
species, however, belonging to the flexible ge- 
nus Antipathes, found by Professor Eschscholtz, 
on the north-west coast of America, was ten feet 
long. The foot, or base by which the common 
coral is attached to the rocks, as indeed is the 
case with the whole section to which it belongs, 
is remarkably expanded ; it rises at first with a 
single stem of varying magnitude, which soon 
divides into a small number of branches, in their 
turn dividing and subdividing irregularly into a 
great number of others, so as to resemble a leaf- 
less shrub, rising to the height of about eighteen 
inches. After pearls, this is the most precious 
production of the ocean, and has always been a 
valuable article of commerce. As well as the 
common sponge, it is principally the produce of 
the Mediterranean, and is formed with such rapi- 
dity, that a place which has been quite exhausted 
VOL. I. N 


178 FUNCTIONS AND-INSTINCTS. 


by the coral fishermen, in the course of a very 
few years, is again replenished with it. It is 
probably enabled, by its broad well fixed base 
and rigid axis, to withstand the violent action of 
the strong currents of the sea just mentioned. 

6. The Floating Polypes, which form Lamarck’s 
last order, chiefly differ from the coral in being 
locomotive, and sometimes swimming freely about 
in the sea, though some usually remain stationary, 
but never fixed. Their oviform germes, like those 
of many other marine polypes, are ejected by the 
mouth. The most noted species, from its sin- 
gular resemblance to a quill with its plumes, is 
called the sea-pen.’ It is a phosphoric animal, 
and emits a light so brilliant that by it the 
fishermen can see the fishes swimming near it, 
so as to be able to cast their nets. 

The vast number of marine animals that are 
endued with the remarkable faculty of emitting 
light, indicate that it answers some important 
purpose in their economy. A fact observed by 
the celebrated Navigator Peron, renders it pro- 
bable that its object is defence; he remarked that 
when the Atlantic Pyrosome’ was irritated, as 
well as when it was contracted, its phosphores- 
cence was augmented. A variety of hypotheses 
with respect to the phosphorescence of the ocean. 
have been started; at first it was attributed to 


1 Pennatula argentea. * Pyrosoma atlanticum. — 


POLYPES. 179 


the revolutions of the earth, to electricity, &c.; 
then to putrescent marine animals, which cer- 
tainly do emit light; but it is now generally 
known to be the property of a variety of the 
more frail inhabitants of the deep, and the above 
remark renders it extremely probable that it was 
given them by their Creator, to defend them from 
the attack of their enemies, whom a sudden 
augmentation of the intensity of their light may 
frighten from their purpose. 

2. But the most celebrated polypes, and those 
which produce the most wonderful effects in 
some parts of the globe that we inhabit, belong 
to the section in which the polypary is lamelli- 
ferous, or having the star-shaped oscula, or 
mouth, from which the polype exerts its tenta- 
cles, lamellated or divided into various channels, 
separated from each other by elevated processes, 
_ resembling the gills of a mushroom: these, with 
several others related to them, Linné regarded 
as belonging to one genus which he denominated 
Madrepora, but which Lamarck has divided into 
eighteen! It is amongst the species of this 
genus, even as circumscribed by the author just 
mentioned, that we are to look for the polype, 
which is instructed by its Creator, not only to 
erect rocky reefs of vast extent and wonderful 
solidity—which often arrest and perplex the 
course of the navigator, and greatly increase the 
perils of navigation —and submarine mountains 


180 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


that keep gradually diminishing the mass of 
waters, but also islands, which emerging from 
the ocean, in process of time are covered with 
vegetation, and fitted to receive and maintain an 
animal population with man at their head. The 
species principally engaged in this great work is 
the coral, called by Linné the muricated Madre- 
pore, and generally known by the name of awhzte 
coral; but Lamarck seems not to have been satis- 
fied as to this species, since it is excluded from 
his list of madrepores, though he refers to four, 
if not five, varieties of it as distinct species. Its 
polype, though so celebrated for its wonderful 
works, seems to be unknown. Rumphius how- 
ever has described that of the fungus Madrepore, 
and recently an Italian, Vincent Rosa, whose 
description I shall copy, another species. 

“From every cell,” says he, ‘issues a cylindri- 
cal animal, resembling an intestine, transversely 
wrinkled, about half an inch long and two lines 
in diameter, and of which the upper extremity or 
mouth is surrounded by about twenty-two very 
short tentacles. ‘These animals, which are pen- 
dent, because this madrepore is always fixed 
under the projections of the rocks, and vibrates 
at the will of the waves, are always of a lively 
orange colour, they contract as soon as they are 
touched, and they die upon being taken out of 


' Madrepora muricata. Prare Il. Fra. 1. 


’ POLYPES. 181 


the water.” Whoever examines a fragment of 
the polypary of any of the varieties of white 
coral, will find it to consist of innumerable ra- 
diating tubes, variously intercepted, all of which 
appear to issue from a common base ; these are 
the receptacles of the general body of the polype, 
while the connected individuals with their blos- 
soms inhabit an infinity of cells opening exter- 
nally, from which the tentacles issue to collect 
their food. 

The seemingly insignificant creatures here 
described, and which seem as little animalized 
as any animal can be to retain a right to the 
name, all whose means of action are confined 
to their tentacles, and whose sole employment 
appears to be the collection and absorption of 
the beings that form their food, are employed 
by their Creator, to construct and rear mighty 
fabrics in the bosom of the deep. He has so or- 
ganized them, that from their food and the waters 
of the ocean, which by a constant expansion 
and contraction they absorb and expel, they are 
enabled to separate, or elaborate, calcareous par- 
ticles with which they build up, and are con- 
_tinually enlarging, their structures; forming them 
into innumerable cells, each inhabited by an in- 
dividual animal, which however is not insulated 
_ and separated from the parent body, but forms a 
part of a many headed and many mouthed mon- 
ster, which, at every oral orifice, is collecting the 


182 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


means of still increasing its coral palace, and 
thus it goes on till it has formed a habitation, 
not for itself, but, as I said, for man, in the 
midst of the world of waters. 

One of their most celebrated historians, Amou- 
reux, thus expresses himself upon this part of their 
history. ‘Some, by their union or aggregation, 
form a long narrow ridge or reef, which extends 
uninterruptedly several degrees, opposing an im- 
movable rampart to the great currents of the sea, 
which it often traverses, the solidity and magni- 
tude of which increases daily. Sometimes this line 
of madreporic rocks assumes a circular form; the 
polypes that inhabit it gradually elevate their 
rocky dwelling to the surface of the sea, working 
then in a sheltered basin, they by little and little 
fill up its voids, taking the precaution, however, 
to leave in the upper part of this impenetrable 
wall openings by which the water can enter and 
retire, so as to renew itself, and furnish them 
with a constant supply of their aliment, and of 
the material with which they erect their habi- 
tation.” 

They do not always elevate their polyparies 
from the depths of the waters to their surface, 
some extend themselves horizontally upon the 
bottom of the sea, following its curvatures, decli- 
vities, and anfractuosities, and cover the soil of 
old ocean with an enamelled carpet of various and 
brilliant colours, sometimes of a single colour as 


POLYPES. 183 


dazzling as the purple of the ancients. Many of 
these beings are like a tree which winter has 
stripped of its leaves, but which the spring 
adorns with new flowers, and they strike the 
beholder by the eclat of petal-like animals, with 
which their branches are covered from the base 
to the extremity. 

Captain Beechey has given a most interesting 
account of the proceeding and progress of these 
animals in erecting these mighty works, and of 
the manner in which the sea forms ridges, when 
the animals have carried their work as high as 
they can: upon these at length a soil is formed 
beyond the reach of its waves; a vegetation next 
commences, in time plants and trees spring up, 
animals arrive, and man himself finds it a con- 
venient residence. His account is too long to 
copy, I must therefore refer the reader to it, but 
I must give here his statement of some proceed- 
ings of these animals, which have a bearing upon 
the principal design of the present work, and 
seem to indicate an instinctive sagacity in the 
polypes far above their rank in the animal king- 
dom, and quite inconsistent with their organiza- 
tion. 

Speaking of Ducies Island, a formation of the 
coral animals, he describes it as taking the shape 
of a truncated cone with the face downwards, the 
form best calculated to resist the action of the 
ocean, and then proceeds to say, ‘ The north- 


184 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


eastern and south-western extremities are fur- 
nished with points which project under water with 
less inclination than the sides of the island, and 
break the sea before it can reach the barrier to 
the little lagoon formed within it. It is singular 
that these buttresses are opposed to the only two 
quarters whence their structure has to apprehend 
danger, that on the north-east, from the constant 
action of the trade wind, and that on the other 
extremity, from the long rolling swell from the 
south-west so prevalent in these latitudes; and 
it is worthy of observation, that this barrier, 
which has the most powerful enemy to oppose, 
is carried out much farther and with less abrupt- 
ness than the other.” We should feel some sur- 
prise if a bee, in the construction of its comb, 
should strengthen the points most exposed to in- 
jury ; but that an animal apparently gifted with 
the lowest degree of sensation, and no intellect, 
should know where to erect buttresses so as best 
to provide for the security of its structure indi- 
cates in a striking degree the superintendence of 
Providence directing its blind efforts and un- 
conscious operations. 


After considering all the wonderful facts here 
stated with regard to the proceeding and progress 
of these seemingly insignificant animals, a specu- 
lative imagination may not only picture to itself, 
with respect to any group of coral islands, its 


POLYPES. 185 


conversion into one vast plain, yielding forests 
of bread-fruit and other trees, and ultimately 
sustenance to a numerous population, and a 
variety of animals subservient to their use, but 
taking a wider range and still further enlarging 
its view, might behold the tropical portion of 
the vast Pacific, not only studded with these 
islands, but exhibiting them in such frequent 
clusters and so large, as almost to form a kind of 
bridge of communication between Asia and Ame- 
rica. Indeed, at present, we know not how far 
these founders of islands may have been concerned 
in rearing a considerable portion of those conti- 
nents that form the old world. Calcareous strata 
and ridges occur every where, and though other 
causes may have contributed to their formation,? 
yet it is not improbable, that at the time when 
our northern climates were inhabited by tropical 
animals, our seas also might abound in madre- 
pores, &c. which might bear their part in the 
erection of some of our islands. 

Professor Buckland, in the appendix to Cap- 
tain Beechey’s Voyage, states that even within 
the arctic circle there are spots that can be shewn 
to have been once the site of extensive coral 
reefs. The old coral reefs that existed previously 
to the deluge, by that great catastrophe, in many 
cases, might be formed into chalk ridges. This 


1 See Lyell’s Geol. 1. 130. 210. 


186 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


indeed seems proved by the remains of marine 
animals, especially sea-urchins, which from this 
circumstance the common people know by the 
name of chalk-eggs, and which, we learn from 
Captain Beechey, abound on the submerged 
ledges of some coral Islands; and at the same 
period, it is surely no improbable supposition, 
under the directing hand of Him who willed 
to destroy the earth by the waters of a flood, 
and at the same time determined, according 
to the good pleasure of his will, the precise 
mode of its renovation, that in the course of 
the rise, prevalence, or subsidence of the mighty 
waters, which, for the principal part of a year, 
acted with irresistible force upon the earth, 
considerable additions might be made from the 
debris of the earth’s disrupted crust, to the reefs 
of coral that were left unsubverted, and so many 
islands be formed or enlarged. 

When the Creator formed the coral animals, 
what foresight, as well as power and wisdom did 
he manifest ! That a minute pouch of animated 
matter, with no other organs than a few tentacles 
surrounding its mouth, should be fitted to se- 
crete calcareous particles from food collected by 
it, to transpire or regurgitate them so as to con- 
struct for itself a limestone house, that it should be 
empowered perpetually to send forth germes that 
could also act the same part ; and thus in process 
of time, by their combined efforts, build up in the 


POLYPES. 187 


midst of the fluctuating ocean, not merely insig- 
nificant islets, but whole groups of islands, which 
in due time are rendered fit for the habitation of 
man himself, and do in fact become his perma- 
nent abode—but not only this, but should so 
order all other circumstances connected with this 
procedure, as, for instance, the action of the waves 
and winds upon this nascent little world, that 
when the animal has built up to that point, 
which its nature, for it cannot exist when removed 
from the influence of its native element, enables 
it to attain, should take up the wonderful work 
and complete the design of the Great Creator, 
and give the structure its due elevation and con- 
solidation, should furnish it with fountains and 
streams of water; should cover it with a soil 
capable of affording sufficient nutriment to trees 
and plants, which should in their turn afford food 
for some part of the animal kingdom, and finally 
for man himself. How evidently does all this 
shew the adaptation of means to an end. What 
a number of calculations must be made, what a 
number of circumstances taken into considera- 
tion, what a number of contingences provided 
against, what a number of conflicting elements 
made to harmonize and subserve to the promo- 
tion of a common purpose, which it is impossible 
could have been effected but by the intervention 
and constant guidance of an unseen Being, 
causing all things so to concur, as to bring 


188 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


about and establish what he designs! And, when 
we further consider the multiplicity of aspects 
in which the subject must be viewed, in order 
to get a clear and correct idea of :the co-opera- 
tion of so many causes, seeming often at variance 
with each other; we may further affirm, without 
fear of contradiction, that the whole must be 
the plan and the work, as the primary and only 
intelligent cause, of a Being infinite in power, 
wisdom, and goodness. 

There are two circumstances in the above 
account of the proceedings of these animals, that 
more particularly demonstrate Divine interposi- 
tion. One is the precaution to which they have 
recourse when they build a circular reef in the 
sea, that they leave an opening in this part for 
the entrance of the tide and its reflux, so that a 
constant renovation of the waters takes place, 
without which they could not proceed in their 
operations, for want of their necessary aliment. 

The other is, not only that they erect their 
buildings in the form best calculated to resist the 
action of the ocean, but also erect break-waters 
to strengthen the weakest points, and those from 
which the greatest danger is to be apprehended. 

It is clear that beings so little organized, with 
scarcely any sense or feeling, are not sufficient 
of themselves to take these precautions, they 
must be directed and impelled by some power 
acting upon them; which, foreseeing the want, 


POLYPES. 189 


provides for it; this can be no physical power, 
for that is equally without intelligence, and acts 
necessarily, but it must be the result of the will 
and original action of Supreme Intelligence, who 
either so organized the animal as to direct it to 
certain acts, when placed in certain circum- 
stances, by the agency of physical powers; or 
by his own immediate employment of these 
powers, influenced its action, as the occasion 
required. , 

I cannot conclude this history of the Polypes 
without adverting to another circumstance which 
proves in a very striking manner the interven- 
tion of the Deity: and that they could not have 
assumed the various forms under which we 
behold them, from peculiar circumstances, to 
the influence of which, in the lapse of ages they 
were exposed. When we see animals, buried in 
the bosom of the ocean, symbolize the. whole 
vegetable world from the tree to the moss and 
lichens that vegetate on its trunk, and the agaric 
or other funguses that spring up beneath it, we 
are naturally led to inquire into the reason of 
this system of representation, exhibited by beings 
that have no affinity, nor are even contrasted 
with each other by juxta-position. 

One of the general objects of the vegetable 
kingdom was to ornament the dry-land with 
what was fair to look upon, as well as with what 
was good for food. But the depths of ocean, 


190 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


though planted with various vegetables, seem 
unapt to exhibit in beauty the frail blossoms of 
the plant, which though they can bear the fluc- 
tuations of their own atmosphere, must often be 
destroyed by the greater weight and more irre- 
sistible agitations of a denser element. To 
ornament the bosom of the deep, therefore, more 
solid forms, sending forth blossoms capable of 
sustaining the action of such an element, were 
requisite: and therefore God, who gifted his 
creature man with an inquiring spirit, and with 
an appetite for knowledge of the works of 
creation, to furnish him with objects for inquiry, 
and. to gratify that appetite to the utmost, not 
only placed before his eyes upon the earth an 
innumerable host of creatures, of which he could 
gain a notion by only opening his eyes and by 
observing their beauties, and experiencing their 
utility, might praise his Maker for them ; but also 
filled the deep with inhabitants, and ornamented 
it with animals that appeared to vegetate and 
blossom like plants, that his curiosity being 
excited, he might also study the inhabitants of 
the water, and glorify his Maker for the creation 
of them also. 

But we may derive another use from the con- 
sideration of these plant-like animals, if the 
sceptic endeavours to persuade us, from the 
eradual progress, observable in natural objects 
from low to high, and from the narrow interval 


POLYPES. 191 


that often separates those in the same series from 
each other, that by the action of certain physical 
causes, consequent upon certain established laws 
and a fixed order of things, and by the stimulus 
of certain appetencies in themselves, animals 
gradually changed their forms and organization, 
and thus, by slow degrees, kept improving in all 
respects, till at last the monkey became the 
man, if the sceptic thus attempts to pervert us, 
we may turn round upon him, and ask him, how 
it was that the zoophyte, buried in the depths of 
the ocean, should imitate the plant? can a studied 
imitation every where denoting purpose and de- 
sign, a mighty structure including innumerable 
forms and parts connected with each other and 
formed evidently according to a preconceived 
plan, be the result of the operation of blind, 
unguided physical agents, acting by the appe- 
tencies of these organized beings? How indeed 
could they have any appetency to put on the 
appearance of a set of objects they never saw? 
The thing is morally impossible. In fact, when 
we survey the whole series of natural objects, 
and find throughout a system of representation, 
as well as a chain of affinities, it is as clear as 
the light of day, that an infinite Intelligence 
must first have planned, an Almighty hand then 
executed, and that infinite Love still sustains the 
whole. 


192 


CuHaptTer VI. 
Functions and Instincts. Radiaries. 


Ir happens not seldom to the student of the 
works of creation, when he is endeavouring to 
thread the labyrinth of forms in any of the three 
kingdoms of nature, and has arrived at any given 
point, to feel doubtful which course to pursue. 
The road divides, perhaps, into two branches, 
which both promise to lead him right, At the 
very outset of the animal kingdom, as we have 
seen, there was some uncertainty, whether we 
should begin by the Infusories or Polypes, and 
now the Tunicaries, or Ascidians as some call 
them, at the first blush seem more closely con- 
nected with the Polypes, than the Radiaries, 
which Lamarck has placed next to them; but 
when we consider that the organization is much 
more advanced in the former than in the latter, 
not only in the organs of digestion, but in those 
of sensation, respiration, and circulation, we feel 
satisfied that the latter, where the object is to 
ascend, should first be considered. I shall, there- 
fore, now give some account of the Radiaries. 
The animals forming this class receive this 
appellation, because they exhibit a disposition 
to form rays, both in their internal and external 


RADIARIES. 193 


parts, a disposition which begins to show itself, 
as we have seen, both in the polypes and the 
infusories' with respect to their oral appendages, 
and is found also in the tunicaries and cepha- 
lopods, or cuttle-fish. And this tendency in the 
works of the Creator to produce or imitate 
radiation, does not begin in the animal kingdom ; 
the Geologist detects it in the mineral, and 
the Botanist in the vegetable, for Actinolites, 
Pyrites, and other substances exhibit it in the 
former, and a great variety of the blossoms of 
plants in the latter. We may ascend higher, and 
say that irradiation is the beginning of all life, 
from the seed in the earth and the punctum 
saliens in the egg, to the foetus in the womb ; and 
still higher in the physical world, sound radiates, 
light radiates, heat radiates. If we further sur- 
vey the whole universe, what do we behold but 
radiating bodies dispersed in every direction. 
Suns of innumerable systems, shedding their 
rays upon their attendant planets ; and the Great 
Spiritual Sun of the universe, even God himself, 
is described in Holy Scripture as that awful 
Being, ‘“ Whose goings forth have been from of 
old, from everlasting.” 

Cuvier, and after him several other modern 
Zoologists, have considered Lamarck’s Class of 
Radiaries as forming a group or class of the 


' See above, p. 154, 166, &c. 
Waris. . O 


104 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


zoophytes; but when we recollect that they 
cannot, like the infusories and polypes, be pro- 
pagated by cuttings and offsetts, this seems to 
indicate an animal substance in which the nervous 
-molecules are less dispersed, and that some ten- 
dency to nervous centres has been established. 
In the upper classes of invertebrated animals, 
indeed, many will reproduce an organ when 
mutilated, and some even a head, but none but 
the polypes and infusories multiply themselves 
in the way above stated. It seems, therefore, 
most advisable to adhere to Lamarck’s system, 
by considering the animals in question, as form- 
ing a group by themselves, and to adopt. his 
name of Radiaries. 

These are distinguished from the class imme- 
diately preceding, the polypes, by being limited 
as to their growth to a certain standard, as to 
their form by the general appearance of radiation 
they usually present, being either divided into 
rays, as in the star-fish ; or having rays exhibited 
by their crust as in the sea-urchins; or embedded 
in their substance, forming appendages to their 
viscera, as in the sea-nettle or jelly-fish. They 
have not, like the polypes, a terminal mouth or 
orifice surrounded by food-collecting tentacles ; 
but one placed, most commonly, underneath 
their body. Their digestive organs are distinct 
and more complex. They are never fixed, and 
are to be met with only in the sea and its estu- 


RADIARIES. 195 


aries. Lamarck has divided this class into two 
orders, the Gelatines' and the Echinoderms.’ 

1. The Gelatines, which some consider as a 
distinct class under the name of Acalephes,’ are 
distinguished by a gelatinous body, and a soft 
and transparent skin; they have no retractile 
tubes issuing from the body ; no anal passage ; 
no hard parts in the mouth; and they have no 
interior cavity, their viscera being imbedded. in 
their gelatinous substance. 

Some genera? in this Order, like the fishes, 
are remarkable for an air-vessel which they 
can fill or empty, and so rise to the surface, or 
sink to the bottom at their pleasure, but it differs 
from that of the fishes in being external; others 
are distinguished by a dorsal crest, which they 
erect and use as a sail.” 

2. The Echinoderms have an opaque, leathery, 
or crustaceous skin, mostly covered with tuber- 
cles, or even moveable spines, and generally 
pierced with holes, disposed in rows; retractile 
tubes which respire the water, and are used also 
for locomotion and prehension, emerge from 
these holes ; a mouth generally situated below, 
and armed with hard parts ; and a cavity simple 
or divided. 


To begin with the Gelatines—in walking upon 


1 Radiaires molasses. % R. Echinodermes. + Acalepha. 
4 Physsophora. &c. 5 Vellela. 


196 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


the sea-shore, I have occasionally remarked an 
animal of this tribe left by the waves, not much 
larger than a nutmeg, of a spherical form, with 
several longitudinal ridges, and nearly as trans- 
parent as the purest crystal. If at all injured by 
the touch, it immediately dissolved. Such’ deli- 
cate creatures has the Creator exposed to the 
action of the oceanic waves, and they sail gaily 
on, by means of their ciliated tails, receiving 
no injury, frail as they are, except in being some- 
times cast upon the shore. These lucid gems of 
the waters,‘ which abound equally within the 
polar circle and near the equator, are eminently 
phosphoric. Bosc says, he has seen millions, 
which he could scarcely distinguish during the 
day from the water in which they lived, but 
which in warm and calm nights afforded the 
most brilliant spectacle. From their rotatory 
motion, they seemed then globes of fire which 
rolled upon the surface of the water. ‘The more 
rapid their motion, the more intense the light, 
and their tails always emitted more than their 
body. They doubtless absorb animalcules with 
the water that they inspire, and they swim by a 
motion combining rotation with contraction and 
dilatation. ‘They are found from a line to six | 
inches in diameter. Providence has destined 
them to be the food of a vast number of fishes, 
even the whale does not disdain them ; and we 
may conjecture the havoc that one of these giants 


1 Beroe. 


RADIARIES. 197 


of the ocean would make in their ranks. The 
manner in which they are propagated has not 
been ascertained, but from their infinite num- 
bers in every sea, their progeny must be incon- 
cceivable. 

| Another phosphoric animal of the present 
tribe is distinguished by a dorsal crest, resem- 
bling a vesicle full of air, and which it is said to 
use as a sail, like many of the Molluscans, to 
conduct it over the surface of the waves. It is 
connected with the body only by its middle, its 
extremities being at liberty, which enables the 
animal to steer its course in any direction. 

I shall mention one more of these gelatines, 
which falls under the observation of every one 
who is fond of sailing, or rowing, in a boat on 
_the ocean or in its estuaries. If he cast his eye 
upon the water in fair weather, he will see num- 
_bers of animals, in shape resembling an expanded 
umbrella, with some flesh-coloured organs round 
the summit or centre, carried with the rising or 
falling tide, and dancing along with a seemingly 
undulating motion: these belong to what are 
vulgarly called the jelly-fish, or sea-nettles.’ 
Though the body of the animals of this tribe is 
gelatinous and easily melts, yet its weight is 
considerable, and it is said that they can render 
themselves heavy or light at pleasure, which 
some effect by means of a natatory vesicle, but 
the means in all has not been ascertained ; unless 

Ye Late all, Freon}: 


198 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


they were thus gifted, as their specific gravity 
exceeds that of the water, they. could not raise 
themselves to the surface, where they are seen 
swimming very gracefully ; as it were, by an 
alternate systole and diastole, admitting and re- 
jecting the sea-water. Several of them,’ for it is 
not common to them all, when touched, cause a 
sensation similar to that produced by the sting of 
a nettle :* it is supposed by some that this is done 
by their tentacles, which are conjectured to have 
little suckers, as indeed is very probable, which 
adhere to the skin. This faculty, which is sup- 
posed to be the lowest degree of the electric power 
peculiar to several fishes, is found in other genera 
of this tribe ; for instance, the Jamaica sea-nettle,° 
is said to affect the hands, when touched, still 
more severely. Probably this faculty was given 
to them by Providence, either for the defence of 
their frail forms against their assailants, or to 
enable them to secure their prey, this being the 
general use of their numerous tentacles and 
other organs. Lamarck observes, that some of 
these animals are so large as to be more than a 
foot in diameter, and that some weigh as much 
as sixty pounds. Their multitudes are prodi- 
gious, and, as well as the deroe, they are said to 
form part of the food of the whale: they are 
even devoured by some of their own class. The 


1 Rhizostoma. Cuv. Cephee Rhizostome, Lam. 
2 See Appendix, note 22. 
3 Physalis pelagica. 


- RADIARIES. 199 


mode by which these creatures are produced 
in such infinite profusion is at present unknown. 
They do not reproduce mutilated parts ; therefore 
it cannot be, as in the polypes, by the division 
of their. bodies. 

When we consider the extreme fragility and 
deliquescent nature of the animals constituting 
this order of the Radiaries, that a touch almost 
disorganizes their structure, and moreover that 
they form part of the food of the most gigantic 
animals in creation, we should be led to think it 
impossible that they could withstand all these 
combined actions upon them, and that however 
numerous and prolific, they must at length be 
utterly annihilated. Nothing less, indeed, than 
Almighty Power, and Infinite Wisdom and pre- 
science, and a Goodness that is interested in the 
welfare of the meanest as well as the mightiest 
of the animals he has brought into being, could 
have preserved them from such a fate. He who 
made all things decreed their mutual relations, 
limited their numbers by certain laws, and ap- 
pointed the means by which those laws should 
be executed. We may say, that in some sense 
the whales were created for the gelatinous radia- 
ries and numberless other animals with which 
the seas frequented by these monsters abound, 
and that these gelatinous radiaries were created 
for the whales. The enormous mouth of the last- 
named animals is not armed with tusks or 
grinders, but fitted instead with vast numbers of 


200 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


oblique lamine of a softer substance, usually 
denominated whalebone, which is adapted only 
for the crushing and masticating of soft bodies ; 
therefore instead of a prey more proportioned to 
their bulk, they contentedly make their meal off 
these small but innumerable gelatines, which, by 
their number, make up for their want of magni- 
tude, and are exactly suited to the masticating 
organs of their devourer; and though the waste 
of animal life seems almost infinite, yet was it 
not for this check, so great appear to be. the 
powers of multiplication of the smaller creatures 
that swarm under the ice of the Arctic seas, there 
would be more than could be maintained con- 
sistently with the general welfare. 

The object of Providence throughout our 
globe, as has been before observed, is so to 
balance the respective numbers of the different 
kinds of animals, from the invisible monad to 
the gigantic whale, that a certain proportion may 
be preserved, with regard to their numbers, 
between them, so that each may be in sufficient 
force to accomplish the end for which it was 
created. We may observe that though the whale 
devours myriads of millions, yet the quantum of 
suffering is less than if he were enabled to make 
his meal off larger animals, and his jaws, like 
the shark’s, were fitted with laniary teeth. In 
fact the gelatines are incapable of suffering pain, 
having no digested nervous system, and when 


RADIARIES. 901 


cast upon the shore they dissolve into a fluid 
exactly resembling sea water. 


The Echinoderms' form the second order of 
the Radiaries. This name was first given by 
Bruguiéres to a class formed solely of Linné’s 
genera Echinus and Asterias, but Lamarck has 
added others to it. He has divided it into three 
sections, the Stelleridans, Echinidans, and Fis- 
tulidans; in all these the outward envelope is of 
a much harder substance than in the gelatines, 
in the first and last of these sections resembling 
leather, and in the other, consisting of the sea- 
urchins,’ it is a crust in some degree like that of 
crabs and lobsters. The animals of this Order, 
though their nervous system is obscure, have a 
high degree of muscular motion and are fitted 
with motive organs. 

To look at a star-fish one would mendbe at 
first, how it could move progressively, its rays 
seeming not at all calculated for that purpose, 
this however is wisely provided for. Those of 
one family send forth a number of tentacles, 
from a furrow in the underside of the rays into 
which their body is divided, each terminating 
in a cup-shaped sucker, which they can lengthen 
or shorten, and fix to hard bodies. These ten- 
tacles, or legs, as Cuvier calls them, are similar 


1 Echinodermata. 2 Mehinus. 


202 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


in structure in all the Echinoderms. They are 
separately retractile, their form is nearly that 
of a long ampullaceous tube, filled with a subtle 
fluid; the elongated tubular part is that which 
appears without the shell; the spherical portion 
remaining within the body: by means of the 
above fluid, as in the Polypes,’ the tube is 
darted forth, or retracted. Belon counted 5000 
- of these suckers in one species. In the sea- 
urchin star-fish*® there are twenty rays, and the 
suckers are so thick as to touch each other. 
They may probably be of use to them also as 
organs of prehension to seize their prey. Those 
of the family to which the Medusa star-fish 
belongs, move in a different way. The diverging 
rays are firm and hard, have few spines, and no 
channel with suckers; they are used by the 
animal as legs, and as they are regularly placed 
it can move in any direction that suits it. To 
go towards any particular spot, it uses the two 
rays that are nearest to it, and another that is 
most distant from it; the two first curve at their 
extremity so as to form two hooks, which being 
applied to the sand drag the body forwards, 
while the posterior is curved vertically, and per- 
forms the part of a repelling lever. The suckers, 
which in this genus issue from the sides of the 
rays, at the junction of the upper and lower 


* See above, p. 164. * Asterias echinites. 


RADIARIES. 203 


surfaces, appear short, but being retractile, they 
can be lengthened, and doubtless are used to 
seize the animals that come in their way. What 
can more strikingly indicate the contrivance and 
design of an Intelligent Being than the structure 
of these stellated animals by which they are 
enabled to move in different directions, and to 
secure their prey? 

The exterior envelope of the sea-urchins is 
formed by two membranes, the one external 
and thicker, and the other a very thin pellicle. 
Between the membranes is a thick, solid, calca- 
reous shell composed of a great number of 
polygonal pieces of a fibrous tissue, evidently 
immoveable, but not soldered during the growth 
of the animal. The shell of the common species' 
if closely examined, when denuded of its spines 
and other organs, will be found to be divided 
into twenty longitudinal portions, ten of which 
are covered with breast-shaped protuberances,’ 
varying in size, which bear the spines, and ten 
narrow ones perforated with a number of small 
orifices, from which the tentacular suckers 
emerge, which last Linné named alleys ;* I 
shall therefore call the spine-bearing ones groves. 
These last are alternately wide and narrow, and 
of a lanceolate form; the wide ones having 
six rows of the larger tubercles, and the narrow 


! Echinus edulis. L. ePeatye lil. Fie. 2. a. 
> Ambulacra. Ibid. b. 


204 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


ones only two; between each of these groves 
is an alley containing nearly thirty oblique 
double rows of orifices, eight or ten in each row. 
These alleys terminate in a point at the upper 
aperture of the shell and are truncated at the 
lower. Lach of the larger groves, if examined 
internally, will be found to consist of about 
twenty parallelograms arranged transversely and 
united by an harmonic suture, in which the edges 
are merely applied to each other without any 
inequalities. These larger groves have a central 
longitudinal ridge, at which it readily divides and 
discovers a beautifully dentated suture, resem- 
bling the dog’s tooth of a gothic arch ;* on the 
side next the alleys the dentitions of the suture 
are much less prominent and conspicuous. ‘The 
smaller groves have the same ridge and divide in 
the same way, and seem to form one piece with 
the alleys on each side of it: so that one of the 
narrow groves with its two alleys forms the 
support of one of the frames of the jaws.” These 
narrow groves consist of about sixty transverse 
pieces, and when divided of double that number: 
thus wonderfully is the house in which these 
animals reside, formed by its Divine Builder. 
The sutures of the human skull, as anatomists 
observe, admit of its more easy formation into a 
spherical box: the shell of the sea-urchin is 


' Prate IIT. Pie. 3) a. ? Tbid. Fie. 3, d. 


RADIARIES. 205 


adapted with equal skill and wisdom, the longi- 
tudinal sutures favoring the proper flexure one 
way, and the transverse ones allowing a curvature 
in a contrary direction: and besides, by this 
structure, as Mr. Gray has observed and De 
Blainville intimates, the gradual increment of 
the shell, by the deposition of fresh matter in all 
these parts, is rendered easy. 

But the spines and suckers of these animals 
are equally worthy of our notice and investiga- 
tion; the former as instruments of defence and 
locomotion, and the latter as instruments of 
locomotion, prehension, and respiration. I 
mentioned the protuberances, large and small, 
the latter usually planted round the former, 
shaped like a breast with a central elevation 
resembling the nipple, these afford a basis with 
which the spines articulate, being united to it by 
a membranous ligature or sac, so as to form a 
kind of ball-and-socket articulation, working 
upon these protuberances by means of the mem- 
brane, the spines can assume every inclination 
between vertical and horizontal, and may be 
used both as motive and defensive organs. The 
great zoological and physiological luminary of 
Greece, Aristotle, observed of these animals that 
they use their spines as legs for change of place,’ 
and Reaumur, who paid particular attention to 


1 Hist. Anim. B. 1v, ¢. 5, ad fin. 


206 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


their motions, found, that whether they moved in 
a horizontal position, as they usually do, or in a 
reversed one, or upon their sides, they princi- 
pally used their spines. As they can move in any 
direction, some are used as legs for progressive 
movement, others as points of support to prevent 
a retrogressive one. It is by means of their 
spines, also, some performing one office and some 
another, that they bury themselves in the moist 
sand on the sea shore.’ 

It is not easy to conceive by sha mechanism 
the spines are moved; the protuberances on 
which they move are fixed, and there appears to 
be no communication between the interior of the 
shell and the membranous sac by which they 
are attached to them. ‘“ It is very difficult,” 
says Cuvier, ‘ to see the fibres that move these 
spines at the will of the animal, for nothing is 
observable in their articulation but a very solid 
ligamentous substance, which it is very difficult 
to cut. I have examined, with a lens of con- 
siderable power, the shell both within» and 
without, and have been able to discover no 
pores on either side, round the base of the 
protuberances or elsewhere; so that it seems 
impossible for any muscular threads, however 
fine, to pass from the body of the animal to 
the connecting ligament by which it could move 
it and so give the spine its different inclinations. 

' Osler in Philos. Tr. 1826. 


RADIARIES. 907 


Yet as the spines are employed by the sea- 
urchin to effect its motions, there must be some 
intermediate agent, hitherto undiscovered, which 
it has at its command, by which it can act upon 
them. Dr. Carus’ remarks on the zoophytes in 
general are very applicable in the present im- 
stance—‘‘ When we find,” says he, “ that there 
can be respiration without lungs; that nutrition, 
growth, and secretion may exist without a circu- 
lation of fluids; and that generation may take 
place without distinct sexes, &c. why should 
we doubt that sensitive life may exist without 
nerves, or motion without muscular fibres?” It is 
important to be observed here, that these spines, 
however strongly attached they may appear in 
the living animal, in the dead one fall off upon 
the slightest touch, which proves that the cause 
of their adhesion is connected with its life. 

But though it is difficult to detect the muscu- 
lar fibres that move the spines of the common 
sea-urchin, I had an opportunity, when correcting 
the proof containing the preceding paragraph, 
through the kindness of my friend Mr. Owen, 
of the Hunterian Museum, well known for his 
admirable anatomical description of the animal 
of the pearly Nautilus,’ of examining a prepa- 
ration of the large spines, with their sacs, of 
the mammillary Sea-urchin,’ in which the mus- 


1 Nautilus Pompilius. 
2 Cidaris mamillatus. Puate Il. Fia, 4. 


208 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


cular fibres were distinctly visible, enveloping 
the base of the spine, when the sac was removed ; 
so that, reasoning from analogy, it may be con- 
cluded that the spines of the common species 
have a similar muscular apparatus. 

The spines vary much in their form and 
sculpture. In the species last named they 
seem to be of a horny substance, varying in 
magnitude and length, the larger ones tapering 
from the base and being blunt at the tip, they 
are beautifully fluted like the shaft of a co- 
rinthian pillar. The part enveloped by the 
membrane before mentioned, is thicker than the 
rest of the shaft, perfectly smooth, but terminates 
in a bead: they are tinted with violet, but the 
base and tip, or the pedestal and capital of the 
pillar are white. The base is concave so as to 
play upon the levigated centre of the above 
protuberance. Besides these larger spines, there 
are some bristled-shaped ones terminating in a 
subovate knob, which when unfolded appears: 
to resemble a tripetalous flower with acuminated 
petals, and which are supposed to be polypes.’ 
Those parts void of spines, called the alleys, 
distinguished by rows of orifices disposed in 
pairs, are furnished with a quite different kind 
of organ, I mean the suckers* before alluded to 
and described, by which the animal can also move 


1 Cidaris mamillatus, Puate III. Fie, 14. 
* Pedicellaria, Ibid. Fie. 12, 13. 3 Ibid. Fic, 14. 


ky 


RADIARIES. 209 


or fix itself to any substance ; it is thought also, 
as they are perforated, that it uses them to absorb 
the water for respiration. The length of these 
suckers or tentacles, for so they may be also 
called, when they are fully extended, is always 
greater than that of the spines, so that they may 
serve as so many anchors to fix the animal and 
enable it to resist the mass of waters that press 
- upon it. They are stated to be more numerous 
near the mouth than in other parts, by which 
arrangement Divine Wisdom has fitted them to 
maintain a horizontal position, which is their 
natural one. These suckers fix the animal so 
firmly to the rocks, that it is with the greatest 
difficulty, and seldom without crushing the shell, 
that they can be separated. 

The most powerful and complex organs with 
which the Creator has gifted the Echinidans 
are their jaws and teeth. Their mouth has 
adapted to it a remarkable frame-work, con- 
sisting of five pieces, corresponding with five 
segments, into which the sheil may be divided ; 
each of these pieces forms an arch,’ and the 
whole a pyramidal frame, which was compared 
by Aristotle to a lanthorn without a skin. To 
these are attached the moveable part of the 
apparatus, consisting of five jaws, each con- 
taining a long tooth,’ the teeth converging in 


1 Prate Ill. Fie. 3.d. PY bid F 167710; 11: 
VOL. I. | 


210 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


the centre close the mouth.’ Altogether this 
complex machine consists of twenty-five pieces 
moved by thirty-five muscles. The disposition 
of these pieces, Lamarck observes, and of their 
moving muscles, indicate that the parts of this 
machine can have only a common movement, 
and no one of them an individual or separate 
one; but it appears from Cuvier’s elaborate de- 
scription of this wonderful and complex machi- 
nery, if I understand him right, that the action of 
certain muscles will give to any one of the teeth 
that form the pyramids an independent motion. 
This powerful apparatus, which the animal can 
incline in different directions, indicates a kind of 
food, less easy to bruise and masticate than what 
we have seen satisfies the whale, and these or- 
gans afford a singular contrast to those by which 
that enormous monster masticates its food. 

The Echinidans, whose station appears to 
be often near the shore upon submerged ledges 
of rock, feed upon whatever animal they can 
seize. We have seen that they sometimes 
turn upon their back and sides, as well as 
move horizontally, this enables them more 
readily to secure their food, with the aid of 
the numerous suckers in the vicinity of their 
mouth, which when once they are fixed, never 
let go their hold till the animal is brought 
within the action of their powerful jaws. La- 

1 Prate II. Pie. 9: 


RADIARIES. 911 


marck thinks they do not masticate but only 
lacerate their food ; but as two faces of each of 
their pyramidal organs answer those of the two 
adjoining ones, and these faces are finely and 
transversely furrowed,’ this looks like masticating 
surfaces. Bosc, who appears to have seen them 
take their food, says it consists principally of 
young shell-fish, and small crustaceous animals ; 
as the latter are very alert in their motions, it is 
difficult for the sea-urchins to lay hold of them: 
but when once one of these animals suffers itself 
to be touched by one or two of the tentacles of 
its enemy, it is soon seized by a great number 
of others, and immediately carried towards the 
mouth, the apparatus of which developing itself, 
soon reduces ittoa pulp. —. 

Who can say that the All-wise Creator did not 
foresee all the situations into which this animal 
would be thrown, so as to provide it with every 
thing that its station and functions require? 
Considering its internal organization and the 
nature of the animal itself, and that it holds a 
middle station between the polype and the Mol- 
luscans, in the former of which the developement 
of muscle is very obscure, and in the latter 
very conspicuous, and that it cannot, like the 
former, fix itself by its base, and so support a 
polypary, or if endued with locomotive powers 
carry with it a heavy shell; these things con- 

' Pratt III. Fie. 11. 


272 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


sidered, and the nature of its food, and the force 
necessary to prepare it for digestion, it was 
evidently requisite that it should be defended by 
a crust sufficient to afford a support, and give 
effect to its powerful oral apparatus, and yet 
light enough to yield to the efforts of its motive 
powers; but as this crust, from its composition 
and nature, was liable to be crushed by a very 
slight pressure, it required further means of 
defence, and with these its Almighty and 
Beneficent Creator has amply provided it, by 
covering it, ike a hedge-hog, with mnumerable 
spines, varying in length, and capable of various 
movements. The’ long ones, when. erected, 
defend it on all sides, both from the attack of 
enemies and from the effects of accidental pres- 
sure, and we may conjecture that when the 
longer ones are couched to answer any particular 
purpose, the short ones may come into play, and 
assist in keeping any pressure from the crust. 
Perhaps, as in the hedge-hog, the ordinary 
posture of the longer spines is couchant, and 
they are only erected when the vena is in 
motion or under alarm. 
The wonderful apparatus which closes the 
mouth’ of the common or ¢ypical sea-urchin,! 
is another and _ striking proof that Creative 
Wisdom employs diversified means to attain a 
common end, the nutrition of the animal. 


1 Echinus edulis. 


RADIARIES. 213 


The mouth of this animal is under its body, 
a situation far from favourable, according to 
appearance, for the mastication or bruising of 
its food: if its jaws moved vertically, like ours 
or the mandibles of a bird; or if they moved 
horizontally like those of insects, it would have 
been attended with no small trouble to an animal 
whose mouth was underneath, but its five pyra- 
midal jaws with the points of the teeth in the 
centre, admit an action more accordant with the 
situation of the mouth. By means of its nume- 
rous muscles it can impart a variety of action 
to the mass and individual pieces that form 
its oral apparatus, so as to accommodate it to 
circumstances, a power not possessed by the 
higher animals. In those Echinidans, whose 
mouth is in the margin of the anterior part of 
the shell, no such powerful apparatus is obser- 
vable, its situation being in front of the animal, 
it is not as it were under restraint, it has less 
occasion for the aid either of tentacles in its 
vicinity, or of a powerful apparatus of masti- 
cating organs. 

_ By furnishing these animals with a set of 
peculiar organs to act the part of hands as well 
as feet, we have another instance of the care of 
Divine Providence to adapt every creature to the | 
situation and circumstances in which it is 
placed. The legs and arms of the higher ani- 


Ananchites, Sputungus, &c. 


214 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


mals would be rather an incumbrance to an 
Echinidan, as well as a deformity; it is therefore 
furnished with a set of organs better adapted to 
its peculiar station, wants, and functions, in a 
numerous set of retractile tubes! capable of the 
necessary extension, fitted at their extremity with 
acup acting as a cupping-glass or sucker, and 
enabling the animal to adhere, with irresistible 
force, to any substance to which it applies them, 
and discharging at the same time the functions 
of hands to lay hold of their prey and convey it 
to their mouth, of legs and feet to stay themselves 
upon, and of lungs to assist in their respiration. 
The workmanship also in these animal struc- 
tures is as beautiful and striking as the contri- 
vance manifested in them is wonderful. ‘Their 
protuberances, especially in the mammillary 
sea-urchin, their variously sculptured spines, 
their tentacular suckers, all by their perfect 
finish and admirable forms declare—The hand 
that made us is divine—since they exceed in all 
these respects the most elaborate human works. 
The third and last section of the Echinoderms, 
or spiny-skinned Radiaries, are the Mistulidans.* 
Amongst these we may notice the Sea-anemonies,° 
marine animals, fixing themselves to the rocks, 
but having the power of locomotion, which from 
a common base send forth what appear to be a 


"PLATE 111, PIG, oO. ° Fistulides, Lam. 
° Actinia. 


RADIARIES. 915 


number of stalks terminating each in what 
seems a many-petaled flower of various hues, 
so that those who have an opportunity of observ- 
ing them from a diving bell, may see the sub- 
merged rocks covered with beautiful blossoms of 
various colours, and vying with the parterres 
of the gayest gardens. Ellis, who was the first 
Englishman who opened his eyes to the beauties 
and singularities that adorn the garden which 
God has planted in the bosom of the ocean, has 
named many of these from flowers they seem 
to represent, as the daisy, the cereus, the pink, 
the aster, the sunflower, &c. 

These animals, at first, appear to come very 
near the polypes, especially the fresh-water ones,’ 
bearing a number of individuals, springing, as 
it were, from the same root, each sending forth 
from its mouth a number of tentacles, which are 
stated to terminate in a sucker, and by which 
also, like the other Echinoderms, they respire 
and reject the water; they also reproduce their 
tentacles when cut off. Portions of the base 
when divided are reproductive, but they do not 
separate from the parent till their tentacles are 
completely formed. Their internal organization, 
however, is much more advanced than that of 
the polypes. They have a separate alimentary 
sac or tube, surrounded by longitudinal muscles, 


' Hydra. 


216 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


and even nervous nodules or Pesiapini and also 
several ovaries. 

- In mild calm weather, when the sun shines, 
they may be seen in places, where the water is 
not very deep, expanding their many-coloured 
flowers at the surface of the waters—but upon 
the slightest indication of danger, the flowers 
suddenly disappear, the animal contracts itself 
and wears the aspect of a mass of flesh. They 
as it were, vomit up their young, or the germes 
formed in the ovaries: but they sometimes force 
their way out from other parts. When inclined 
to change their station they glide upon their 
base, or completely detaching themselves, com- 
mit themselves to the guidance of the waves. 
Reaumur observed them use their tentacles like 
the Cephalopods, for locomotion. They fix 
themselves with so much force, that they cannot 
be detached without crushing them. 

It is not wonderful that so many of the lower 
aquatic animals should have been mistaken for 
plants, when they so exactly represent their 
forms, their roots, their branches and_ twigs, 
their leaves and their flowers—but besides the 
irritability of the animal substance, which 
however is partially exhibited by some plants ; 
there is another character which seems, as a 
strong line of demarcation, to be drawn between 
them, and to which I have before adverted ;: 

' See above, p. 139. 


RADIARIES. 217 


animals take their food by a mouth at one 
extremity of the body, plants by roots diverg- 
ing from the other. The reproductive organs 
in the latter occupy the place and ornature 
of the nutritive ones in the former. The gay 
and varied colours of the blossoms, the in- 
finite diversity of their forms, the delicious scent 
so many of them exhale, all are calculated to 
draw the attention and excite the admiration of 
the beholder, while the organs of nutrition are 
usually hid in the earth. Not so in the animal 
kingdom ; the nutritive organs, or rather those 
that prepare the nutriment, are placed in the 
most eminent and conspicuous part of the body, 
in the vicinity of all the noblest avenues of the 
senses, while those of reproduction are placed in 
the most ignoble station, and are usually found 
closely united with those passages by which the 
excretions of the body pass off. In the Zunica- 
ries indeed the mouth and the anal passage’ are 
usually very near to each other, and in the 
polypes the same mouth that receives the food 
rejects the feces, and it even sometimes appears 
to happen than an animal has been swallowed, 
and after performing the ordinary revolution 
in the stomach, has been ejected again in a 
living state. 


A Poare lV. Fre. 1. 


218 


CuHAPTer VII. 
Functions and Instincts. Tunicaries. 


Tue animals we have hitherto been considering 
were all regarded by Cuvier as belonging to his 
first class, the Zoophytes, and are continued 
therein by Carus; the latter, however, allows 
that the Echinoderms are somewhat removed from 
the class by the commencement of a nervous 
system. Lamarck’s next Class, the T'unicaries,' 
which we are now to enter upon, form part of the 
headless Molluscans’? of Cuvier, and belong to 
that section of them that have no shells. My 
learned friend, Savigny, in his elaborate and 
admirable work on The Invertebrate Animals, 
who also considers them as a separate class, 
denominates them Ascidians,’ dividing them into 
two Orders, Tethydans and Thalidans.*. Many 
aleyons of Linné and others, are now referred 
to the Class we are treating of. 

The characters of the class may be thus stated : 
ANIMAL, either gelatinous or leathery, covered by 
a double tunic, or envelope. The external one, 
analogous to the shell of Molluscans, distinctly 


' Tunicata. - 2 Mollusca Acephala. 
3 Ascidie. 4 Tethydes, Thalides. 


TUNICARIES. 219 


organized, provided with two apertures, the one 
oral, for respiration and nutrition, the other anal ; 
the interior envelope, analogous to their mantle, 
provided also with two apertures adhering to 
those of the outer one. Body oblong, irregular, 
divided interiorly into many cavities, without 
ahead; gi//s occupying, entirely or in part, the 
surface of a cavity within the mantle; mouth 
placed towards the bottom of the respiratory 
cavity between the gills; alimentary tube, open 
at both ends; a ganglion, sending nerves to the 
mouth and anus. 

‘These animals are either simple or aggregate ; 
fixed or floating: the simple ones are sometimes 
sessile,’ and sometimes sit upon a footstalk.? The 
aggregate ones possess many characters in com- 
mon with the polypes, inhabiting, as it were, a 
common body, somewhat analogous to the poly- 
pary, except that it is more intimately connected 
with the animal that inhabits it: the mouth of all 
is surrounded with rays or tentacles, as is also, 
in many, the anal orifice; but in their organi- 
zation they differ very widely, exhibiting traces 
of a nervous system, and even, in some, of one 
of circulation. The fixed ones are commonly 
attached to rocks or other inorganized substances, 
but sometimes they are parasitic ; thus a species 
of botrylle*® envelopes, like a cloak, certain asci- 


1 Cynthia. 2 Clavelina. 3 Botryllus polycyclus. 


220 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


dians, and another of the Tunicaries' envelopes 
the madrepores, more or less, with a milk-white 
crust. 

The Creator, when he filled the waters of the 
great deep with that infinite variety of animals 
of which every day brings genera and species, 
before unknown, to light, willed that many of 
them should, as it were, form a body politic, con- 
sisting of many individuals, separate and distinct 
as inhabiting different cells, but still possessing 
a body in common, and many of them receiv- 
ing benefit from the systole and diastole of a 
common organ: thus, by a material union, is 
symbolized, what in terrestrial animal commu- 
nities results from numerous wills uniting to 
effect a common object. The land, as far as | 
can recollect, exhibits no instance of an aggregate 
animal; nor the ocean of one, which, like the 
beaver, lemming, bee, wasp, ant, white ant, and 
many others, forms associations to build and in- 
habit a common house, and rear a common family. 
—Probably the nature of the different mediums 
these several animals inhabit is the cause of this 
diversity ; and Providence, when it willed the 
peopling of the waters, as well as of the earth 
and air, into which the effluxes of light and heat 
from the central orb could not so penetrate and 
be diffused as to act with the same power and 


' Didemnum candidum, Sav. 


TUNICARIES. oF 


energy as upon the earth’s surface, and in its 
atmosphere, so formed them as to suit the cir- 
cumstances in which they were to be placed. 
Instead of sending the social aquatic animals 
forth by myriads to collect food and materials 
for their several buildings, he took the vegetable 
creation for the type of their general structure, 
in many cases fixed them to the rock or stone, 
united them all into one body, which, under a 
common envelope, contained often innumerable 
cells from which were sent forth by the occupant 
of each a circle of organs to collect food, from 
which, by some chemical operation, they could 
elaborate materials for the enlargement of their 
common house ; and often cause that influx and 
reflux, to compare small things with great, 
resembling the oceanic tides, and by which the 
sea-water is alternately absorbed and rejected by 
these animals: but this function, in the case of 
some of the Tunicaries, the animals with which 
we are now concerned, seems to be affected by 
a central organ or pump common to the whole 
fraternity. 

But although none of the marine associated 
animals are employed, like the terrestrial ones, in 
labours that require locomotion and the collec- 
tion, from different and often distant parts, of 
materials for the erection of their several fabrics, 
and of food to store up for the maintenance of 
the various members of their community, yet 


222 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


there are some that are instructed to form asso- 
ciations, which yet are not united by any material 
tie or common body, so as to be physically inse- 
parable. Of this description are the Salpes,' 
or biphores, as the French call them. These 
are phosphoric animals, so transparent that all 
their internal organs and all their movements, 
and even all the contents of their intestines, may 
be distinctly seen. They are gelatinous like 
the medusas and beroes, and like them dissolve 
into water. Their organization, however, proves 
them to be Tunicaries. Certain species of these 
animals, in this respect unlike every other genus 
of the animal kingdom, have the property of 
uniting themselves together, not fortuitously and 
irregularly, but from their birth and in a certain 
undeviating order. Bosc observed the reunion 
of the confederate Salpe,* which he thus describes : 
‘“‘Every individual is attached by its sides to 
two others, the mouth of which is turned to the 
same side; and by the back also to two others, 
when it is turned to the opposite side.” In this 
circumstance it presents an analogy to the 


combs of the hive bee, in which each comb. 


consists.of a double set of cells placed base to 
base, with the mouths of each set looking oppo- 
site ways, and the cells so placed that a third of 
the base of three cells occupies the whole of one 


1 Salpa. 2 Salpa confederata. 


CEnn a Ee es Se ee Ot 


TUNICARIES. 2235 


base in the opposite set... This reunion, in the 
salpes, is effected by means of eight pedicles, of 
a nature exactly similar to that of the body. It 
is perfectly regular, that is to say—all the indi- 
viduals are at the same distance and height, all 
the heads in one row are turned to the same 
side, and those of another to the opposite. These 
rows usually consist of from forty to fifty indivi- 
duals, and are carried by the waves sometimes 
in a straight, sometimes in a curved, and some- 
times ina spiral line. In the sea, during the day, 
they appear like white ribands, and during the 
night like ribands of fire, which alternately 
roll up and unroll, wholly or partially, either 
from the motion of the water, or from the will of 
the animals that compose them. They are found 
in the ocean only at a great distance from land. 
Professor Eschscholz mentions one,? interme- 
diate between the Salpes and Pyrosomes—and a 
similar one is now in the Hunterian Museum*?— 
which by means of a pedicle appeared to be at- 
tached to some common body, all of them ar- 
ranged in rows with the head turned to the same 
side ; Savigny, whose eye nothing escaped, and 
the acumen of whose intellect equalled that of 
his sight, alas now dark, further informs us, that 
the Salpes adhere to each other only by certain 
gelatinous protuberances, or as Lamarck sus- 


' Prare XI. Fic. 3. 2 Anchinia. 
3 Pirate lV. Fic. 2. 


224 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


pects, certain lateral suckers, disposed so as 
not to impede the motions of the muscles; but 
their union is only temporary. At a certain age, 
M. Peron observes, these animals separate, all 
the large individuals being solitary. The same 
traveller is of opinion that the concatenation of 
the Salpes is coeval with their birth. 

The object of Divine Providence in endowing 
these animals with an instinct so singular can 
only be conjectured. They are of so very frail a 
nature, that perhaps when first produced, the 
fluctuations of the mass of waters, to the surface 
of which they appear to rise, might be sufficient 
to destroy them, or to carry them to the shore, 
where they would inevitably perish ; but by being 
united in bands, they may be better able to resist 
their force, and perhaps the more vivid light 
they thus produce, may be designed for defence,’ 
or to answer some other important purpose. When 
they have attained maturity of size and strength 
they may be better able to direct their course 
and avoid these injuries. The young of terres- 
trial animals generally are associated, under the 
guidance and protection indeed of the mother, 
till they.are of age to take care of themselves. 
The object of Providence in both cases is the 
same, though the modes of its accomplishment 
vary according to the situation and circumstances 


' See above, p 178. 


TUNICARIES. 995 


of individuals. When we see such paternal 
care manifested for the welfare and main- 
tenance in existence, of beings so frail, that 
a mere touch would dissipate them, we cannot 
but assent to the observation of the Psalmist, 
that “‘ His tender mercies are over all his works,” 
the least and most insignificant as well as 
those that appear to occupy the most elevated 
place in the animal kingdom: and we may feel 
a comfortable assurance, built on this ground, 
that the eye which regards even these seemingly 
insignificant creatures, will, if we cast not off our 
confidence, never overlook ws, or be indifferent 
to our welfare. 


The last and highest tribe, belonging to the 
present class, are those which are never united 
to each other, but are solitary in all stages of 
their existence. These, as well as the preceding 
ones, make a near approach to the real Mollus- 
cans, at least their external and internal envelope 
bears considerable analogy with that of bivalve 
shells, as Lamarck acknowledges, though they 
differ in having a distinct organization, the shells 
of bivalves having neither apparent vessels nor 
fluids, while, in these Tunicaries, the covering, 
both external and internal, in some species, 
exhibits vascular ramifications very conspi- 
cuously. 

Though several of the animals belonging to 

VOL. I. Q 


226 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


the class of Tunicaries are interesting on account 
of their singularity and beauty, I shall only select 
two, one from the aggregated, and one from those 
that are simple, for description and further re- 
marks, and then proceed to the great class of 
Molluscans. Who would think, asks Lamarck, 
that the Pyrosome, first observed by Peron and 
Le Sueur, was an assemblage of little aggregate 
animals ; any one that looked at this animal, or 
at Savigny’s figure of it, would mistake it for 
a simple polype, with a number of leaf-like ‘ap- 
pendages growing from its skin: but a closer 
examination would give him a very different 
idea, and he would discover, with wonder, that it 
was a mass filled with animals, united by their 
base, exceeding the number of the above append- 
ages. The common body that contains these 
creatures resembles a hollow cylinder closed at 
its upper extremity and open at the lower; this 
body or mass is gelatinous and transparent, a 
number of tubercles of a firmer substance than 
the tube, but at the same time transparent, po-- 
lished, and shining, differing in size, cover the sur- 
face; some being very short, and others longer, 
and the longer ones terminated by a lance-shaped 
leaflet. At the summit of each tubercle is a cir- 
cular aperture, without tentacles, opposite to which 
is another circular orifice which is toothed. _ 
‘The pyrosomes are the largest of the phosphoric 
' Anim. sans. Vertebr. Pu, 1V. Fie. 7. 


TU NICARIES. 297 


animals, the Atlantic species’ being about five 
inches long, and the Mediterranean’ sometimes 
attaining to the length of fourteen. Their power 
of emitting light is so great that in the night 
they cause the sea to appear on fire. Nothing 
can exceed the dazzling light and _ brilliant 
colours that these floating bodies exhibit—co- 
lours varying in a way truly admirable, passing 
rapidly every instant, from a dazzling red to 
saffron, to orange, to green, and azure, and thus 
reflecting every ray into which the prism divides 
the light, or which is exhibited by the heavenly 
bow. In the water their position is generally 
horizontal, and their locomotion very simple: 
they float, as they are carried by the waves or 
the currents; like the salpes, they can however 
contract and restore themselves individually, and 
have also a very slight general movement which 
causes the water to enter their common cavity, 
visit their gills for respiration, and convey to 
them the substances which constitute their food. 
M. Le Sueur observed that when the central ca- 
vity of the common tube was filled with water, it 
was immediately spirted forth in little jets from all 
the extremities of the tubercles with which the 
surface was covered, from whence it appears that 
the external aperture of the individual animal 
is really the anal aperture, and the opposite 
or internal one the mouth, which thus received 
' P. atlanticum. ? P. giganteum. PL. IV. Fre. 3. 


228 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


£ 


the water and the food it conveyed from the 
common tube, and rejected it by the orifice of 
the tubercles. 

The internal organization of the little tenants 
of the common tube is given with considerable 
detail by Savigny,' the general opening at the 
summit, or truncated end of the tube, has an 
annular diaphragm, from which it appears that 
they are arranged in circles round it, so that 
in this respect they form rays; in shape they 
somewhat resemble a florence-flask, and have 
alternately a long and short neck. The cavity 
below the neck is filled by the gills and various 
intestines, which it would be difficult to describe 
intelligibly, in a popular manner. There seems 
some analogy in these floating hives of luminous 
animals, both as to size and motion, with the 
sea-pens.” | | 

No species of the genus appears to have been 
met with in our seas, we may therefore conjec- 
ture that a warmer climate is essential to them. 
Their general functions beyond that of illumi- 
nating the great theatre in which their Creator 
has placed them, and probably affording food to 
some of the inhabitants of the seas in which 
they are found, have not yet been ascertained. 
Neither of the orifices of these little animals is 
furnished with tentacles, but their branchial 
orifice is toothed, in this they appear to differ 


' Ubi. supr. pl. xxii. xxui, * See above, p. 178. 


TUNICARIES. 229 


from the great majority of aggregate animals. 
We may conjecture that when the water passes 
into the tube the diaphragm is either dropped 
or elevated to admit it, and then resuming a 
horizontal position closes the orifice so that the 
water is forced into the interior aperture of the 
individual animals and passes out, as above 
described, by the exterior one. Food-collecting 
tentacles, therefore, would in this case be unne- 
cessary, as their food would enter their mouths 
with the water. Providence thus taking care to 
compensate by this contrivance for the want of 
the ordinary instruments. 

Some of the Tunicaries are stated to have 
recourse to a singular mode of defence. When 
seized by the hand, contracting themselves 
forcibly, they ejaculate the water contained in 
their cavities, so as often suddenly to inundate 
the face of the fisherman, who in the astonish- 
ment of the moment suffers the animal to escape. 
If this be a correct statement it proves that these 
animals are not altogether without some degree 
of intelligence, they know when they are assailed 
and how to repel the assailant. 

Having given some account of the most in- 
teresting of the aggregate Tunicaries, | am next 
to notice the simple ones.—In these the two 
orifices by which the sea water is received and 
expelled are not at opposite extremities, but 
usually approximated, one being higher than 


230 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


the other and furnished with tentacular filaments. 
The animals are fixed to rocks, shells, and some- 
times to sea-weeds, and are either sessile, or 
elevated on a footstalk: the sessile ones present 
a considerable analogy with the puff-balls, and 
the others with different funguses, as Clavaria, 
&e. They seem, especially Boltenia, which is 
covered with short stiff bristles, to approach the 
Echinidans. Nothing more is known of these 
animals, than that, like the others, they alter- 
nately absorb and expel the sea water. The 
Cynthia Momus’ is remarkable for its changes 
of colour, being sometimes white, sometimes 
orange, and sometimes of a flesh-colour. As all 
this tribe are fixed, thew history furnishes no 
other interesting traits. 

Nothing is more striking than the ee 
diversified forms into which Creative Power has 
moulded the little frail animals, in this as well 
as the preceding classes, that are destined to 
inhabit, and numbers of them to illuminate, the 
wide expanse of waters occupying so large a 
portion of the globe we inhabit. When we 
survey, with curious and delighted eyes, the 
varied tribes that cover the soils of every aspect 
and elevation of that part of it that emerges from 
the fluctuating surface of the great deep, and 
which, instead of deriving their nutriment and 
means of life and breath from the waters, saline 


1 PraTeE IV. Fie. I. 


TUNICARIES. 251 


or fresh, live, and breathe, and are fed, by 
principles and elements communicated, either 
mediately or immediately, from the atmospheric 
ocean, an expanse that envelopes uninterruptedly 
the whole of our globe, and which itself is fed 
and renovated by the constant effluxes of the 
ereat centre of irradiation; which also in its 
turn, as well as all the other orbs that burn and 
are radiant, and those that revolve around them 
and reflect their light, receive their all from 
Him, that GREAT AND INEFFABLE BEING, who 
gives to all and receives from none. But I lose 
myself, in infinite amazement; I shrink into 
very nothingness, when I reflect that such a 
miserable worm as I am, so fallen and corrupted, 
should presume to lift its thought so high, and 
lose itself in the depths of the unfathomable 
ocean of Deity. He has, however, commanded 
us to seek him, and assured us we shall find 
him if we seek him humbly and sincerely— 
he hath set before us his works and his word, 
in both of which he has revealed himself to 
us: and if our great object be to glorify him 
rather than ourselves, we shall collect the 
rrutTH from each, and shall find that they 
deliver, though each in a different language 
and style, the same mysteries; for they are the 
work and the word of the same Almighty Author, 
and must, therefore, if rightly interpreted, deliver 
the same truths, since they can no more con- 


poe pe. FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


tradict each other than he can contradict him- 
self. 

But let me endeavour to emerge from this 
ocean in which I seem to have lost myself, and, 
recovering my station upon ¢erra firma, direct 
the attention of the reader to the lovely tribes 
that adorn every part and portion of this our 
destined but brief abode, I mean to the vegetable 
kingdom ; we see how they cover earth, that not 
a spot can be found, of which in time they do 
not possess themselves, and that the more we 
extend our inquiries the more numerous are the 
individual species with which we become ac- 
quainted. This being the case upon earth, 
reasoning from analogy, we may conclude that 
something similar takes place in the ocean ; that 
could our discoveries be. extended under the sea 
as easily as they are upon land; could we traverse 
the bed and waters of the great deep with the 
same facility that we do the surface of the earth, 
we should find the numbers of vegetables that 
respire, in some sense, the air, fall short perhaps 
of those plant-like animals that respire the water. 
And could we examine the individual species of 
which this infinite host consists, and compare 
their organizations, we should find as great a 
difference in the instruments and organs by 
which their life is supported and their kind con- 
tinued, as in the animals themselves; and yet 
in all this diversity should trace a harmony and 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 230 


concatenation that would evidently prove the 
Wisdom that contrived, the Power that formed, 
and the Goodness that gave a living principle 
and breath of life to all these creatures, were 
each of them the attributes of an INFINITE BEING. 


Cuarpter VILLI. 
Functions and Instincts. Bivalve Molluscans. 


HIrHERTO in our progress from the lowest ani- 
mals upwards, the mind has been perpetually 
submerged; not only every group, but every 
individual that we have had occasion to consider, 
has been an inhabitant of the waters, and to the 
great body of which a fluid medium is as neces- 
sary to life and action as an aérial one is to a 
land animal, but now we shall be permitted to 
emerge occasionally, for although the largest 
proportion of the animals forming the great class 
we are now to advert to, the Molluscans, are also 
aquatic, yet still a very considerable number of 
them are terrestrial, as a stroll abroad will soon 
convince us, when after a shower we find we can 
scarcely set a step without crushing a snail or a 
slug. 


234 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


The term Molluscan’ was employed by Linné 
to designate his second class of worms,’ which 
excluded all the shell-fish, and amongst real 
Molluscans included both Radiaries, Tunicaries, 
and Worms; it literally signifies a nut or walnut, 
and therefore seems more properly applied to 
shell-fish, than to animals which are defined as 
simple and naked. As now understood, it still 
comprehends a very wide range of animal forms, 
and it seems difficult to describe them by any 
character common to them all. Their Almighty 
Author, in the progress of his work of creation, 
linked form to form in various ways ; he not only 
made an animal of a lower grade a stepping- 
stone towards one of a higher, and which formed 
a part of the ascent to man, the highest of all ; but 
as the mighty work proceeded, he threw out on 
each side collateral forms that ascend by a 
different route, or begin one to a different order 
of beings. And this circumstance it is that has 
opened the door for so many systems and that 
diversity of sentiment with respect to the 
grouping of animals, which we meet with in the 
writings of the most eminent naturalists. Some 
proceed by one path and some by another, 
though the object of all is the same, unless some 
bias from a favourite hypothesis interferes and 
diverts them from a right judgment. 

The organization of the animals of the Class 


1 Mollusca. 2 Vermes. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 230 


we have just left, as we have seen, appears of a 
higher character than that of any of the preceding 
ones; traces of a heart appear; a nervous ganglion 
is detected between the mouth and anus, sending 
nerves to each ; a regular respiratory system by 
means of gills becomes evident; but still the 
animal is furnished with no head, no eyes, and in 
numerous cases has no separate existence, but 
forms a branch of the general body—thus resem- 
bling a plant—from which it cannot dissociate 
itself and become an independent individual. 
Indeed when we enter the Class of Molluscans, 
we find that the nearest affinities of the Tuni- 
caries have likewise no head, and this circum- 
stance appears to have induced Lamarck not 
only to separate them from the class as arranged 
by Cuvier, but also his whole family of headless 
Molluscans, of which he forms his two Classes of 
Cirripedes* and Conchifers.* The absence of a 
head from the animals of the bivalve and 
multivalve shells, is certainly a circumstance 
which, at the first blush, appears to justify 
their separation classically from the other Mol- 
luscans, but when we compare other characters, 
we shall find many that are common to both, 
particularly their nervous system, which is 
the same both in the Conchifers and Mollus- 
cans of Lamarck ; for neither of these exhibit 


* Mollusca acephala. 2 Cirripeda. 
3 Conchifera. 


236 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


a medullary ganglionic chord, but only dispersed 
ganglions which send forth the requisite 
nerves; both have a double or bilobed mantle, 
gills on each side, and a heart and circulation. 
The Cirripedes indeed seem to be of a higher 
grade, at least their nervous system is more 
perfect—since they have a longitudinal spinal 
marrow with ganglions, a mouth furnished with 
toothed jaws disposed by pairs, and jointed 
tendril-like organs about the mouth—and ap- 
proaches near to that of the Annulose animals,’ 
the Condylopes of Latreille. These, therefore, 
may be considered as properly entitled to the 
denomination of a Class; but should not be 
placed at a distance from the Crustaceans, to 
which Lamarck, with reason, thinks they make 
a near approach, as they are by Cuvier and 
Carus. In fact, they seem to have little to do 
with the bivalve Molluscans, except in being 
defended by more than one shell, and re 
no head. 

I shall now mention the most prominent cha- 
racters of those shell-fish, that I regard as strictly 
entitled to the denomination of Molluscans. 

ANIMAL soft, without articulations. Mantle 
bilobed, enveloping more or less the animal. 
Gills varying. A heart and circulation. No me- 
dullary chord with ganglions, but a few scattered 
ganglions from which issue nerves to various 


1 Annulosa. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 237 


parts. Body commonly defended by a calcareous 
shell, to which it adheres only by one or two 
points, but in some instances it is externally 
naked, and has an internal bone. 

The Molluscans may be divided into several 
families, and those of Cuvier are mostly natural, 
but as my plan has been to ascend from the 
lowest grade of animals towards the highest, I 
shall reverse this order, and begin my observa- 
tions with the last of his families, or more pro- 
perly speaking Orders, excluding for the present 
the Cirripedes of Lamarck, or most of the multi- 
valves of Linné, as leading off laterally towards 
the Crustaceans. 

His first order he calls Acephales, or headless 
Molluscans, it includes all the bivalve shells of 
Linneé, with the addition of the Pholads or 
stone-borers.'. Lamarck has divided it into two 
sections, which, regarding it as a Class, are with 
him Orders; the first is Bimuscular,’ having two 
attaching muscles, and ¢éwo muscular impres- 
sions; and the second is Unimuscular,’ having 
only one such muscle with one impression. With 
regard to their habits and economy, the bivalve 
Molluscans may also be divided into éwo sec- 
tions, the first of which may consist of those 
that inclose themselves either in a cell or burrow, 
or live in the mud, &c.; and the second of those 


1 Pholas. 2 Conchiferes dimyaires. 
3 C. monomyaires. 


238 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


that fix themselves to the rocks, stones, and other 
substances, by means of a Byssus, which they 
have the faculty of spinning from their foot or 
other part, or by a tendinous ligament which they 
protrude through an orifice in their shell. 


The general habit of the first family, including 
a vast variety of forms, seems to be that of boring 
and burrowing, many piercing wood, and even 
rock, and others burrowing in the sand, some- 
times to a great depth. Thus they are instructed 
by their instinct to form a convenient cell or 
other habitation, either constantly submerged, 
or only when the tide visits them, in which 
they are enabled to procure their destined food, 
of what nature does not appear to have been 
clearly ascertained, although probably animal- 
cules, introduced when they inspire the water for 
respiration, may form a principal portion of 
it, as the majority having no teeth for masti- 
cation, require a kind of nutriment for which 
it is not necessary: comparing this tribe of 
aquatic animals with those of the antecedent 
classes, we see the same object effected by 
different means. The sheathed polype' builds 
a house of matter elaborated in its own stomach, 
while the ship-borer? pierces wood, and the 
stone-borer the rocks, and the razor-shell?® 
burrows deep in the sand with the same view ; 

1 See above, p. 166, n. 2. 2 Teredo. 3 Solen. 


BIVALVE MCLLUSCANS. 239 


and thus each is instructed by its Omniscient 
Creator, and fitted by its structure and organi- 
zation, to accomplish the intended purpose, but 
by different means and instruments. 

While each of these creatures has a particular 
and individual end in view, in its several pro- 
ceedings, its own accommodation and appropriate 
nutriment and defence; the Creator, who has 
gifted them accordingly, makes use of them as 
instruments, which by their combined agency, 
though each, as it were, by a different pro- 
cess, accomplish, usually by slow degrees, His 
general purposes. This object, in the present 
instance, as well as in numerous others, seems 
to be to remove obstacles that stand in the way, 
and prevent certain changes willed by Provi- 
dence, in the sea-line of any country, from 
taking place. Rocks may be regarded as so 
many munitions of a coast, which prevent the 
encroachment of the ocean, but nothing can 
more effectually prepare the way for the removal 
of this safeguard, than its being, as it were, 
honey-combed by numberless stone-borers, that 
make it their habitation, thus it must be gra- 
dually rendered weaker ; till it is no longer able 
to resist the impetus of the waves; the process 
is very slow, but it is sure; and it is worthy 
of remark, by what a seemingly weak organ 
most of these animals are enabled to effect 
this purpose, a fleshy foot, strengthened by no 


240 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


internal bone or gristle, but upon which they 
can turn as upon a pivot, and so in due time 
effect their destined purpose. 

I shall now proceed to furnish some examples 
of the manner in which this is effected: and give 
an account of some of each of these tribes, 
beginning with those, and they are numerous, 
that make the burrows in the sand to a consider- 
able depth, so that it presents a less solid mass 
to the action of the waves. 

I shall first call the reader’s attention to the 
proceeding of one usually denominated the razor- 
shell, from the supposed resemblance of some of 
the species to that instrument; in substance and 
colour they are often like the human nail, and as 
they, as well as the stone-borers, are stated to 
emit a phosphoric light, and also are eaten, it 
seems to me most probable that they are the 
animals and not the pholad as is usually sup- 
posed, which the Roman naturalist describes 
under the name Dactyle." These animals burrow 
in the sand, sometimes to the depth of two or 
three feet, and never quit the burrow unless by 
force. Poli says the collectors of them are 
accustomed to pour oil upon the water, which 
renders it quite transparent so that they can dis- 
cern the razor-fish in its burrow by its tubes 
which are exerted. So powerful are its strug- 
gles, that, though they wind linen about their 

' See Appendix, note 23. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 241 


feet, they are often severely wounded by the 
sharp edges of their shells. The animal descends 
to the bottom of its burrow when the tide retires, 
and there remains till its return when it rises 
again. In order to take it, the fishermen are 
accustomed to cast into its retreat—which always 
remains open for respiration, and which is indi- 
cated by a little jet of water—a very little salt, 
this probably deceives the razor-fish and causes 
it to ascend, thinking the tide returned. They 
bury themselves with wonderful celerity by the 
rapid action of their foot, and mount again by 
the combined action of that part and their smooth 
valves. The former is cylindrical and ends in a 
spherical summit of larger diameter than the 
rest of the foot.’ 

The common cockle® is also a borer. Mr. 
Osler, in a very interesting paper in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions for 1826, has described 
the way in which they bury themselves. The 
foot of the cockle, he observes, is very strong 
and stiff, and is the instrument by which they 
principally perform this operation; but to look 
at it when unemployed, we cannot readily con- 
ceive how it can make a'burrow capacious 
enough for so large a shell. Its point, indeed, 
is solid, and a viscid secretion from its surface 
‘enables it to fix itself more firmly in the sand, 
but this alone is not sufficient to accomplish this 

‘wraiere Vv. Ric. ‘1. 2 Cardium edule. 


VOL. I. R 


242 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


purpose, it is therefore further gifted with the 
power of distending it to a size, nearly equal- 
ling that of its shell—but how is this effected? 
It has a tube, opening just within the mouth, 
which conveys to the foot the water by which 
the animal is enabled to distend it—thus the size 
of the boring auger becomes so nearly equal to 
that of the shells, that the solid point or bit first 
entering the sand, in time, by rotatory motions 
often repeated, works a burrow that receives 
the shell, and the animal is buried with only 
the extremity of its siphon emerging. How ad- 
mirable is this contrivance of Divine Wisdom 
to enable it to bury its shell, which it could 
scarcely otherwise accomplish. 

We easily comprehend the use of terrestrial 
burrowing animals, by this habit they not only 
construct a habitation for themselves, but by the 
mould they throw out they help to fertilize and 
renew the soil; but with regard to the aquatic 
burrowers on the barren sands, which the tides 
submerge, we only see one end answered, the 
welfare of the individual who forms them: but 
they likewise doubtless answer some more 
general purpose connected with a plan of Provi- 
dence which daily advances towards its comple- 
tion, though we do not clearly comprehend what 
that end is. I was once conversing with a 
fisherman of a village on the N. E. coast of 
Norfolk on the subject of his trade, when 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 945 


amongst other matters he observed, that from 
some alteration in the sands of that coast the 
number of small shell fish had considerably 
diminished of late years, which being the prin- 
cipal food of soles and other flat fish had occa- 
sioned a great diminution of them also. An 
over abundance of burrowing bivalves may 
undermine the beach to that degree, that the 
sea in high tides and stormy weather may make 
such a breach upon it as may carry away, or 
bury too deep, a large proportion of these shell 
fish, which would cause the fishes to leave the 
coast for one better provided with food for them. 

No animal has been more celebrated for the 
mischief it has occasioned as a timber-borer than 
that of which I shall next give some account. 
I am speaking of the ship-worm.’ Though the 
animal of some of the land-shells, as the snails,’ do 
him some injury in his garden, man seldom suffers 
very materially from their ravages, but the ship- 
worm, where it gets head, does him incalculable 
injury : destroying piles as far as they are under 
the water and every thing constructed of timber 
that is placed within their reach, to which they 
are as injurious as the boring wood-louse ;° 
they even attack the stoutest vessels, and render 
them unfit for service. Their object however is 
not to devour the timber, but with the same view 
that the pholads bore into the rock, to make 


' Teredo navalis. 2 Helix. 3 Limnoria terebrans. 


244 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


for themselves a cell in which they may be safe 
from their enemies; their food is probably con- 
veyed to them in the sea water. These animals 
cannot exist in fresh water, they pierce the wood 
by means of what Carus calls boring shells 
moved by a double-bellied muscle. The valves of 
the shells of this animal are emarginate or bilobed, 
both lobes are beautifully scored at the margin, 
but in different directions, the furrows in one 
being much the finest and receiving those of the 
other. The mode in which these animals bore 
has not been ascertained, probably it is by the 
rotation of their valves. Sir E. Home describes ~ 
them as protruding a kind of proboscis which 
has a vermicular motion, and which he supposes 
to act as a centre-bit while the creature is boring. 
The shells, by means of their ridges, probably 
act, like those of the pholads, as rasps. They 
bore in the direction of the grain of the timber, 
deviating only to avoid the track of others. 
Various are the animals whose function it is 
to attack substances from which the vital © 
principle is departed, nor are those, we see in 
the foregoing instance, which are submerged, 
always exempted from this law. Fortunately 
the aquatic animals, that prey upon timber, fall 
very far short of the terrestrial ones in their 
number and in the amount of the damage they 
occasion, and their aversion to fresh water is the 
safeguard of our bridges and other buildings 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 945 


that are erected upon piles—did an animal, with 
the boring powers of the ship-worm, enter our 
rivers and abound there, we should see the mag- 
nificent bridges that so much adorn our metro- 
polis and are so indispensable to its inhabitants, 
gradually go to ruin—the vast stones with which 
they are built might become the habitation of 
pholads, and other rock-borers, and the com- 
munication between the two sides of the river 
greatly interrupted. But a merciful Providence 
has so limited the instincts of the different 
animals it has created, that they cannot overstep 
a certain boundary, nor extend their ravages 
beyond the territory assigned to them. The law 
laid down to the ship-worm is to hasten the 
decay of timber, that is out of its place, and 
may be denominated an unsightly encroachment 
upon the ocean—this is the law they must obey, 
and they make no distinction, whether it is dis- 
owned by all, or an important and valuable part 
of man’s property. Their individual object, as 
has been stated above, is their own benefit, and 
they neither know that they obey a law of God, 
or injure man, but the Almighty by an irresistible 
agency impels them to it, and they fulfil the 
purposes of his Providence, at the same time that 
they provide for their own welfare. 

The history of none of the boring bivalves is 
more interesting than that of the Pholads, or 
stone-borers. These animals are defended by two 


246 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


very fragile shells strengthened indeed by sup- 
plementary pieces, and rough like a file, inhabited 
by a very soft animal which appears to be fur- 
nished with no organs adapted to boring so hard 
a substance as a rock. When the young are 
disclosed from the egg, being cast upon the rock 
in which their mother resides, they bore a hole 
in it which they enlarge daily, and which they 
never leave, unless compelled by force. This 
hole always communicates with the water, and is — 
the orifice through which the animal exerts its 
double siphons ; one of these siphons is its mouth 
and the other its anal orifice. Reaumur made 


some observations upon their mode of boring, he — 


says, that it is by the rotation of the two valves 
of their shell which form a rasp, and continually 
wear away the rock which surrounds them. 
The surface of the valves of the shell is ridged 
longitudinally and transversely, and rough with 
asperities at the intersections of the ridges which 
seems to fit it for such an office, but still it is 
usually so tender and friable, that one would not 
expect it could act upon a rock, nor could it be 
by this agency that they first make an entry 
when young, or bore through shells, madrepores, 
and wood as they are said to do. They are 
stated principally to select calcareous rocks and 
sometimes hardened clay, which seem better 
adapted to the nature of their shells. Poli says 
they use their foot as an auger in excavating 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 217 


their crypts, the shell revolving upon it as upon 
an axis. 

Mr. Osler, in the memoir before alluded to, 
states that the pholads can be observed to 
burrow only in the young state: and that they 
are found completely buried when so minute as 
to be almost invisible. The guiding hand of 
Providence excites them from their very birth 
to fix themselves by their pointed foot, to erect 
their shells, and giving them a partial rotatory 
motion which employs the valves alternately, 
thus to enlarge their habitation, and this almost 
constantly, since the rapidity of their growth, for 
the first few weeks, compels them to act perse- 
veringly in effecting that object, for the raspings 
of its crypt would clog the animal if they were 
left in it. When the siphon is distended with 
water, the animal, closing the orifices of its tubes, 
suddenly retracts them: thus a jet of water is 
produced which is prolonged by the gradual 
shutting of the valves, and clears the shell and 
the crypt. 

There is another family of bivalves which 
bores the rocks, the species of which are in- 
structed by their Maker, to accomplish their 
object by a very different process. I allude to 
Lamarck’s family of Stone-eaters.' This family 
contains only two genera, removed from Venus, 


' Les Lithophages. 


248 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


which he denominates Sazicave,’ and Petrt- 
cole,” the habits of which appear to be the same. 
M. Fleurian-de-Bellevue has described the pro- 
ceedings of a species found in great numbers in 
submarine calcareous rocks near Rochelle. It 
lives like the pholads in crypts within the rock, 
but as the crypt is not circular, it is clear 
it cannot be produced by a revolution of the 
animal upon its foot; M. de Bellevue, therefore, 
concluded that it dissolved the stone by means 
of a phosphoric acid transuding from its body. 
Some have thought, that did the animal secrete 
such an acid, it must have destroyed its shell, 
but since the rock round the crypt is found to — 
be differently coloured from the rest, for a little 
thickness, and the animal does not frequent the 
argillaceous, basaltic, and other rocks in the 
vicinity, but only the calcareous ones, M. Bel- 
levue’s opinion is rendered not improbable. It 
is surely very possible that the acid may be so 
mixed and tempered as to act upon the rock 
and not upon the shell. Mr. Osler, in the 
memoir lately quoted, brings forward some very 
powerful additional arguments which confirm 
| this opinion. The species which he observed 
was the rugose saxicave.’ This animal fixes 
itself by a byssus from the foot, and therefore 
cannot perform a rotatory motion, and it appears 


' Saxicava. * Petricola 3 Saxicuva rugosa. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 249 


to have no mechanical means of excavating its 
crypt—it can act solely upon the calcareous part 
of the rocks it perforates—for these and other 
reasons, Mr. Osler is of the same opinion with 
M. de Bellevue. 

Poli has described a stone-boring bivalve, 
belonging to the muscle genus, which perforates 
marble, each inhabiting a separate crypt, ge- 
nerally as large as the shell, and which he thinks 
they enlarge by friction and rotatory motion. 
The pillars of the temple of Serapis at Puteoli 
were perforated by these animals at the height 
of forty-six feet above the sea, whence it is pro- 
bable they were so perforated before they were | 
carried. there. 

When we compare the proceedings of these 
four kinds of boring or burrowing Molluscans, 
above described, with their forms, we shall find 
in them a particular adaptation of means to an 
end. In the ship-worm, whose province is to 
penetrate into submerged timber and there to 
take its abode, we find the anterior part of the 
body armed with two shelly valves, moved by 
strong muscles, which cut and rasp the sub- 
stance upon which they act, so that it probably 
begins its labour as soon as it is born, intro- 
ducing its narrow body, defended at the other 
extremity also by shell, into the timber softened 


' Poli, ii. 215. 


250 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


by the water, and slowly increasing its crypt 
as its dimensions increase—in this case the most 
powerful action seems to be at the anterior end, 
though assisted, it may be, by some motion at 
the posterior. This kind of action appears best 
suited to its slender body. 

Let us next examine the pholads, all the 
genuine ones are rough like a rasp, strengthened 
near the base with accessory valves and a thick 
interior margin, indicating that here is the great 
action, and here it is that the foot revolves, thus 
maintaining a rotatory motion, causing the valves 
to act as files upon the walls of its crypt and thus 
to enlarge it when necessary; perhaps this 
action may also be connected with its respiration 
and nutriment; it is probably very slow and 
gradual, so as not to injure the frail apex of 
its shells. | 

In another rock-borer, of a form not suited to 
effect an excavation by a rotatory motion, the 
deficiency, we see, is compensated for, and it 
effects its purpose by employing chemical agency 
when its crypt becomes too small for it. 

The sand-boring razor-shell above described, 
would be impeded by 2 rough shell, in excavating 


its deep burrow, its valves therefore are smooth 


ke ee Se 


and polished, and its body very narrow, and A 


consequently meets with less resistance in its 
motion either upwards or downwards—while the 
cockles which do not bore to a great depth are 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 251 


differently constructed and proceed in a different 
manner. 


We next come to those bivalves which fix 
themselves to the rocks, or in other secure 
stations, by means of a Byssus, which is usually 
formed of brown silken threads, intertwined like 
wool, spun from the foot of the animal, formed 
from a slimy fluid furnished by a gland situated 
under its base. Poli says, with respect to the 
byssus of muscles, which have all of them this 
faculty, that it is of the same structure with hair, 
and that, at the extremities, it is furnished with 
little cups or suckers, by which it adheres so 
firmly, that the muscles can only be drawn from 
the water in great bunches. Some species are 
entirely enveloped with this substance. These 
provisions evidently indicate design and Creative 
Wisdom. 

The giant Clamp-shells' belonging to the bi- 
muscular section, sometimes four feet in length 
and weighing more than five hundred pounds, 
suspend their vast bulk by means of a strong 
byssus: below the hinge is a large opening, 
through which the animal passes a bundle of 
tendinous fibres, by which it is suspended to the 
rocks however large and weighty its shells, and 
thus it is enabled to fix itself securely, wherever 
its instinct directs it. 


' Tridacne Gigas. 


252 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


These animals are said to be taken by means 
of a long pole, which is introduced between the 
valves of their shells when open; they imme- 
diately close them, and will not quit their hold, 


till they are landed. They are a principal arti- . 


cle of food in the Moluccas, especially the young 
ones, which may be kept alive a long time. 

The wing-shell' belonging to the unimuscular 
section, has long been celebrated, on more than 
one account, from a very early period. They 
are called wing-shells, or fin-shells, because they 
are shaped somewhat like a wing or fin, their 
Latin name (Pinna) is supposed to have been 
given them because of their resemblance to the 
plumes which the Roman soldiers wore in their 
helmets. They are sometimes very large, some 
are said to measure three feet in length: their 
substance differs from that of most shells, being 
of a fibrous structure, and they appear to be 
formed of transverse imbricated lamine, they 
are also semi-transparent and very thin. Their 
byssus has been long celebrated, for it is men- 
tioned by Aristotle.? Its Creator has provided 
this animal, as we learn from Poli, with a pair 
of bifid muscles with which it spins this sub- 
stance, which emerges from the shell opposite 


the hinge; like the thread of the muscle it z 


terminates in a sucker, and with it the animal 


' Pinna. * See Appendix, note 24. 


eS SS Pe ae ee ee = 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 953 


adheres to the rocks and other bodies which it 
meets with at the bottom of the sea, and thus 
they brave the agitation of the waters. They 
seldom change their station, but they can unfix 
their byssus, if any circumstance renders such 
change imperative. In Sicily and Calabria this 
byssus, which is very silky, is manufactured into 
stuffs, stockings, and gloves, which are very fine 
and warm, but it will take no dye: articles com- 
posed of it are very dear, and the manufacture 
is fast declining. Aristotle observed a little 
crustaceous animal within the valves of the wing- 
shell, which he thought was necessary to its 
existence. Pliny says it is always accompanied 
by a companion, the Pinnotheres or Pinnophylaa, 
that when the Pinna opens its shell, a number 
of small fish boldly enter, and when it is full, 
the crab gives the blind animal notice by a 
slight bite, who immediately closes his shell, and 
assigns a portion of the prey to his little useful 
companion. Small Crustaceans indeed, both 
crabs and shrimps, certainly do find their way 
not only into the shells of the Pinna, but into 
those of muscles and whilks,’ but their object 
is to defend themselves, especially when their 
crust is soft, and not to tell the Pinna when to 
close its doors upon its prey; for its food is the 
sea water or the animalcules it contains. 


1 Buccinum, 


954 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Many other bivalves, which I need not particu- 
larize, spin a byssus with their foot. Singular it is 
that the same office should be assigned to organs 
so differently situated in different animals. The 
spinnerets of the silk-worm, and other spinning 
moths are in the mouth, those of the spider in its 
tail, and those of various shell-fish in their foot ; 
in the first case, if we consider the various pur- 
poses to which caterpillars apply the faculty of 
spinning, we see the importance of its being 
under the direction of the eye of the animal : 
and even in the case of the spider, the eye 
directs the animal in its course to form its con- 
centric circles, and the thread follows it; and the 
same is the case when it spins the rays that 
traverse its web; and when it descends from a 
height the same takes place. But the foot is 
the only organ that is so situated in bivalve 
shells, as to throw forth a thread that will go 
out of the shell, where it is wanted for use. 

Of all this tribe of shells none are more beau- 
tiful, both as to their form, painting, and sculp- 
ture, than what are called Escallop shells, or Comb 
shells' from their resemblance, as to the scoring 
of the upper valve, to that instrument. These 
may be regarded as, in some degree, analogues 
of the butterflies amongst insects, and their fly-. 
ing as it were, on the surface of the water, as 


1 Pecten. 


- 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 955 


we shall soon see, increases the resemblance. 
There is, however, a difference between the Con- 
dylopes or annulose animals and the Molluscans, 
which must strike every examiner, the latter 
cannot be called symmetrical animals, while in 
the former the most perfect symmetry, both as to 
number of parts, and their structure, general 
form, sculpture and painting, prevails; in the 
latter this general symmetry seems not to obtain ; 
in the bimuscular bivalves, indeed, the two shells 
are generally symmetrical both in form, size, and 
sculpture, but this does not invariably take place. 
In many of the unimusculars the upper shell 
differs from the under, either in size or other 
particulars; in the escallop shells it is much 
flatter and more ornamented as to colouring ; 
and in the animal itself it is not a general 
principle that each part shall have its counter- 
part, or, if single, that the two sides shall 
exactly correspond. This furnishes some addi- 
tion to the other proofs of the superiority of 
the Insect over the Molluscan tribes; symmetry, 
especially of the external organs and parts, 
distinguishes all the higher classes from man 
downwards; but is continued in the inverte- 
brate sub-kingdom no further than the Condy- 
lopes, when it is interrupted or altogether 
ceases. It must be observed, however, that 
in the animal of the univalves, a beginning of 
symmetrical organs appears in the tentacles, 


256 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


which are in pairs mutually corresponding, a 
circumstance not discoverable in the bivalves. 

The escallop shells were considered by Linné 
as belonging to the same genus with the oyster, 
which he regarded as a kind of rustic tribe 
belonging to it; but they not only differ widely 
in their shells, but also in the animal they con- 
tain. The mantle of the former is stated to be 
composed of two large membranes surrounded 
with long white hairs, and with pedunculated 
eyes: whence Poli denominated the animal of — 
this shell ‘‘ Argus ;” but these assuredly are not — 
real eyes, but probably eye-like organs or ten- — 
tacles, useful to the animal, perhaps, as organs of 
investigation and prehension, but not of vision. — 
Lamarck, who does not, zz loco, mention this 
formation of the animal of the escallop shells, 
observes that the Spondyls' have the margin of the 
mantle furnished with two rows of tentacular 
threads, a structure that seems to indicate some 
investigating, office or prehensory function resi- 
dent in that part, perhaps like the tentacles of — 
the polypes they may seize animalcules. The 
animal of the oyster has nothing akin to this, a _ 
sufficient proof, added to their very different 
shells, that they belong to different genera. 

The French call these shells pelerines or 
pilgrims, they are also in catholic countries, y 
especially in Spain and Portugal, called shells of — 


be i 


1 Spondylus. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 257 


St. James, because the pilgrims to the shrine of 
St. James of Compostella, in Galicia, were 
accustomed to ornament their cloak and _ hat 
with them. 

I shall next make some observations upon the 
bivalve just mentioned, the oyster, which of all 
shell-fish, though it is one of the rudest and least 
sightly, has from every age been most in request, 
as a favourite article of food. This gift of Provi- 
dence is widely dispersed, being found on the 
coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa; those that 
frequent our own are reckoned the best of all. 
They are not a roving animal, but when they 
leave the matrix, they fix themselves to 
rocks or any substance that falls in their way, 
which they seldom quit. Like other Molluscans, 
they are hermaphrodites, and are stated by 
Poli, the great luminary of conchology, to con- 
tain 1,200,000 eggs, so that a single oyster might 
give birth to 12,000 barrels!! Providence has 
thus taken care that the demands made upon 
them to gratify the appetite of his creature man, 
shall not annihilate the race. These also are 
the only shell-fish that man has thought it worth 
his while to cultivate, by keeping them in cer- 
tain pits formed for the purpose, called amongst 
us beds, and to which the salt water is admitted 
only at high tides: and in these the green oysters 
are said to be produced; marine plants of that 
colour, the growth of which is favoured by the 

VOL. I. S 


258 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


tranquillity of the water in these tanks, generate 
a vast number of seminiform germes, which 
entering the shells of the oysters when they 
open them to take their food—so it is stated— 
stain them with their own hue. 

They have other enemies besides man : ihe: . 
ever has observed their shells will often see them 
quite covered with a small kind of sea-acorns.’ 
It is related also that certain crabs get into their 
shells, first introducing a piece of stone to hinder 
them from shutting, but this is probably fabu- 
lous; they may, however, when the oysters 
open their shells to receive the sea-water, enter — 
them as they do those of the muscles and the 
wing-shell, either for protection or for the sake — 
of food. It is observed that the oyster defends 
itself against intrusive enemies by squirting 
upon them with force water kept in reserve in 
their shells; they keep out those that attempt to” 
pierce their shells to get at them, by thickening — 
them in the part attacked. : 

I shall next give some account of a bivalve 
that has interested mankind from a very early 
period of history, on account of the valuable gem 
that it produces, and which is frequently men- 
tioned in Holy Scripture. The Supreme Being, 
in his goodness and attention to the wants and — 
tastes of his principal creature, has not neglected 
to furnish him with various articles for ornament 

1 Balanus, &e. ‘ 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 259 


as well as for use: and the most valuable of all 
possessions, the kingdom of grace in the heart, 
is symbolized by a pearl of great price; and 
though the apostle charges females not to adorn 
themselves with gold or pearls, but with good 
works, the meaning of the passage is, that the 
latter should have their first attention, not to 
forbid absolutely the use of the former—they 
are to adorn themselves not so much with gold 
or pearls as with good works—which ought to 
be the object of their most sedulous care. 

The animal that produces pearls in the great- 
est abundance, of the purest nature, and of the 
highest value, was by Linné classed with the 
muscles,' but Lamarck has formed it into a 
distinct genus which he names Meleagrina. 
In this country it is usually called the pearl- 
oyster. It inhabits the Persian Gulf, the 
coasts of Ceylon, the sea of New Holland, the 
Gulf of Mexico, and the coasts of Japan. It 
attains perfection no where but in the equato- 
rial seas, but the pearl fishery in the island of 
Ceylon is the most celebrated and productive ; 
it is on the west coast, off the bay of Condatchy, 
where the country is very sandy and nearly 
without inhabitants, but on these occasions 
a populous town, with many streets a mile long, 
appears to have suddenly started up. The 
oyster beds or banks extend over a space thirty 


1 Mytilus margaritiferus. 


260 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


miles long by twenty-four broad. The twentieth 
of February is generally the day of rendezvous 
for the fishermen. The fishery is commonly 
rented by a single individual, who is allowed to 
employ 150 boats for thirty days, there are 
about 6000 boatmen and attendants. The 
oysters vary in their qualities according to the 
nature of the ground to which they are attached ; 
and also in their number, by the action of 
the tides and other circumstances: those at 
the greatest depth produce the largest pearls, 
which are situated in the fleshy part near the 
hinge. Pearls consist of concentric coats of the 
same substance as that which forms the mother- 
of-pearl of the shell ; they are produced by the 
extravasation of a lapidifying fluid, secreted in 
the organs of the animal and filtered by its 
glands. For one pearl that is found perfectly 
round and detached between the membranes of — 
the mantle, hundreds of irregular ones occur — 
attached to the mother-of-pearl like so many ~ 
warts: they are sometimes so numerous that the — 
animal cannot shut its shell, and so perishes. — 
The pearl is a formation forced upon the animal — 
by some annoying substance in its shell, which — 
it covers with mother-of-pearl, as the bees do — 
intrusive wasps with wax, to fix it or hinder it 
from affecting them by putridity, &c. Sir E. — 
Home is of opinion that the abortive eggs of the — 
animal are the nucleus upon which the pearl is — 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. POI 


formed, and he has made it very probable that 
this is often or generally the case, but still the 
process just mentioned may take place when 
accidental substances are introduced, and pro- 
duce the warty excrescences, and sometimes 
loose misshapen pearls. 

The diving tackle consists of a large stone 
suspended by a rope with a strong loop above 
the stone to receive one foot of the diver, and 
having also a slip-knot, and a basket formed of 
a hoop and network which receives the other 
foot. When he has fixed himself in this tackle 
and is duly prepared, he holds his nostrils with 
one hand, and pulling the running-knot with 
the other, instantly descends—when he reaches 
the bottom he disengages his foot from the 
stone, which is immediately drawn up to be 
ready for the next diver. He at the bottom 
throws himself on his face and collects every 
thing he can lay hold of into the basket—when 
ready to ascend he jerks the rope and is speedily 
hauled up, and working himself up the rope he 
arrives at the surface sooner than the laden 
basket. A minute and half or two minutes are 
the utmost any diver remains under water. The 
shark-charmers form a necessary part of the 
company, by their incantations they are supposed 
to possess the power of preventing these voracious 
fishes from attacking the divers, and they will 
not descend without their attendance ; where the 


262 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


bed is rich the diver often collects 150 oysters 
at one dip, but sometimes not more than five.’ 
It is said that a single diver will, in one day, 
often bring up from 1000 to 4000 oysters. 

From the simple circumstance that Provi- 
dence has instructed this animal, which cannot 
eject from its shell those substances, whether 
formed within itself, or that have accidentally 
entered, to encase them in the precious sub- 
stance which it is empowered to secrete, what 
a vast fund of ornament to deck the most lovely 
part of the creation, and having no parallel in 
any gem that the earth produces, is provided. 
The pearls obtained from other shell-fish vary 
in colour—those from the wing-shell are brown, 
and those from the fresh-water muscles greenish, 
but sometimes they are yellow, pink, bluish, and 
some are even black ; these last are very rare 
and dear. 


Other bivalves fix themselves by a tendinous 


ligament to the rocks. In one genus,” in the — 
upper valve near the hinge, is an aperture, — 
closed by a kind of operculum formed at the — 
dilated extremity of an internal muscle, it is by — 


this operculum that the animal fixes itself. In 


another, related to the last,’ the beak of the lower 
valve turns up, overhanging in some degree 


the upper valve ; in this beak is a notch or aper- — / 


' Malte-Brun, Geogr. iii. 225.  ? Anomia, PL. V. Fic.2,3. 
9 Terebratula, Pu. V. Fie. 4. . 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 205 


ture through which the fixing tendon passes ; 
affording an admirable instance of variation 
in the means of attaining the same end, when 
circumstances require it. It was necessary 
that the valves should not be reversed, a tendon 
through the lower valve secures this in the 
first of these animals; but in the second, where 
the overhanging beak would interfere with 
this purpose, the tendon issues from the beak 
itself, so as to enable the animal still to fix 
itself with the proper valve downwards. In the 
Anomia the valve takes the form of the sub- 
stance it is fixed to. 


Who would think that these headless animals, 
unprovided with organs that indicate any of 
the higher senses, as sight, smell, and hearing, 
and apparently fitted with no other means of 
motion than those of opening and shutting the 
_ valves of their shells, or travelling very slowly 
for a few inches, should yet be able not only te 
leap and use other motions, but occasionally to 
sail gaily on the surface of the ocean; but, 
however improbable this may seem, it has been 
proved to be the case by the evidence of eye- 
witnesses of the fact. 

The common cockle,' Poli says, can not only, 
by means of its foot turn round, or to either 
side, but even take a good leap. The Trigons,’ 


' Cardium edule. 2 Trigonia. 


204 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


nearly related to the cockle, are mostly fossils 
but there is one recent species, found on the 
coast of New Holland, called originally, from 
the pearly lustre of the inside of its shells, the 
pearl trigon,’ a name changed, without reason, 
by Lamarck. This, which was originally taken 
by Lesueur and since by Capt. King, was more 
recently brought from thence by: Mr. Setchbury, 
who told me, that they would leap over the 
gunwhale of a boat in which he was, to the 
height of above four inches. The foot of this 
animal is bent at an acute angle, so, as upon 
pressure, to form a very elastic organ,” and that 
of the cockle is nearly the same. 

Those elegant shells the Pectens, or comb- 
shells, have long been celebrated for their 
motions. Pliny says, probably meaning these 
shells, that they leap and flutter out of the 


water, and dive. D’Argenville relates, that — 
when they are on shore, they regain the water — 


by opening the valves of their shells as wide 
as they can and then shutting them briskly, 


by which they acquire sufficient elasticity to — 


rise three or four inches, and thus proceed till 
they accomplish their object. Most probably 
the foot assists in producing these leaps. Their 
progression in the water is described as very 
different ; when they rise to the surface—but the 


| T. margaritacea. > Puate V. Fie. 5. 


BIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 265 


means by which they do this has not been 
clearly explained—they support themselves half 
under water. They next open their shells, to 
which they communicate such a vibration, that 
they acquire a very brisk movement from right 
to left, which enables them, as it were, to run 
upon the water. 

~The tulip-shell,* when it walks, if I may so 
speak, opens and shuts its valves, and at the 
same time lengthens and shortens its foot, 
which seems to indicate a connection, or action, 
between the former and the latter organs, 
similar to what has been observed to take place 
in insects, and perhaps points out some analogy 
between the valves of the shell and the upper 
wings, or elytra of insects, and the mantle and 
their under wings. 

Bosc states, that the animals of the genus 
Venus, in calm weather, may be seen sailing 
on the surface of the waters, using one of their 
valves as a boat and the other as a sail. As 
these are usually rather heavy shells, they 
must be furnished with some means of rendering 
themselves lighter than the water. Pliny, of 
old, mentions shells dedicated to Venus, which 
sail and oppose their concave part to the wind. 

Thus we see the Creator has given even to 
these apparently stupid and inactive creatures 
means of enjoyment, that every one is not aware 

| 1 Tellina. 


266 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


of; and powers of locomotion, of which, at first 
sight, they seem incapable. 

I might enlarge here on the admirable con- 
trivance and variety observable in the hinge, as 
it is called, by means of which the animals are 
enabled to open and shut the valves of their 
shells; upon the sculpture and colours that 
distinguish many of them, particularly amongst 
the unimusculars, but this chapter is already 
too long, and enough has been said to prove 
that they have in no respect been neglected 
or overlooked by the Almighty Being who willed 
their existence, and who is ever watchful over 
the creatures of his hand, to provide them with 
all things necessary for their being, consistently 
with the ends he created them to serve. 


Cuaprer IX. 


Functions and Instincts. Univalve Molluscans. 


Tue Univalve shells of the Swedish naturalist, — 
a term adopted from Aristotle's Monothyra, are 

next to be considered ; these, with the multivalve 
Chitons, form the Gastropods, or shell-fish using 
their belly for a leg, of Cuvier; and with the 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 267 


cuttle-fish and nautilus tribe constitute Lamarck’s 
Class of Molluscans. The latter author divides 
his Class into five orders, four of which belong 
to the tribe I am considering. 

1. Pteropods (wing-footed); furnished with 
organs only for swimming and sailing.’ 

2. Gastropods (belly-footed); body straight, 
never spirally convolved; a muscular foot for 
creeping under the belly. 

3. Trachelipods (neck-footed); greatest part of 
the body spirally convolved, always inhabiting 
a spirivalve shell; foot free, attached to the 
neck, formed for creeping. 

4. Heteropods (diverse-footed) ; no coronet of 
arms; no subventral, or subjugular foot; fins, 
one or more, not disposed in pairs.” 

As the Cephalopods, forming Lamarck’s fourth 
Order, may be regarded rather as constituting a 
larger division or Sub-class of the Molluscans, 
than an Order, I shall consider them in a sepa- 
rate chapter. 

1. Proceeding from one of the above Orders to 
another, i shall select such individuals, belong- 
ing to it, as appear to exemplify the great attri- 
butes of their Creator, either in their structure, 
forms, habits, or instincts. The animals of the 
just Order, like the long celebrated Argonaut 
and Nautilus, enliven the surface of the ocean 


1 Prate V. Fie. 6, 7. 2 Fic. 8. 


268 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


in fine weather, where they steer their little 
barks through, between, and over its fluctuating 
waves, and spread their membranous sails to the 
soft breathing of the zephyrs. 

One of the most noted animals of the tribe is 
known by the appellation of the Boreal Clio, 
which, like the jelly-fish, has a gelatinous body, 
is defended by no shell, and affords food to the 
whales and other fishes, as well as to the sea- 
birds. This animal is abundant in places that 
suit it, and appears only during the warmest 
hours of the day on the surface. 


Other genera of this Order are covered by — 


a shell or shells. Of this kind is the genus 
Hyalea, so named from its semi-transparent 
shell, which wears the appearance of a bivalve 


with soldered valves, the upper one being the © 
largest; this difference of size of the seeming © 


valves causes an aperture through which the 
animal sends forth two large yellow and violet 
wings, or sails, rounded and divided at their 


summit into three lobes. The head in this genus | 


is almost evanescent, so that both shell and head 
exhibit an easy transition from the acephalous or 
bivalve Molluscans to those which have a head. 
When its wings or sails are unfolded it moves 
with great velocity on the surface of the sea. 
The animals of this Order, both from the beau- 
tiful colouring of their filmy sails or wings, and 
from their number and symmetry, are better 


y. 


| 


oh 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 269 


entitled to the appellation of the butterflies of the 
ocean, than the escallop shells which have some- 
times been so called. The mantle of the bivalves 
becomes an organ of very different use in the 
Pteropods; for they, having no means of fixing 
themselves like most of the bivalves, float con- 
tinually in the ocean; to compensate for this 
want, as in innumerable other instances, their 
Creator has given them the power of expanding 
this organ as a sail, both for motion and to give 
some direction to their course; it is attached 
to the mouth or neck, and is connected in 
some species with their respiration. Nothing 
certain is known with respect to their food: 
probably they absorb the animalcules swarming 
in the sea-water. 

2. The series of Gastropods begins with ani- 
mals that have no shell, amongst which the most 
remarkable seem to be the Scyllea and the Te- 
thys, both known to Linné, and by him described. 
The former is an oblong gelatinous animal, late- 
rally compressed, elevated above in the middle, 
where it has two pair of membranous wings or 
fins. Its inferior surface is hollowed out longi- 
tudinally, by means of which, and its tentacles, 
it can embrace the stems of the fuci or sea- 
wrack, the flowers of which it eats. It is des- 
cribed as moving very slowly in the water by 
bending its extremities. It swims on the surface 
when the weather is calm, but adheres to the 


270 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


floating fuci when the sea is agitated, so that the 
kindness and foresight of its Maker—by giving 
it wings, for independent motion, and means to 
adhere to the fuci, when support is necessary to 
it, or it takes its food—has thus provided amply 
for its enjoyment and sustenance. The great 
peculiarity of the latter, the Tethys, is a mantle 
which extends above and beyond the head, like 
that of some marine goddess, concealing it en- 
tirely, and forming an ample veil, fringed or 
undulated at its margin. By the help of this 
veil they elevate themselves to the surface, and 
probably sail on the waters. This animal is 
nearly related to the Laplysia, a kind of sea-slug, 
like which it lives in muddy places, and ejects 
a black fluid; it is very fetid, and its flesh is 
poisonous. It only rises to the surface in the 
hot season. 

I shall next notice a tribe of Gastropods, 


which at first sight, considering the number of © 


pieces of which their shelly covering is composed, 
seems to belong to the multivalves, amongst 
which Linné has placed it. It will be readily 
perceived that I am speaking of the Chiton, or 
coat-of-mail shell, but when the animal that it 
covers is examined, it will be found that, not- 
withstanding its multivalve shell, it really be- 
longs to the Gastropods. 

These animals are generally found under stones, 
sometimes they adhere to the surface of rocks, and 


. 


- 4a. os ee) eee 


T* 4 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 271 


sometimes conceal themselves in their fissures : 
they often traverse vast tracts of ocean fixed to the 
keels of ships, like some of the limpets they fix 
themselves a good way out of the water, so as 
only to be wetted when the tide is up, and some- 
times above high water mark. Poli says that 
when they resist any attempt to force them from 
their station, they expel the air and water on all 
sides and produce a vacuum, so that it is very 
difficult to overcome the pressure of the atmos- 
phere; and Mr. Frembly, who had an oppor- 
tunity of studying their habits on the coast of 
Chili, states that when not apprehensive of danger 
their attachment is very slight, and by pushing 
them gently they will easily slide from the sur- 
face to which they are attached, but if a direct 
attempt is made to unfix them by force, they 
will part with a portion of their shells sooner 
than let go their hold. 

When we consider that these animals are not 
only often exposed to the violent action of the 
waves, but also to the attack of countless 
enemies, we see abundant reason for the coat 
of mail with which their Creator has covered 
them. Even the fleshy or cartilaginous margin, 
or zone, as my lamented friend the Rev. Lans- 
down Guilding, in his admirable memoir on this 
tribe, denominated it, is defended sometimes by 
scales, spines, and bristles, at others rough with 
numerous little bony tubercles; it is also de- 


yf FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


scribed as in general fringed, so that when the 
animal attaches itself to a rock or stone, it is 
altogether calculated, by the application of the 
prone part of its body, to produce a vacuum. 
The wing-shell and other bivalves that suspend 
themselves by a byssus, are sufficiently pro- 
tected by their shells from the attack of their 
enemies, without so complete an adhesion of the 
body as is necessary for the coat-of-mail shell. 
Mr. Guilding, who had excellent opportunities of 
observation, informs us that these animals are 
night-feeders, remaining stationary as above, 


during the day; reasoning from analogy he : 


suspects they feed on marine plants, the sea- 
wrack, &c. These creatures slide along very 
slowly, if accidentally reversed, they recover a 
prone position by the violent motions of the liga- 
ment or zone that surrounds them, and if alarmed 


they sometimes roll themselves up like woodlice. — 


Lamarck proceeds immediately from the Chi- 
tonidans to the Patellidans or Limpets,’ which 


also fix themselves so firmly to the rock, that it 


requires considerable force to separate them, and 
sometimes in such numbers that their surface 
seems quite covered by them. The transition 
from the former tribe to this, with no intermediate 
links, seems at first sight violent, and their right 


to be associated in the same family rather pro- — 


' Patella. 


es? ee a 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 273 


blematical: probably intermediate species will 
come to light which will render this point 
more evident than the shell of these animals 
appears to indicate. 

With regard to their functions and the part 
assigned to them in the great plan of creation, 
little is known ; probably, from their numbers in 
some parts, they may help to soften the rocks, 
so that they may, at some destined hour, yield 
more readily to the force of the winds and waves; 
thus they may be enumerated amongst the in- 
struments which the Creator employs to effect 
his purposes, and such changes in the coast of 
any country, as he wills shall take place. 

‘They afford a beautiful instance of the gradual 
progress of Creative Wisdom from form to form. 
If the student of the tribe looks with inquiring 
eye at a collection of the Patellidans, or limpets, 
in the flattest and most depressed of them! he will 
find no small resemblance to one of the valves of 

bivalve shell, he will soon, however, discover a 
prominence in it, the first tendency towards the 
spiral convolution, a little removed from its cen- 
Te, which will prove to him that it belongs to a 
very different tribe ; looking again at others that 
re more elevated and conical,? he will see the 
‘ame prominence or beak forming a more strik- 
hg feature, and ascertaining these shells to be 
Mivalves, he will find, upon a comparison of 


1 Umbrella indica. ° Patella vulgata. 
POL. I. T 


274 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


them with the nerit,’ the snail,? or the peri- 
winkle,* that this umbo or knob is analogous to 
the spiral part of those shells, as he will see upon 
examining one of the bonnet-limpets,* in which 
he will detect an incipient decurved spire ; pas- 
sing from this by one of the chambered-limpets, 
it will lead him to the neritidans, or top-shells, 
from which the road is direct to the sea-ear ;° 
and by another’ he arrives almest immediately. 
at the periwinkles and snails. If he chance to 
examine further between the limpets and the 
whelks,* he will find another open shell,’ which 
forms the path to the latter genus. If once 
more his eye happens to observe a shell almost 
open” but with the sides a little turned in, he — 
will see still another road leading by the dippers" 
to the elegant tribe of cowries.” It is by this 

road that Lamarck travels to them. Again, he 
may perhaps be shewn, preserved in spirits, 
an animal whose respiratory orifice is covered 
by a round shield—this is the sea-slug,’ an 
animal famous for Pliny’s legend of its noxious 
qualities, whose head resembles a hare, which 
leads from the Patellidans towards the common 
slug of our gardens.“ To the bivalves there 


1 Nerita, Neritina, &c. 2 Helix. 

3 Turbo. 4 Prleopsis ungarica, &c. 

5 Crepidula. 6 Haliotis. 7 Calyptroea. _ 
8 Buccinum. 9 Concholepas peruviana. 

10 Bullea. 1 Bulla. 12 Cyprea. 


13 Laplysia depilans. 14 Limax. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS 975 


seems to be also a road from this central group, 
by a Norwegian shell described by Miiller as an 
anomalous species of limpet, but which by 
Lamarck is considered to be a bivalve.’ The 
lower valve in this genus is so thin that Miller 
overlooked it; by it the animal adheres to marine 
bodies—the upper valve, like the Patella, is 
sub-conical with a prominent vertex, and the 
two valves are not connected by a hinge. 

A due consideration of all these circumstances, 
of this radiation, as it were, from a typical form 
as a centre, by various roads towards different 
tribes, seems to prove, and the observation is con- 
firmed by facts in other departments of nature, 
that the world of animals, as well as that of 
heavenly bodies, consists of numerous systems 
each, so to speak, with its central orb, and all 
concatenated, and revolving as it were wheel 
within wheel, and all tending towards or branch- 
ing from a common centre. It seems, in the 
present instance, taking the group expressed by 
Patella of Linné as the common centre, that 
from thence, though by different and diverging 
routes, we may arrive at almost every molluscan 
group or tribe. 


The Molluscans that we have hitherto been 
considering, with the exception of the herbi- 
yorous chitons, derive their nutriment from the 


1 Orbicula Norwegica. 


276 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


sea water itself, either from animalcules or other 


marine substances requiring only absorption, but — 


the Gastropods that we are next to notice live 


upon more solid food, and such as cannot be — 
digested without a more powerful action upon it. — 


Of this description are the dippers’ which are 
furnished with a singular organ or gizzard that’ 
proves their predaceous or carnivorous habits; 


the remaining genera are herbivorous, but as © 


they exhibit no very interesting traits I Phan 
proceed to the next Order. 


~— 


24 


The Trachelipods, constituting Lamarck’s third : 
Order of Molluscans, may be divided into those — 


that are herbivorous, and those that are car-— 
nivorous, the first having no respiratory siphon, - 


with which the others are furnished. 


The herbivorous Trachelipods may be sub- 
divided into terrestrial and aquatic, and the) 


latter into those that inhabit fresh water or salt. 


It is not known that any of the predaceous ones — 
are terrestrial. The terrestrial ones not only 


devour the leaves and stems of plants, but some 


also attack their roots, one species, defended by 
an operculum or mouth-cover, devours those of — 
the violet.2, Others of this tribe are found on 


trees, under moss, or feeding on the lichens; 
the shells of some of these are what are called 
turrited’ or long and slender, with spiral whirls, 


1 Bulla. 2 Cyclostoma elegans. 3 Clausilia. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. SIT 


resembling, in miniature, a lofty tower with a 
spiral staircase winding round it. By this atte- 
nuated structure their motions, in their close 
retreats, are less impeded. As it is in this tribe 
of univalves that the organ just mentioned, the 
operculum, or mouth-piecce, first makes its ap- 
pearance, it will not be improper here to give 
some account of it. 

If we survey the various tribes of shell-bearing 
animals we find them defended from the injuries 
or attacks, to which their situation exposes them 
by various expedients, all of them indicating 
Power and Wisdom in their contrivance and 
formation, and Goodness in their end. These 
animals themselves all have a soft body fur- 
nished with organs of different kinds, suited to 
their station and purposes. Those that are 
below them in the scale, especially the naked 
Polypes, and gelatinous Radiaries, are still more 
frail and evanescent, but their organization is so 
inferior, that it is probably less subject to de- 
rangement from external accidents, or injuries 
are sooner remedied, than in that of the shell-fish 
—which, unless they were clad in some kind of 
mail, would probably soon perish. Accordingly 
we find some protected by a multivalve tubular 
shell,’ the inhabitant protruding its organs at the 
summit, which is defended by an operculum con- 
sisting of more than a single piece-—in others, 


1 Balanus. Tubicinella. 


278 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


also, the shell is multivalve, but the animal pro- 
trudes itself at the sides, and has no operculum, 
as in the common barnacle.' Others, again, are 
protected by a shell consisting of two valves, — 
open at one or two ends, and these seek further 
protection either by burying themselves in the — 
sand or perforating the rocks, or by suspending 
themselves by a byssus; others, again, which — 
only open their shells at certain times, as the — 
oyster, fix themselves to any convenient sub- — 
stance. To these succeed others, whose shell is — 
transversely divided into many pieces,’ but yet, — 
taken together, it forms a single valve protecting — 
the back of a gastropod, or slug-like animal, — 
which for further protection, when it is not mov- _ 
ing, and to supply the place of a lower valve, — 
fastens itself to a rock or other substance. 

With the Patellidans begin the undivided uni- — 
valve shells, which like the preceding animals i 
protect their lower side by fixing themselves — 
to the rocks; the sea-ears,’ which are still more — 
open, have recourse to a similar mode of pro- — 
tecting themselves, they preserve a communi- — 
cation with the atmosphere or water without — 
elevating their shells, by means of a line of — 
apertures, under the thickest margin near the — 
apex; these apertures begin when the animal — 
is young near the spire, and as it grows it stops — 


: Pentelasmis. 2 Chiton. > Haliotis. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 279 


up one and opens another, as its occasions re- 
quire. I have a very large specimen, in which 
there are traces of eighteen apertures, and all 
but six are stopped up. If we turn our eyes 
from these to the Buccinidan or Whelk tribe, 
we are struck by an open Peruvian shell, which 
at first sight seems like a limpet,’ but upon in- 
quiry we find that it is defended by an opercu- 
lum, the plan of protection being here changed, 
and, instead of an under-valve, or a rocky muni- 
tion, it is closed by a broad plate, which some 
peculiarity in its structure and organization 
doubtless required ; from this by Purpura and 
Monoceros to the true Buccinum, the mouth 
narrows and the operculum with it. 

If we examine the common periwinkle, we 
find the mouth of its shell closed by a horny 
organ called the patch, which is attached to the 
foot or rather neck, by its convex or lower sur- 
face, sitting on a sub-triangular flat space spi- 
rally convoluted; this is the operculum, and if 
examined on either side will be found to be also 
spirally convoluted, proving that it is formed by 
the part on which it sits. When the animal ex- 
pands its foot for creeping, the operculum is 
retracted within the shell, so as to be quite out 
of the way. If we examine the opercula of other 
shells, we shall find that the majority of them 


' Concholepas. 


280 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


have the same spiral configuration traced both on 
the upper and lower surface. In most that Lhave 
seen the intervals of the whirls increase in width, 
as the spires of the shells do from the base to 
the mouth. In the top-shell’ the whirls are 
perfectly regular and nearly equidistant. They 
vary much in thickness; I have one three-fourths 
of an inch thick, while those of the top-shell 
and periwinkle are very thin. In some of the 
thick ones, on the under side the convolutions 
are very convex, and sometimes elevated into 
concentrical ridges. Some underneath have a 
forest of obtuse elevations, and many are rough 
with minute tubercles. As to substance some are 
horny, while others resemble the shell ; others 
are horny externally and shelly internally. If 
these formations on the under side, as in the 
common periwinkle, represent the shape of the 
part of the neck to which they are attached, 
as they most probably do, it must act the part 
of a mould, upon which the operculum is formed 
from its mucus, and increased as the aperture 
enlarges. 

Lamarck is of opinion that the shell of uni- 
valves is formed in a similar way upon the neck 
of the animal, which in the Murices or rock- — 
shells, and other tribes distinguished by spines F 
or tubercles, has certain fleshy processes which — 


' Trochus 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 281 


produce those spines, &c. and is withdrawn 
when they have acquired consistence enough 
not to bend when thus left to themselves. Other 
conchologists, particularly one of the most emi- 
nent of our times, Poli, think that the shells of 
univalves are organized bodies, and produce 
their spines as vegetables do their prickles, he 
says also that their shells contain cellular mem- 
branes almost like a Rete mucosum. 

In the progress ofa shell’s growth, as new spines 
are formed old ones drop off, how this is effected 
seems not to be accounted for by either hypo- 
thesis—it is analogous, however, in a great de- 
gree, to what was mentioned above with regard 
to the holes in the shell of the sea-ear, only that 
with them an old hole is stopped up, when a 
new one is formed. All that can be said on the 
subject is that the animal, instructed by Provi- 
dence, as new processes are formed and a new 
whirl of its shell completed, is enabled to throw 
off by a solvent, or some other means unascer- 
tained, those that are no longer wanted. 

It is observable that the terrestrial univalves,! 
of this Order, are never armed with spines, tuber- 
cles, or other elevations, but exhibit generally a 
levigated shell. As they move about usually 
amongst bushes, under moss, or in grass, the 
object of the Creator in this structure was pro- 


1 Helix, &c. 


282 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


bably that their motions might not be impeded 
by any roughness of their shell. 

Mr. E. W. Brayley, in a very ingenious me- 
moir, in the Zoological Journal, has contended, 
with considerable strength of argument, that the 
moveable black points, in the upper tentacles of 
snails, though he allows they may be their ana- 
logues, are not real eyes; but the Rev. L. Guild- 
ing, in a subsequent part of the same Journal 
states, that the large strombs of the Caribbean 
sea have eyes furnished with iris and pupil, 
similar to those of birds and reptiles—that they 
have also a vitreous and aqueous humour, and 
a black pigment, which certainly prove them 
to be real eyes—their organ of hearing, he 
thought, was likewise distinct. The cowries also 
are said to have eyes exhibiting both iris and 
pupil, as have some volutes." 

Giving these facts their due weight, I think 
we may conclude that the, so called, eyes of 
snails, are real though imperfect visual organs. 
It appears to be the plan of the Creator, 


Oa ad ile Aaa to ascend 
From small beginnings to a glorious end. 
An organ is, as it were, sketched out, in the lowest 
animal, as for instance, a nervous system, which 
keeps developing and improving till it is brought 
to its acme in the highest: first we find in the 


1 Voluta ethiopica, Puare VI. Fic. 1. a. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 283 


polypes no nervous centre, but molecules every 
where dispersed; then the next form is a nervous 
collar round the cesophagus; next dispersed gan- 
glions; then a ganglionic chord; and so on till 
wealrive at a regular brain and spinal marrow 
incased in a vertebral column. We may with rea- 
son therefore conclude, that the organ of vision, 
when first planted, would be a mere rudiment, 
though sufficient for the animal’s purposes, and 
possessing few of the characters it exhibits when 
arrived at its most perfect form; these it keeps 
acquiring, as it becomes more developed, or to 
avoid misconception from nibbling critics, the 
Creator keeps giving it more and more perfect 
sight till he brings it forth, in all its glory, in 
the highest animals. 

The most common in this country of these her- 
bivorous Trachelipods, is the garden-snail,'’ but 
the species whose history has been most copiously 
related, is that called in France the Escargot, 
which, though stated to have been originally 
imported into this country, now abounds in some 
parts of Surry and other southern counties. I 
shall begin by giving some account of their 
economical and then of their physical history. 

On the continent, especially in France, this 
large snail, which is more than double the size of 
our garden one, is used as an article of food, and 
though said not to be easy of digestion, is very 


1 Helix hortensis. 2 H. Pomatia. 


284 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


palatable. They are thought to be in best season 
in the winter, when they are hybernating, and 
covered with their temporary calcareous oper- 
culum, which falls off in the spring. The Ro- 
mans appear to have fattened these snails, in 
places appropriated for that purpose. | Pliny 
mentions several sorts that were kept separate, 
and amongst others white ones that were found in 
the neighbourhood of Rieti. The Illyrian snails 
he describes as the largest; the African as 
most prolific; others from Soletum, in the 
Neapolitan territory, as the noblest and best: 
he speaks of some as attaining to so enormous 
a size, that their shells would contain’ eighty 
pieces of money of the common currency.’ 
Bruguicres, to whom conchology is under very 
ereat obligations, is of opinion that, by cultiva- 
tion, the several species of snails might be 
brought to a much greater size, and furnish an 
abundant, wholesome, and even delicate aliment. 
There is no reason why the species of this genus, 
which feed on vegetable substances, should not 
be as palatable as the oyster or periwinkle. 
Snails, in general, are hermaphrodites, or 
unite both sexes in the same individual: this is 
the case with the great majority of Molluscans ; 
the object of Providence, in this kind of orga- 
nization, is evidently the greater multiplication 
of the species, but though hermaphrodites, in 


' Quadrans. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 2865 


each individual possessing the organs of both 
sexes, they are not so as to sexual union; repro- 
duction can only take place when different indi- 
viduals impregnate each other; this union takes 
place at the beginning of the spring, sooner or 
later, according to the heat of the season. Their 
courtship is singular, and realises the Pagan 
fable of Cupid’s arrows, for, previous to their 
union, each snail throws a winged dart or arrow 
at its partner. About twenty days after coupling 
the snails lay, at different times, a great number 
of white eggs, varying at each laying from 
twenty-five to eighty, as large as little peas, 
enveloped in a membranous shell, which cracks 
when dried. They lay these eggs in shady and 
moist places, in hollows which they excavate 
with their foot, and afterwards cover with the 
same organ. These eggs hatch, sooner or later, 
according to the temperature, producing little 
snails exactly resembling their parent, but so 
delicate that a sun-stroke destroys them, and 
animals feed upon them; so that few, compara- 
tively speaking, reach the end of the first year, 
when they are sufficiently defended by the hard- 
ness of their shell. The animal, at its first ex- 
clusion, lives solely on the pellicle of the egg 
from which it was produced. Providence, which 
in oviparous and other animals, has provided for 
the first nutriment of the young in different 
ways, appropriating the milk of the mother to 


286 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


the young of quadrupeds; the yolk of the egg to 
those of birds, tortoises, and lizards; and the 
white of the egg to frogs and toads, has made 
this pellicle or coat the best nutriment of the 
young snail. In fact, this pellicle, consisting of 
carbonate of lime, united to animal substance, is 
necessary to produce the calcareous secretion of 
the mantle, and to consolidate the shell, as yet too 
soft for exposure. When this envelope is eaten, 
the little snail finds its nutriment, more or less, 
in the vegetable soil around it, and from which 
it continues to derive materials for the growth 
and consolidation of the shell. It remains thus 
concealed for more than a month, when it first 
issues forth into the world, and without respect 
of persons, attacks the vegetable productions 
around, returning often to an earthly aliment, 
probably still necessary, for the due growth and 
hardening of its portable house. These snails 
cease feeding when the first chills of autumn are 
felt, and associating, in considerable numbers, on 
hillocks, the banks of ditches, or in thickets and 
hedges, set about their preparations for their 
winter retreat. They first expel the contents of 
their intestines, and then concealing themselves 
under moss, grass, or dead leaves, each forms, 
by means of its foot, and the viscid mucus which 
it secretes, a cavity large enough to contain its 
shell. The mode in which it effects this is re- 
markable; collecting a considerable quantity of 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 987 


the mucus on the sole of its foot, a portion of 
earth and dead leaves adheres to it, which it 
shakes off on one side; a second portion is again 
thus selected and deposited, and so on till it has 
reared around itself a kind of wall of sufficient 
height to form a cavity that will contain its shell ; 
by turning itself round it presses against the sides 
and renders them smooth and firm. The dome, 
or covering, is formed in the same way: earth 
is collected on the foot, which then is turned 
upwards, and throws it off by exuding fresh 
mucus; and this is repeated till a perfect roof 
is formed. Having now completed its winter- 
house, it draws in its foot, covering it with the 
mantle, and opens its spiracle to draw in the air. 
On closing this, it forms with its slime a fine 
- membrane, interposed between the mantle and 
extraneous substances. Soon afterwards the 
mantle secretes a large portion of very white 
fluid over its whole surface, which instantly sets 
uniformly, and forms a kind of solid operculum 
like plaster of Paris, about half a line in thick- 
ness, which accurately closes the mouth. When 
this is become hard the animal separates the 
mantle from it. After a time, expelling a por- 
tion of the air it had inspired, and thus being 
reduced in bulk, it retreats a little further into 
the shell, and forms another leaf of mucus, and 
continues repeating this operation till there are 
sometimes five or six of these leaves forming 


288 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


cells filled with air between it and the oper- 
culum. | 

The membranous partitions are more nume- 
rous at the end than at the beginning of winter, 
and, in snails inhabiting the mountains, than in 
those on the plains. These animals hybernate 
at the proper period, at very different tempera- 
tures, varying from 37° to 77° Fahrenh. Respira- 
tion ceases during the period of hybernation. 

The mode in which these animals escape 
from their winter confinement is singular: the 
air they had expired on retiring into their shell 
further and further, remains between the dif- 
ferent partitions of mucous membrane above 
mentioned, which forms so many cells hermeti- 
cally sealed ; this they again inspire, and thus 
acquiring fresh vigour, each separate partition, 
as they proceed, is broken by the pressure of 
the foot, projected in part through the mantle; _ 
when arrived at the operculum they burst it by 
a strong effort, and finally detaching it, then 
emerge, begin to walk and to break their long 
fast." 

In all these proceedings the superintending 
care and wise provisions of a Father Being are 
evident. This creature can neither foresee the 
degree of cold to which it may be exposed in its 
state of hybernation, nor know by what means it 
may secure itself from the fatal effects it would 

1 Gaspard and Bell, Zool. Jour. i. 93,—i1. 174. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 289 


produce upon it, if not provided against. But 
at a destined period, often when the range of the 
thermometer is high, not stimulated by a cold 
atmosphere, except, perhaps, by the increasing 
length of the night, at the bidding of some secret 
power, it sets about erecting its winter dwelling, 
and employing its foot both as a shovel to make 
its mortar, as a hod to transport it, and a trowel 
to spread it duly and evenly, at length finishes 
and covers in its snug and warm retreat; and 
then still further, to secure itself from the action 
of the atmosphere, with the slimy secretion with 
which its Maker has gifted it, fixes partition 
after partition, and fills each cell formed by it, 
with air, till it has retreated as far as it can from 
every closed orifice of its shell—and thus barri- 
cades itself against a frozen death. Again, in the 
spring, when the word is spoken—awake, thou 
that sleepest—it begins immediately to act with 
energy, it reinspires, as above related, the air 
stored in its cells, bursts all its cerements, 
returns to its summer haunis, and again lays 
waste our gardens. 

We may observe here, with respect to this and 
all hybernating animals, a beautiful relation and 
correspondence between their habits and their 
functions. Their official duty is to remove su- 
perfluities and nuisances, to prevent vegetable 
substances from encroaching too much upon 
each other, to remove entirely those that are 

VOL. I. U 


290 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


dead and putrescent. At the season of the 
year, therefore, when the former are in full 
vigour, forth issue from their various retreats the 
innumerable tribes that make them their food, : 
but when they cease to grow and flourish these — 
services are not wanted, and the animals who © 
perform them disappear from the face of nature. 3 
Again, when dead animals, or the excrements of — 
living ones, or the sweets issuing from innume- — 
rable flowers, would clog the air that we breathe — 
with effluvia unfriendly to health and life— 
countless armies are every where upon the wing, — 
or on the alert, to prey upon such substances, — 
and prevent their miasmata from breeding a — 
pestilence amongst us; but when the cold season ~ 
returns, the flowers lose their leaves and blos- 
soms, and exhale no longer their sweets, and the ; | 
scents arising from putrescent and other fcetid © 
substances become no longer annoying. Then © 
the whole army employed in this department — 
disappears, and the face of nature seems to 
lose the most busy part of its population, gone © 
to a long repose. 

It is worthy of remark, with respect to the — 
terrestrial animals of the tribe we are consider- 
ing, that they all delight in shady and moist © 
places, and that during hot and dry weather © 
they seldom make their appearance, but no 
sooner comes a shower, than they are all in mo- — 
tion. Itis probable that their power of motion — 


Sn eee ae 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 291 


is impeded by a dry soil, and that the grains of 
earth and small stones, when quite dry, adhere 
to their slimy foot. 

As many of the marine shells appear in some 
degree amphibious, for instance, the Chitons and 
the Limpets, so, perhaps, some of the terrestrial 
ones may occasionally enter fresh waters ; indeed 
the amber shells,’ at least one species,’ is stated 
to swim occasionally on the surface of the water. 
From these circumstances it seems not im- 
probable that the shell-fish, as well as the birds, 
so vast a proportion of them being marine ani- 
mals, were all amongst the objects created on the 
fifth day, and produced by the waters. 

There are very large and beautiful shells 
found in South America, belonging to the terres- 
trial herbivorous section and to different genera’ 
divided from Helix of Linné, but we know 
nothing of their history or habits, I shall there- 
fore now say something upon the marine herbi- 
vorous Trachelipods. 

The violet snail,* which, according to the ac- 
count of its manners given by Bosc, who paid 
particular attention to them in a voyage from 
France to America, exhibits several very re- 
markable peculiarities. When the sea is calm, 
these animals may be seen collected often in 


1 Succinea. 2 S. elongata. 
3 For instance, Achatina Bulimus, &c. 
4 Lanthina, Prare VI, Fic. 2. 


292 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


large bands, swimming over the surface by 
means of a floating apparatus consisting of aérial 
vesicles, produced by their foot; and attached 
to its posterior part, a little below the point to 
which the operculum is fixed in other genera, and 
to which Cuvier thinks it bears some analogy,’ 
who also observes that it has a natatory mem- 
brane or fin on each side of its body. During 
this action their head is very prominent, and the 
foot is so extended that the float or line of 
vesicles forms an angle with the middle of the 
shell. When the sea is rough, the animal ab- 
sorbs the air from its vesicles, changes the direc- 
tion of its foot, contracts its body, and lets itself 
sink. It does the same when in danger from 
any enemy, and further, like the cuttle-fish and 
some others, colours the water by the emission 
of a blue fluid, which serves to conceal it. 
They are vividly phosphoric in the night. Birds 
carry them off with great dexterity. 

If their floating apparatus is mutilated the 
foot can reproduce it. The latter is flat towards 
the head, this part of it is furnished with a 
transparent membrane, which extends far be- 
yond its extremity, and is composed of a large 
number of vesicles of unequal size, those in the 
middle being the largest; these vesicles the iy 
animals fill with air at their pleasure. The — 


+ Pirate VI. Fre@.'2: a. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 293 


violet-coloured shell of this little animal is re- 
markably thin, which facilitates its excursions 
on the surface. It is singular that under this 
fragile vesicular float a little line of pearly fibres 
may be perceived, to which are attached its 
eggs; in some species they are contained in 
little membranous bags or sacs. It is thought 
that the young animals, when liberated from 
these bags or chambers, ascend their mother’s 
float, and so are transported to the surface. 
Fishes are enabled to rise to the surface of the 
water by means of their air-bladders, and some 
radiaries by a vesicle which surmounts them,’ 
but neither of them are more singular than these 
outriggers by which the vessel of the violet-snail 
is kept both buoyant and steady. 

The foot of the Molluscans, when we first 
observe it, seems to us merely an organ of loco- 
motion, nothing remarkable in its structure, and 
incapable of any multifarious action, but when 
we study the history of this and the preceding 
snail, we see that it is a most important organ, 
and which performs a greater variety of opera- 
tions than almost any organ of any other animal. 
We have seen that it spins a fine silk and 
thread ; that it secretes a fluid serviceable for 
several purposes; that it can form a float, as 
in the present instance; that it can be used as a 


1 See above, p. 195. 


294 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


hand in excavating and building, and various 
other manipulations, so that in giving them this 
instrument and endowing it with such variety of 
functions in the various tribes, their Creator gave 
them every thing they wanted. 

Perhaps the followers of Lamarck may say 
that, in the present instance, the animal constructs 
its own float itself, at the impulse of its own 
wants. But uninstructed by its Creator, how could 
it learn that vesicles full of air would serve to float 
its little boat, and if not already organized to an- 
swer the impulse of an exciting cause, in vain 
would the will of the animal, if so instructed, en- 
deavour to produce and inflate the vesicles, or, 
when it willed to sink, to empty them of air. 

The shell-fish of the aquatic tribe best known 
in this country is the periwinkle, vulgarly called 
the pin-patch,' which, next to the oyster and the 
cockle, seems most in request as a relishing 
article of food. These animals, as I observed, 
not very long since at Cromer, in Norfolk, ap- 
pear to make the bladder-kelp,? which, at low — 
water, may be seen there in large patches, a 


kind of submarine pasture, for I found them in — : 
abundance upon it at low water. As the — 


Creator willed that the waters, whether salt or — 
fresh, should have their peculiar inhabitants, it 
was requisite that each should have its appro- 


1 Turbo litoreus. 2 Fucus vesiculosus. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 205 


priate food. Did all feed upon the same sub- 
stance there would be a universal struggle, 
unless indeed, the entire variety of the sub- 
marine botanical world was done away, and 
one homogeneous article provided, in such 
quantity as to be a sufficient supply for all. 
But further, doubtless, different organizations 
and forms could not be maintained upon the 
same pabulum, and therefore different creatures 
required different articles of food, or different 
parts of the same article. Here was a mutual 
office—the numberless vegetable productions 
require to be kept within due limits, and there- 
fore the functions of the aquatic animals is to 
maintain them in due relative proportions. Was 
the ocean and all its streams planted as now, 
and there were no animals of any description to 
keep in check its vegetable productions, they 
would all in time grow up and choke the rivers 
and gradually raise the bed of the ocean till 
there would be no more sea. 


Having considered the plant-devouring Tra- 
chelipods, I shall say something next upon the 
carnivorous or predaceous ones, which form the 
great body of large marine shells, and those 
which most ornament our cabinets, for to this 
tribe belong the Cowries,’ Cones,’ Mitres,° 


1 Cypred. 2 Conus. 3 Mitra, 


296 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Whelks,! Tuns,? Volutes,? Helmets, Rock- 
shells,> Strombs,® and other conchs which ex- 


ceed the general run of shells in beauty, form, 3 
and magnitude. But with regard to their habits : 


and instincts we know little or nothing of seh. &R 
interest. st 

They are distinguished from the Se 
ones by breathing the sea-water, for they are 
all submarine, by means of a siphon or tube, 
instead of by an aperture in the neck; in the 
place of maxille, their mouth is furnished 
with a retractile proboscis, with which they 
pierce and suck other shell-fish. The aperture 
of the shell is also very different, the siphon 
being accompanied sometimes by a channel, 
and sometimes by a notch at the base of the 
aperture. 

The tribe most celebrated from ancient times, 
on account of the vaunted purple die which 
one species produced, is that constituted by the 


Rock-shells, or Linné’s great genus, Murex, — 


and Lamarck’s canaliferous Zoophagans, called 
so from the long straight canal which terminates 
the mouth of their shells. The principal fea- 
ture of this tribe, besides their long channelled 
beak, is the vast variety of spines, and other 
processes and ridges, with which their Creator — 


has armed a great number of them; the = 


1 Buccinum. 2 Dolium. > Voluta. 
* Cassis. > Murex. ° Strombus. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 297 


beak and mouth of several give them no small 
resemblance to the heads of certain birds, thus 
one is called the thorny woodcock,' another the 
snipe,” &c. 

At the first blush an inquirer into the use of 
these spines and other arms of shell-fish, would 
imagine that their object is defence, yet when 
he is told that those which are most remark- 
able for them, are themselves predaceous 
animals; and that the herbivorous shell-fish 
are usually not distinguished by any thing of 
the kind, he seems to hesitate as to what con- 
clusion he shall draw. It may be observed, 
however, that the tribe most distinguished for 
these arms, the rock-shells, are not so remarkable 
for their size as many others which live by 
prey, as the strombs, the helmet-shells, and the 
tritons, so that their armour may sometimes 
prevent one of these from boring their shells, 
and inserting its proboscis into them. 

The tribe we are now considering, the rock- 
shells, were in high esteem from the earliest ages 
on account of the die that some of them af- 
forded, and cloths died with it bore a higher 
price than almost any other: more than one spe- 
cies, however, yielded anciently a die; one, ac- 
cording to Bochart, a glaucous or azure colour, 
as he interprets it, and the other purple. But 


1M. Tribulus. 2 M. Haustellum. 


298 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Tyrian purple is no longer in request. I could 
say much, observes the author just named, upon 
the finding, fishing, and method of dying of the 
purpura, about the price formerly enormous, 
nearly equalling that of pearls, a single shell, 
according to Aristotle, selling for a mina or about 
3f. concerning the time at which it began gra- 
dually to grow out of fashion, and at length to be 
wholly neglected: so that now it is never used, 
and no one knows the method of preparing it. 
In fact, the cochineal seems to have supplanted 
it, but it would surely be an object of great 
interest to re-discover the Tyrian rock-shell, as 
well as that which yielded the azure colour, and 
ascertain how far they deserved, especially the 
former, the high encomiums bestowed upon them, 
and to deck imperial shoulders. The shells are 
probably still in existence on the coast of Pales- 
tine. It was the custom to crush the shell as 
soon as taken, for if kept the animal was wont 
to vomit its flower, as the purple die was called 
by Aristotle. This great philosopher thought 
the purpura lived six years, as the adult animal 
had six whirls in its shell, and he supposed one 
to be formed annually. He gives a detailed 
history of these animals, of their congregating 


in the spring, and of their forming a kind of — 
comb, like bees; he also mentions several kinds — 


of them, that the small shells were bruised, 
and the animal extracted from the large ones; 


% 
‘ 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 299 


that the die lies between the neck and what 
he denominates the poppy. It is found, by 
Cuvier, to be placed above the neck by the 
side of the stomach. Plumier relates that a 
shell-fish of this genus squirts out its fluid in 
a stream, whenever molested, which renders 
it probable that its object is defence. 

_ Aristotle mentions the operculum of the pur- 
ple, and also the proboscis, or tongue as he calls 
it, which he describes as longer than the finger, 
and protruded from under the operculum, with 
this it feeds, and with it can pierce shells, and 
will attack even those of its own kind; this 
agrees with modern observations, adding that 
the tongue is terminated by a sucker armed 
with short tentacles. Aristotle also observes, an 
observation confirmed likewise by modern inves- 
tigators, that these animals bury themselves in 
the sand like the pectens. This learned na- 
turalist also states that shell-fish at certain 
seasons hide themselves, snails in the winter, 
and the purples and whelks for a month during 
the dog days. 

The die of the purple is mentioned in scrip- 
ture as well as that of the coccus, and was used 
as such in the time of Moses. It is said also 
to be used at this time in India and America 
to dye small pieces of stuff, but in no place is 
it an important object. 

Having given so long an account of the rock- 


300 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


shells or purples, I shall not have occasion to — 
dilate upon any of the remaining genera, but — 
shall merely notice a few peculiarities that some _ 
of them exhibit. ‘ 
The Cowries are a tribe long known and — 
admired for their beauty and polish, and one 
species' forms the current coin in many parts of | 
Africa, and many Asiatic Islands. Some re- — 
markable facts distinguish their history; from the 
form of their shell and of its aperture, its incre- — 
ment could not take place in the usual way, — 
these animals, therefore, are furnished by their 
Creator with a remarkably ample mantle, the 
wings of which cover half the shell, and thus it 
is gradually thickened, and changes and va- 
riations in the colour take place that have 
puzzled conchologists to distinguish a species 
from a variety. At certain times the animal 
is also stated to quit its shell, and form itself — 
a new one more appropriate to its size, a circum- 
stance related. by Aristotle of the Buccinum.? 
Volutes are another polished tribe of shells, 
which are probably formed by the mantle as in 
the Cowries—-they are particularly distinguished 
by having no operculum. The jet volute is © 
viviparous, and its young when excluded are 
said to have shells an inch long. These pro- 
bably are more exposed to enemies than the — 


' Cyprea Moneta. 2 Knové, Arist. 


UNIVALVE MOLLUSCANS. 301 


young of other shell-fish. They form an im- 
portant article of food to some African nations. 

Before I close this account of these preda- 
ceous Molluscans, I must observe, that they 
have two distinct sexes, and consequently male 
and female shells. The genuine hermaphrodites 
are confined to the bivalves, for in the univalve 
hermaphrodites two individuals are. necessary 
for re-production, and therefore those form a 
distinct link between the true hermaphrodites 
that impregnate themselves, and those that have 
distinct sexes. So gradual are the steps by 
which the Creator passes from low to high. 
First, animals are re-produced without sexual 
intercourse, as in the polypes; then the two 
sexes are united in one body, and suffice for 
their own impregnation—next follow two sexes 
in the same body, which cannot impregnate 
themselves, bringing us at last to distinct sexes, 
or unisexual individuals. 


4. Lamarck’s fifth family, the Heteropods, I 
introduce here because, being univalves, they 
appear to connect that tribe with the Cepha- 
lopods forming his fourth order, but which from 
the discovery of the animal of Nautilus Pom- 
ptlius, so admirably described by Mr. Owen, 
being further removed from the other Mollus- 
cans, and the animal of the Heteropods having 
a proboscis and only two tentacles, seems inter- 


302 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


mediate between the Zoophagan Trachelipods q 


and the Cephalopods. They have four swim- — 


ming organs. There seems a_ considerable ¥ 
affinity between this tribe and the Pteropods — 
in these organs, which indicates a circular ar-— 


rangement in the univalve Molluscans. The © 


Carinaria vitrea is one of the rarest shells that — 
is known, arising probably from its extremely 
fragile conch, which is nearly as transparent as — 
glass. A model of it in wax may be seen in 
the British Museum. The animal is a sailor — 
like the Argonaut, to which it comes near. It is 


found in the South Seas. There are two other — 


species known, one of which frequents the 
Mediterranean. Some genera without shells — 
are placed in this order by Lamarck. They ~ 
swim horizontally like fishes, which circum- 

stance, in conjunction with their fins or swim- — 
ming organs, induced him to place them at the 
end of the Molluscans as near the fishes; se- — 
veral authors consider them as belonging to the — 
Pteropods, to which they are certainly related. 


303 


* CnHaprer X. 


Functions and Instincts. Cephalopods. 


We have now taken leave of what may be called 
the proper Molluscans, including the Bivalves, 
and Univalves! of Aristotle and Linné, or the 
Conchifers and Molluscans of Lamarck, and are 
arrived at a Class remarkable, not only for their 
organization, form and habits, but also for their 
position in the animal kingdom; for in their 
composition they seem to include elements from 
both the great divisions of that kingdom: from 
the Vertebrates—the beak, the eye, the tongue, 
an organ for hearing, the crop, the gizzard, and 
an analogue of the spine, with several other 
parts enumerated by Cuvier; and from their own 
sub-kingdom, many of their remaining organs. 
We may descend to the very basis of the animal 
kingdom for the first draught of their nervous 
system, for it is discoverable in the wheel-animals 
in which Ehrenberg detected pharyngal gang- 
lions and a nuchal nervous collar ;* the sucker- 


1 Abupa. Movobvoa. 


2 Ganglia nervea pharyngea. Annulus nerveus nuchalis. 


Ehren. 


304 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


bearing arms seem to have their first outline in 
the fresh water polypes;! indeed if the mouth 
of the cuttle-fish with its suckers, be separated 
from the head, leaving behind the long arms, 
we see immediately an analogue of a radiary, 
particularly of a star-fish, with its rays bearing 
suckers below, and its central mouth. ‘The 
lamellated tentacles observed by Mr. Owen in 
his work, before’ quoted, on the animal of the 
Pearly Nautilus,” above and below the eyes, 
seem to lead to the antenne of Crustaceans and 
Insects, and numerous Molluscan characters are 
obvious to every one. From these circumstances 
it seems evident that the Creator has placed this 
tribe in a station which leads to very different 
and distant points in the animal kingdom, and 
that there is scarcely any but what may re- 


cognize in it one or more of its own peculiar — 


features—yet at the same time it exhibits many 
characters, both in its most extraordinary out- 
ward form and in its internal organization, that 
are quite peculiar and swt generis, of which no 
animal at present known exhibits the slightest 
traces. ‘To mention only its muscular apparatus 
adapted to its unparalleled form; its system of 
circulation, carried on in the first Order by three 
distinct organs instead of one heart; and the 
wonderful complication of their tentacles, of 


' Hydra. * Nautilus Pompilius. 


CEPHALOPODS. 305 


the nerves that move them, and the vascular 
system that animates them. 

This singular Class, which Cuvier denominated 
Cephalopods, or having their feet attached to 
their head, appears to follow very naturally the 
Trachelipods and Heteropods, lately described, 
which have not only eyes furnished with iris 
and pupil, but also distinct sexes, and are of pre- 
daceous habits, all characters which they possess 
in common with the Cephalopods or Cuttle-fish. 
There is, however, an animal amongst the naked 
Gastropods—called by the ancients, from its ten- 
tacles representing the ears of a hare, the sea- 
hare,» a name it still bears in Italy, which 
Linné named Laplysia, in which he was followed 
by Lamarck, but modern writers after Gmelin 
have called it Aplysia, a name used by Aristotle 
for a very different animal, a kind of sponge,’ 
and, therefore, improperly applied—this animal 
has many characters that are found in some of 
the Cephalopods, particularly in its circulating 
and nervous systems; in having internal solid 
parts, and in discolouring the water with an inky 
fluid, so that there seems also a connection 
between this genus and the Cephalopods amount- 
ing to something more than a mere analogical 
resemblance. 

Mr. Owen has divided this Class into two 


1 Lepus marinus, Plin. 2 Hist. An. \. v. ce. 16. 
AOL. i. xXx 


306 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Orders, from the composition of their respiratory 
organs, namely, those that have two branchie,’ — 
or gills, and those that have four.” The first in- ‘ 
cludes those that have no shell, and the second ~ 
those that have one. The last is further divisible — 
into those whose shell has many chambers, as — 
the Nautilus, and those where it has only one, 
as the Argonaut, or paper nautilus. ’ 

To the first of these Orders belongs the cuttle- — 
Jish, one of the most wonderful works of the 
Creator. Its mouth is surrounded by eight long — 
fleshy arms, or rather legs, somewhat conical j 
in shape, and acute at the end, moved by innu- — 
merable nerves, furnished from numerous gang- — 
lions: these legs can bend in every direction — 
with the utmost vigour and activity, their sur- 
face is furnished with many suckers, by which 
they can fix themselves strongly to any thing 
they wish to lay hold of, and by means of 
which, like the star-fish,* they can move from 
place to place. When this animal walks, in- 
this resembling also the star-fish and sea-urchin,’ 
it moves with its head and mouth downwards’ 
and its body elevated. It swims also and seizes © 
its prey by means of these organs: besides these — 
arms or legs, for they perform the functions — 
of both, there is a pair of long organs, one on — 


1 Dibranchiata. 2 Tetrabranchiata. 
3 Sepia. 4 See above, p. 201. 
5 Ibid, p. 212. 


CEPHALOPODS. 307 


each side, having their origin between the first 
and second pair of legs, which are incrassated 
at the end, where, also, they are furnished with 
many suckers. Cuvier supposes they use these 
as anchors to maintain them in their station 
during tempests, and as prehensile instruments, 
by which they can seize their prey at a dis- 
tance. In the centre of the legs is the mouth, 
surrounded by a tubular membranous lip, in- 
cluding a beak, consisting of two mandibles, 
like that of a paroquet; these mandibles or 
jaws are crooked, and the upper one fits into 
the lower as a sliding lid into a box. With 
these redoubtable jaws the cuttle-fish devours 
fishes, crustaceans and even shell-fish, which 
receive a further trituration in its muscular 
crop and its gizzard. By means of the suckers 
on their legs and arms, they lay such fast hold 
of their prey as to deprive them of all power 
of motion; thus they master individuals much 
larger than themselves. The hard and often 
spinose crust of crabs or lobsters cannot with- 
stand the action of their trenchant jaws, and 
they do not fear the gripe of their claws. Their 
large eyes, which resemble those of vertebrated 
animals, by their look of ferocity, are enough 
to create an alarm in the animals they pursue, 
and are said to see in the night as well as 
the day. So that although they are not like 
Pontoppidans Kraken—the notion of which 


308 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


is thought to have been taken from a large 
cuttle-fish—half a league in circumference, so. 
as to be mistaken for floating islands, yet they 
are really as tremendous animals, their size 
considered, as any that Providence has com- 
missioned to keep within due limits the Mea 
lace of the waters. 

One of their most remarkable and unique 
features, is the manner in which circulation 


takes place in them. They have ¢hree hearts; j 


the principal one, seated in the middle, sends 
the blood through the arteries: the blood re- 
turns by a vena cava, which dividing into two 
branches, carries it to the two lateral hearts, 
each of which sends it to the gills for oxygena- 
tion, whence it returns again by the intermediate 
heart. 


The Octopus, called by the French writers 
the Poulpe, probably a contraction of polype, — 
differs from the common cuttle-fish, having 
neither the arms nor long tentacles of that — 
animal, and instead of the large heavy bone — 


has only two small cartilages. This different 


structure is rendered necessary by the difference 
in their habits. The body of the octopus is 
small, and it has legs sometimes a foot and 


ee eS a eee ee ee ee, 


a half in length, with about two hundred and 
forty suckers on each leg, arranged, except near 


the mouth, in a double series; so that it walks 
with ease. They are often out of the water, 7 


CEPHALOPODS. 309 


and frequent rough places, are excellent swim- 
mers, and move rapidly in the water with their 
head behind. The cuttle-fish, whose legs are 
short and body heavy, prefer the bottom, and 
do not attempt to swim, for which they are not 
well fitted. Providence has, therefore, given 
them their long arms to compensate for the 
shortness of their legs. 

A remarkable peculiarity distinguishes these 
animals. They are furnished with an organ 
which secretes a black fluid, with which they 
can produce an obscurity in the water that 
surrounds them, on any appearance of danger, 
or to conceal themselves from their prey. The 
Chinese are said to use it in making the ink 
that bears the name of their country ; something 
similar, but not so black, is prepared from it in 
Italy ; and Cuvier used it to colour the plates for 
his memoir on these animals. 

The second order of cephalopods, or at least 
the pearly nautilus, differs in several respects 
from those which constitute the first, and which 
I have just described, approaching much nearer 
to the Molluscans. The most striking approxi- 
mation, and which first catches the eye of the 
examiner is its shell, which, though its spiral 
convolutions are not externally visible, exhibits 
a general resemblance to a univalve shell. 
To a person who had the opportunity of wit- 
nessing the motions of the animal that inhabits 


310 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


it, the first thing that would strike him, would 
be the means by which it progressed upon the 
bed of the sea, he would see no motion produced 
by the action of tentacular legs furnished with 
suckers, like those of the cuttle-fish, but instead 
of it, by’ a single expansive organ, exhibiting 
considerable resemblance to the foot of a snail. 
This organ, Mr. Owen, led by the nervous 
system, regards as surmounting the head and 
as its principal instrument for locomotion. The 
eral organs of this animal are much more nume- 
rous and complicated than those of the cuttle- 
fish; and are furnished with no suckers. Its 
tentacles are retractile within four) processes, 
each pierced by twelve canals protruding an 
equal number of these organs, so that in all 
there are forty-eight. In fact, the whole oral 
apparatus, for the full description of which I 
must refer the reader to Mr. Owen’s excellent 
tract, except the mandibles and the lip, is — 
formed upon a plan different from that of the © 
cuttle-fish, as likewise from that of the carnivo- 
rous trachelipod Molluscans, and indicates very | 
different modes of entrapping and catching 
their prey. 

The eye, also, Mr. Owen states to te duce 
to the simplest condition that the organ of vision 
can assume, without departing altogether from — 
the type of the higher classes, so that it seems 
not far removed from that of the proper Mol-— 


CEPHALOPODS. Jil 


luscans. In this animal there is only a single 
heart, the branchial ones being wanting. 

There is one circumstance which proves this 
cephalopod to belong to this shell, and not to be 
a parasitic animal as that of the argonaut has 
been supposed to be—it is this, though the 
whole body appears to reside in the last and 
largest concameration of the shell, yet there 
is a small tubular tail-like process which enters 
the siphon, but which unfortunately was muti- 
lated, only a small piece being left, but enough 
to shew that the animal had power over the 
whole shell by means of this organ, hence it- 
follows that a Cephalopod is the animal that 
forms the shell of the nautilus, and its natural 
inhabitant, which goes a great way towards 
settling the controversy concerning the real 
animal of the argonaut, and amounts almost to 
a demonstration that the celebrated sailor that 
uses it as a boat, and scuds gaily in it over the 
ocean, is no pirate that has murdered its natural 
owner, but sails in a skiff of his own building. 

The only circumstance that now leaves any 
doubt in the mind of the inquirer, is the very 
different nature of the cephalopod of the argo- 
naut and the nautilus, the former appearing 
to be nearly related to the octopus or poulpe, 
and belonging to the genus Ocythie of Rafi- 
nesque. In this genus the tentacular legs or 
arms are similar to those of the poulpes, planted 


olZ FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


on the inner side with a double series of sessile 
suckers, the second pair having a membranous 
dilatation at their apex,’ which the, animal is 
supposed to use as a sail when it moves on the 
surface of the sea. Some naturalists deny that 
this animal ever uses these organs for sailing or 
rowing, but Bosc expressly asserts, and I am 
not aware that there is any reason to doubt his 
veracity, that he has seen hundreds of the 
argonauts rowing over the surface of the sea, in 
calm days, at so small a distance from the vessel 
in which he was sailing, that though he could 
not catch one, he could observe all their ma- 
neeuvres; he further says, that they employ their 
dilated tentacle sometimes as a sail and some- 
times as an oar. | 

When we consider how many instances are 
upon record of Molluscans being fitted with 
organs that enable them to catch the wind and 
sail on the surface of the sea,’ there is nothing 
contradictory either to analogy or probability 
that the argonaut should do the same, espe- 
cially when we consider how universally this 
idea has prevailed, from the time, at least, 
of Pliny and Oppian, both of whom describe 
its sails with sufficient accuracy. Aristotle also 
speaks of his polype, which is evidently a 
cephalopod, as a sailor by nature—he says, 


' See Zool. Journ. n. xill, t. ib. * See above, p. 263. 


CEPHALOPODS. 313 


that when it rises from the deep it is in a 
subverted shell, rendering that action more easy 
and keeping the shell empty, but that when 
arrived at the surface it reverses it; that it 
spreads its sail to the wind, and when that 
blows, letting down its two cirri, one on each 
side, uses them to steer with. 

Upon comparing the animal of the nautilus 
with that of the argonaut, it appears evident, 
though the gills of the latter seem not to have 
been examined, that they belong to different 
Orders, at least, every probability rests on that 
side; yet every thing speaks the relationship of 
the latter to the octopus, and therefore they 
would properly form a section of the dibran- 
chiata of Mr. Owen. In fact, the oral organs of 
the former are so widely different from those of 
the Order just mentioned, that one would 
almost expect another to connect them. This 
probably lies dormant amongst the fossil am- 
monites, the shells of many of which, though 
consisting of many chambers, are evidently in- 
termediate between the nautilus and argonaut. 

We must next inquire what was the object 
of Him, who does nothing but with a view to 
some useful, though not always evident, end, 
in producing these miniature monsters of the 
deep, so wonderfully organized and so unlike 
every other tribe of animals, in his creation, and 
yet containing in them, as we have seen, as it 


314 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


were, the elements, whether we ascend or de- 
scend, of all the rest. It appears from the 
united testimony of almost every writer that 
has noticed them, that they have it in charge 
to keep within due limits, a tribe of animals, 
almost equally destructive with themselves, and 
which are armed also with weapons of offence, 
apparently equally terrific to their prey. It 
will be readily perceived that I am speaking of 
the Crustaceans, and of the formidable pincers 
with which they seize their prey. It must 
be a curious spectacle to see one of the larger 
poulpes attack a lobster; at first sight, we © 
should think the latter most likely to master 
his assailant, covered as he is with a hard crust, 
and using adroitly his powerful forceps, we 
should feel sure that the cuttle-fish, with his 
soft body and oral organs equally soft, stood no 
chance against such an antagonist. But He 
who gave him his commission, has fitted him for 
the execution of it, his soft tentacular organs 
will bend in every direction, and the numerous 
suckers wherewith they are planted, by pumping 
out the medium that forms the atmosphere of 
marine animals, produce such a pressure where- 
ever they are fixed, that, struggle as it may, 
it cannot disengage itself from the grasp of its 
assailant; and, by their flexibility, these organs 
can imitate the fishermen, and tie together the 
two pieces of the forceps, so that it cannot bite ; 


CEPHALOPODS. 315 


thus, at last, it is brought within the action of 
the powerful beak of the cuttle-fish, which soon 
makes its way through its crust, and devours it 
shell and all. Even when at a distance, by 
means of its long arms, the cuttle-fish can lay 
hold of it and drag it towards it; and the 
poulpe, which has not these arms, makes up for 
it by having longer legs. 

The argonaut probably uses similar means to 
master its prey, and finds some defence in its 
shell, but the nautilus has a still stronger castle, 
which it may be supposed defies the bite of the 
Crustacean; its oral organs are calculated for 
closer combat, but the tentacles appear less 
adapted for holding fast their prey, not being 
visibly furnished with suckers, but what they 
want in power is made up in numbers, since in 
lieu of eight or ten tentacular organs, they have 
nearly a hundred. So diversified are the ways 
and instruments by which infinite wispom, 
POWER, and GOoDNEss enables its creatures to 
fulfil the ends for which he created them: and 
so an equilibrium is maintained in every part of 
creation. 

The fossil species are mostly called by one 
name, Ammonites, as if they. were the horns of 
the Egyptian Jupiter, and which, if any of them 
are now in existence, probably frequent the 
depths of ocean, and do not, like the argonaut 
or nautilus, visit its surface, to tell an admiring 


316 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


world, that God has created such wonderful | 


beings. Specimens have been found of the — 


enormous diameter of six feet. Though the 
sculpture of many of these great cephalopods 
gives reason to think that they may be inter- 
mediate between the argonaut and nautilus, 
yet the convolutions and external form of their 
conchs gives them no small resemblance to a 
genus of snails,’ the species of which are often 
found in fresh waters, except that in this the 
shell is more concave on one side than the other. 
The genus Spzrula, the animal of which appears 
also to be a Cephalopod,’ seems to exhibit the 
first tendency to this form. 


Amidst all this variety of Molluscous animals, 
exhibiting such diversity in their structure and 
organization, in their habits, food, modes of life, 
and stations, one great object seems attained 
by their creation especially, the production of 
calcareous matter. Even the shells of terres- 
trial testaceans, if we consider the vast numbers 
that every year perish, must add in no trifling 
degree to the quantity of that matter on the 
earth, and probably make up for the continual 
waste or employment of it, so as to maintain 
the necessary equilibrium ; but in the ocean, the 
quantity added to that produced by corallines, 


' Planorbis. 2 Prats VII. Fie. 2. 


CEPHALOPODS. 317 


must be exceedingly great, even in lakes beds 
are formed of the deposits of the shell-fish 
inhabiting them, how much more gigantic must 
they be in the ocean, this will be evident from 
the superior number and size of the oceanic 
shells compared with the minute species, the 
Limnea, Planorbis, &c. that inhabit our lakes 
and pools. Thus, as reefs and islands are formed 
by the coral animals, the bed of the ocean may 
be elevated by the shells of dead testaceous 
ones. That eye which is never closed, that 
thought which is never intermitted, that power 
which never rests, but, engaged in incessant 
action, and employing infinite hosts of under- 
agents to effect his purposes, sees and provides 
for the wants of the whole creation: the plant 
absorbs from the soil, the animal after devouring 
the plant, or the plant-fed creature, returns to 
the earth what the plant had absorbed, and so 
maintains the proper equilibrium ; He who num- 
bers the hairs of our head, numbers the work- 
men that he employs, employing them only in 
such proportions so distributed, as may best ac- 
complish His purposes. 


318 


Cuarrer XI. 


Functions and Instincts. Worms. 


WE are now at length, after long wanderings, 
arrived, if I may so speak, at the limits of the 
Molluscan territory, and, having visited the 
capital, seem now to be upon the confines of the 
higher hemisphere of the animal kingdom, the 
inhabitants of which are distinguished by having 
their whole frame built upon a vertebral column, 
inclosing a medullary chord, and terminating, at 
its upper extremity, in a skull containing a de- 
veloped brain. 

But though we seem arrived at the confines of 
this higher order of animals, there are still many, 
and some superior to the most perfect of the 
Molluscans, in the entirety of their nervous 
system, and the habits and instincts which they 
manifest, to which we have not yet paid the 
attention that they merit. These animals are 
particularly distinguished from the preceding 
Classes, by the appearance, or actual existence of 
segments or joints in their bodies, especially in 
their legs, of what may be called an annular 
structure. They are divided into two great 
tribes, which, from this circumstance, have been 


WORMS. 319 


called Annelidans, and Annulosans, and the last, 
with more propriety, Condylopes. 

There is one tribe, however, amongst the Ra- 
diaries, as we have seen, that shews some slight 
traces of insection, I allude to the star-fish and 
sea-urchins, forming the main body of Lamarck’s 
Order of Echinoderms. If we examine the for- 
mer, we find them marked out into areas, and in 
the latter, as I have before stated at large, the 
whole shell consists of numerous pieces united 
by different kinds of sutures. 

Before I call the reader’s attention to the two 
tribes lately mentioned, exhibiting the appear- 
ance or reality of insection, 1 must notice an 
anomalous tribe of animals, whose real station 
has not been satisfactorily made out. IJ am 
speaking of the Entozoa or Intestinal Worms. 
This Class, as Mr. W. S. Mac Leay has re- 
marked, consists of animals differing widely in 
their organization, some having a regular ner- 
yous system formed by a medullary collar send- 
ing forth two threads, while others have no 
distinct organs of sense. 

Lamarck places this Class between the T'unv- 
caries and Insects, and Cuvier, amongst his 
Zoophytes, between the Gelatines and Echino- 
derms. Mr. Mac Leay has divided it into two 
classes, placing one, consisting of the Parenchy- 
matous intestinal worms of Cuvier, between the 
Infusories and Polypes, and the Cavitaries of that 


320 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


author, amongst the Annulosans or Condylopes. 
Dr. Von Baer is of opinion that these Entozoa, 
or worms, reducible to no common type of orga- 
nization, inhabiting various animals in various 
parts of their body, together with the Infu- 
sories—and others might be added—should be 
banished from a natural arrangement of animals. 
He seems also to think, in which I feel disposed — 
to agree with him, that the leading types of animal 
organization are to be found in its lowest grades." 
As I formerly observed with respect to the In- 
fusories?—these appear to be the basis on which 
God has built the animal kingdom. As some of 
the species appear connected with the Anneh- 
dans, 1 have introduced the Class here, but not 
as having formed any settled opinion as to its 
proper division and legitimate station. 

The majority of this Class are, what their 
name imparts, zntestinal worms, or parasites, 
that have their station within the body of 
other animals. Some of them, however, do 
not answer this description, as they are found — 
only amongst aquatic vegetables; of this kind 
is a little tribe, which Linné arranged with 
the leeches,® to which they approach by the 
flukes. The Planaria, in some respects, par-_ 
takes more of the nature of a polype than of any - 

See Zool. Journ. July—October, 1828, 260. 


1 
‘2 See above, p. 148. 3 Hirudo. 
4 Fasciola. Distoma. 


WORMS. Ses 


other animal. Draparnaud, who paid particu- 
lar attention to them, says that when young 
they have only two eyes, and acquire two 
more when adult. The head has no mouth ; 
beyond the middle of the body, and on its under 
side, is a single orifice which serves for mouth, 
anus, and nostrils. This orifice answers to a 
long sac, which is the intestinal tube; from it 
sometimes issues a white tubular organ, which he 
regards as respiratory ; this organ is doubtless 
the same with the retractile trumpet-shaped pro- 
boscis, issuing from a circular aperture in the 
middle of the abdomen, mentioned by Dr. Johnson 
in his interesting paper on these animals in the 
Philosophical Transactions, which he supposes 
to be a kind of mouth, when extended, equalling 
in length the animal itself.| This remarkable 
organ was also noticed by Miller and Mr. 
Dalyell. The circumstance of its receiving and 
extruding its aliment and respiring at the same 
orifice, is a clear approximation to the polype. 
A further confirmation of this is the power this 
animal possesses of spontaneously dividing itself 
for the purpose of reproduction. M. Drapar- 
naud—after remarking that the species he de- 
scribed, which he calls P. tentaculata, and which 
is probably synonymous with that particularly 
noticed by Dr. Johnson under the name of 


1 Philos. Trans. 1825, i. 254. ¢. xvi. f. 10. 
VOL. I. 4 


322 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


P. cornuta, is oviparous in the spring and gem- 
miparous in the autumn—observes, that, in the 
latter season, it divides itself spontaneously and 
transversely into two parts above the abdominal 
orifice, and at the end of ten days each of these 
parts has acquired the head or the tail that 
it wanted. He has divided individuals into 
many transverse pieces and two longitudinal 
ones, and every piece, in due time, completed 
itself. It formed eyes, an intestinal tube, and 
other necessary organs. 

Mr. Dalyell and Dr. Johnson subsequently 
made similar observations, and by dividing the 
head had succeeded in producing an animal 


with two heads; the latter, from the result of — | 


several observations, found that each individual, 
upon an average, might, by spontaneous self- 


division, produce ten, and this when under | 


constraint; if at liberty, and in their. natural 
situation, we may conj ecture that their reproduc- 


tive powers might be carried much higher. Dr. — | 


Johnson divided one into three equal portions, 
when the head speedily acquired a new body — 
and tail; the tail, a new body and head; and 
the middle piece a new head and tail. 

From this whole statement it is evident that _ 
these pseudo-leeches, to say the least, their sub- | 
stance considered, tend towards the polypes, and — 
possess the same reviviscent powers. In several — 
characters, which I shall notice hereafter, they — 


WORMS. 325 


also agree with the Annelidans. Draparnaud, 
from the approximation of the points on the 
head of P. cornuta, to the tentacles of Lymnea, 
thinks that they form a link between the Mol- 
luseans and the Worms. Reproductive powers 
have certainly been observed in the former, but 
only in the reproduction of mutilated organs, 
for a snail or slug cut in pieces, would not form 
so many individual animals. Bonnet has given 
an account of reproductive powers in one 
of the Hispid Worms’ of Lamarck, supposed 
by Gmelin to be the Nais barbata of Miiller, 
and in a species of fresh water worm belong- 
ing to the Annelidans, which, if I may so 
speak, grows from cuttings, and like the Planarie, 
can produce two heads. These last are probably 
not far removed from the flukes,’ though their 
station is so different. Whether they live on 
animal or vegetable matter is not certainly 
ascertained ; to look at their proboscis it seems 
rather calculated to fix them as a sucker, to 
some animal, and so to derive their nutriment 
from it, like their analogue, the leech, especially 
as the marine species are supposed to be car- 
nivorous. 

Their wonderful reproductive powers appear 
to be given them by a kind Providence to pre- 
vent their total annihilation ; at least, it is stated, 
that at certain periods of the year, their numbers 


" Vers hispides. * Fasciola. 


J2A FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


are so reduced, that where thousands were seén 
in summer, in spring scarcely one has survived. 
Their substance is so soft and gelatinous, that 
they are easily destroyed ; to compensate this, 
they are gifted with the extraordinary powers 
of reproduction above described. God hath so 
tempered his sentient works, that seeming 
defects, in one respect, are compensated by 
redundance in another. 


Having made these observations upon animals 
of this class, that do not infest man or beast 
internally, I next turn to those whose office is, 
in spite of all his care, to make the Lord of the 
Creation, as well as the whole animal kingdom, 
not only their constant abode, but also their 
food. More than twenty of these pestiferous 
creatures, that attack man, have been enu- 
merated ; some penetrate into the very seat of 
thought ;* others disturb his bile;* others cir- 
culate with the blood in his veins ;* others, again, 
are seated in his kidneys ;* others in his muscles;? 
the guinea worm® in his cellular tissue: the 
ovaries of females are infested by another ;7 the 
tape-worms extend themselves, joint by joint, 
to an enormous length in his intestines ;* some 


1 Echinococcus Hominis. 2 Fasciola hepatica. 
3 Linguatula Venarum.  - 4 Strongylus gigas. 
5 Hydatigera cellulosa. 6 Filaria medinensis. 
7 Linguatula pinguicula. 

8 


Tenia solium, and Botryocephalus Hominis, 


WORMS. 3 45) 


select the large intestine ;' ‘and others the small 
ones ;* some even attack infants, and them 
only. Such are the ills that flesh is heir to 
from these our internal assailants and devourers. 
—The recital is really enough to cause our hair 
to stand on end. No one can believe that all 
these instruments of punishment were at work 
in the first pair when they came from the hands 
of their Maker, and nothing, except death, can 
prove with a greater strength of evidence, that 
he is fallen from -his original state of integrity 
and favour with God, than such an army of 
scourges set in array against him. I shall 
enlarge a little upon a few of them, and then 
bid adieu to the disgusting subject. 

There are few people, that have not heard of 
the fluke, or animal resembling a flat fish, and 
which really has been mistaken for one, often 
found in the liver of diseased sheep, and some- 
times also in the human gall-bladder and bile- 
vessels. The eyes of these animals are very 
prominent, and set in a cartilaginous ring, seem- 
ing to exhibit both iris and pupil; they are both 
planted in the upper side of the head, like those 
of the fish* they resemble. Like the leech, the 
fluke has two orifices—the first in a tubular pro- 
longation of the head, and the other underneath 


' Trichocephalus Hominis. * Ascaris lumbricoides. 
> Oxyurus Vermicularis. 
‘ * Leeuwen: Arcan. Nat. E. Tr. t. f. H K. i. K. 


326 _ FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


in the abdomen, but distant from the tail. By 
these they fix themselves, living by suction ; 
they sometimes produce fatal effects upon sheep. 
When only in small numbers, they, doubtless, 
as well as the rest of the Class, answer some 
good end; it is solely when they become 
too numerous that they occasion fatal dis- 
eases. Leeuwenhoek found 870 in one liver, 
and in others only ten or twelve. He says 
they occur in many kinds of quadrupeds, as 
stags, wild boars, and calves. He seems quite 
at a loss to account for their introduction into 
the livers of these animals, but concludes that, 
like the leech, their native element is water, 
and their eggs, swallowed by cattle when they 
drink, so find their way into the liver. This 
of course is all conjecture. Providence, who 
assigned to them their office, has also directed 
them to their station, but from whence or by 
what route we do not know certainly at present. 
A friend of mine who has kept a flock for many 
years, has observed that whenever they were 
turned into moist meadows in wet seasons, they 
suffered greatly from these animals; but that in 
the same situation, in a dry one, they were not 
affected. 

The most celebrated of all the intestinal ani- 
mals, are the Tape-worms, of which five species 
have been ascertained to inhabit man, besides 
whom quadrupeds, birds, reptiles and fishes are 
equally their victims. ‘These are now divided 


WORMS. 327 


into two genera, the common' and the grape- 
headed tapeworms.* The former is the most 
common in England,’ but the latter’ seems the 
most gigantic of any. Sir A. Carlisle, who has 
a most excellent paper upon the former, in the 
second volume of the Linnean Transactions, 
says that he has met with them from less 
than six feet long and consisting only of fifty 
joints, to thirty feet long with four hundred 
joints. But these are nothing compared with 
others of the latter observed by continental 
writers. Bonnet mentions them as sometimes 
extending to the length of thirty. ells, probably 
meaning French ells, or one hundred and 
twenty-five feet, and Boerhaave, one that greatly 
exceeded that length. 

These animals differ little from each other, but 
in the common tape-worm, the head which has 
a circular orifice or mouth at its extremity sur- 
rounded by a number of rays of a fibrous tex- 
ture, and probably serving to fix the mouth, has 
on each side two small suckers which doubtless 
attach the head more strongly. The mouth, 
before spoken of, is continued by a short duct 
into two canals, which pass round every joint 
of the animal’s body conveying its aliment, and 
sending a transverse canal along its bottom 
which connects the two lateral ones. Sir An- 
thony injected upwards of three feet of these 


* Tenia. > Botryocephalus. Puatre I. 8. Fre. 3. — 
> Tenia solium. * Botryocephalus latus. 


328 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


canals by a single push with a small syringe, 
but he could not make it pass upwards beyond 
two joints which seemed to indicate the exist- 
ence of valves opening only in one direction. 
He says there is no anal orifice, but other au- 
thors expressly mention one, and it is not easy 
to conceive, if the last has no orifice, how the 
joints can increase in number and remain con- 
catenated. The body is composed of a vast 
number of joints, each having an organ where- 
by it attaches itself: those nearest the head are 
always small and they enlarge gradually as they 
recede from it. The extremity of the body ter- 
minates in a small semi-circular piece. © | 

_ Sir Anthony suspects that the several joints of 
the tape-worm are separate animals. This is an 
old opinion and has been adopted by several zoo- 
logists, but Bonnet seems to have proved, that 
however extended, the tape-worm is only a single 
animal. Whilst a living head remains attached 
to some joints, this creature maintains its station 
and keeps augmenting their number, but when — 
any are broken off, they appear not to form new 
heads, as Sir Anthony supposes, but die and are 
expelled from the body. Their nutriment is 
probably derived from the gastric, pancreatic, 
and other juices which perpetually flow into 
the stomach and intestines of the animals they 
infest; and they employ the tentacular rays as 
a mean of irritation to determine a greater se- 
cretion of these fluids. 


WORMS. 329 


It would be an endless labour to expatiate 
in this vast field where the rest of the animal 
kingdom is concerned, amidst therefore the 
various and strange forms that are destined to 
this office, I shall select only a few, beginning 
with one that affects one of the most valuable 
of our animal possessions, I mean the Hydatzds,' 
which particularly and often fatally affect our 
flocks of sheep, not indeed that they are con- 
fined to them, for they are found also in swine, 
deer, and oxen, and even in man himself. 

These animals resemble the tape-worm in 
their oral organs, but their body, especially 
posteriorly, is vesicular. The lymphatic vesicles 
are what medical men call hydatids ; they are 
found usually in the brain and in the liver 
of these animals. Their size varies according 
to the species, some are as big as the fist, 
and one was shewn to the School of Medicine 
in Paris as big as a man’s head. Their shape 
varies, but generally is somewhat spheroidal, 
their substance is composed of membranes one 
on another more or less thick, and formed of 
circular fibres visible only under a lens; they 
are half-filled with transparent lymph. They 
exhibit a peristaltic motion which is often very 
lively. 

Three species more particularly annoy our 
sheep. The cerebral hydatid,’ which finds its 


1 Hydatis. 2 H. cerebralis. 


330 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


way into the brain of these poor animals and 


occasions the vertigo; and the vervecine’ and — 


ovine hydatids,’ which penetrate into their lungs © 
and liver and occasion the rot. It is usually 
discovered when a sheep is infested by the 
former of these pests by its turning often and 
briskly its head on one side; when it runs very 
quick, and suddenly stops without any apparent 
cause ; in a word, when it appears almost de- — 
ranged. Though the progress of the disease they 
produce is slow, it is generally fatal. Five hun- 
dred have been counted in the head of a single 
sheep. The ravages, however, produced by this 
hydatid are nothing to those occasioned by the 
other two, which attack the lungs and liver and 
cause the rot, by which, in some years, thousands 
perish. 

Some worms are remarkable for their very 
singular forms or station. One that attaches 
itself to the gills of the bream, looks like a dou- 
ble animal,’ and a kind of fluke,* in great num- 
bers infests the ball of the eyes of the perch. 

Though at first view the animals of which I 
have in the present chapter given some account 
seem to be altogether punitive, and intended as 
scourges of sinful man both in his own person and 


1 H. vervecina. 2 H. ovilla. 

3 Diplozoon paradoxum. Puiate I. B. Fic. 4. 
4+ Diplostomum volvens. Ibid, Fic. 5. 

5 Ibid, Fie. 6. 


WORMS. ! ook 


in his property, and their great object is hasten- 
ing the execution of the sublapsarian sentence 
of death, yet this evil is not unmixed with good. 
Though fearful and hurtful to individuals, yet 
it promotes the general welfare by helping to 
reduce within due limits the numbers of man 
and beast. Besides, with regard to the Lord 
of the Creation, these things are trials that 
exercise his patience and other virtues, or tend 
to produce his reformation, and finally to secure 
to him an entrance into an immutable and eter- 
nal state of felicity, when that of probation is 
at an end, so that the gates of Death may be to 
him the gates of peace and Rest. 


CuaptTer XII. 
Functions and Instincts. Annelidans. 


Tue animals we have just been considering 
form an almost insulated group, so that it seems 
not easy to say to what tribe they are most 
nearly related, but the soft Pseudo-leeches, as 
was observed above, especially those that have 
rudimental tentacles, seem to tend somewhat 
towards the molluscan tribes; they exhibit con- 
siderable resemblance to the blood-suckers or 
true leeches, and like them have an instrument 


doo2 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS 


of suction, though employed, perhaps, in extract: _ 
ing the sap or the blood of plants, and at the — 
same time, in many respects, as we have wei: 
seen, they approach the polypes. — | 
The Flukes, likewise, appear to have some 


characters in common with the leech,’ so that — 


a passage is open from the intestinal worms 
towards the Annelidans, some of which, as the 
earth-worm, occasionally become intestinal, and 
several are possessed of reproductive powers 
almost as great as those of the pseudo-leech, 
or the polype. I shall therefore next, in taking | 
my departure from the worms, bend my steps to 
the animals just mentioned, which formerly bore — 
the same general denomination. 

They are called Annelidans, I suppose, ~ 
because they appear to be divided into little 
rings, or else to have annular folds, and are 
soft vermiform animals, some naked, others in- 
habiting tubes, in some simply membranous, 
in others covered with agglutinated particles of 
sand, and in others formed, like those of the 
Molluscans, of shelly matter. Some have nei- 
ther head, eyes, nor antenne, while others — 
are gifted with all these organs; instead of © 
jointed legs, their locomotions are accomplished 
by means of fleshy bristle-bearing retractile — 
protuberances or spurious legs disposed in ~ 


' See above, p. 325, 


ANNELIDANS. 338 


lateral rows. Their mouth is terminal but 
not formed on one type; in some it is simple, 
orbicular or labiated ; in others it consists of a 
proboscis often having maxilla. They have 
a knotty spinal marrow, in this being superior 
to the Molluscans and approaching the Con- 
dylopes. They have red blood, and _ their 
circulation is by arteries and veins, but they 
have no special organ for the maintenance 
of the systole and diastole, their Creator not 
having given them a heart, but where the veins 
and the arteries meet, there is an enlargement, 
and the systole and diastole is more visible, 
as Cuvier remarks, than in the rest of the 
system, these enlargements therefore seem to 
represent a heart. 

Savigny, in the third part of his Systéme des 
Animaux sans Vertcbres divides them into five 
Orders, of which he gives only the characters of 
the four first, intending to publish, in a supple- 
ment, his account of the fifth ; these Orders he 
arranges in two Divisions—the first including 
those that have bristles for locomotion, and the 
second those that have them not. 

1. His first Order he denominates Nereideans,' 
and characterizes them as having legs provided 
with retractile subulate bristles, without claws ; 
a distinct head with eyes and antenne ; a pro- 


1 Nereidee. 


334 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


boscis that can be protruded, conanelin armed 
with maxille. | 
2. The second he names Serpuleans, pratt add a 


to the legs of the former retractile bristles, with — : 
claws ; they have no head furnished with eyes. 


and antennz, and no proboscis.! all 

3. The third he names Lumbricinans ; thicsial 
have no projecting legs; but are furnished with 
bristles seldom retractile ; they have no head 
with eyes and antenne, and no maxille. | 


4. His fourth Order he names Hirudineans. _ 


They have a prehensile cavity, or sucker, at 
each extremity, and eyes.* | 
5. In his fifth Order he intends to compre- 
hend those Annelidans that have neither bristles — 
nor prehensile cavities, but his account of this 
has not been published. 
He begins with the most perfect of the pee | 
lidans, but viewing them in connection with the — 
worms I must reverse the order, and instead — 
of descending ascend, which will bring me 
ultimately into connection with the more dis- : 
tinctly jointed animals the Condylopes. | ae 
1. The Order of Hirudineans includes animals 4 
that are of the first importance, as well as some — 
that are fearfully annoying, to mankind. The { 
common leech* has long been so much in request _ 


hid 


*- 


' Serpulee. 2 Lumbricine and Hirndinee. 
3 Hirudo medicinalis, L. (Sanguisuga, Sav.) 


ANNELIDANS. 330 


with medical men, on account of the facility 
with which it can be applied to any part of the 
body where bleeding is required, that they are 
now become scarce in our own waters, and 
consequently dear, so that large numbers are 
imported from the Continent. 

Providence has gifted these animals with a 
sucker on the underside at each extremity of 
their body, by which their locomotions are per- 
formed, and by means of the anterior one they 
fix themselves to any animal that comes in 
their way. We see therefore in them, though 
on a larger scale, some approximation to the 
locomotive and prehensile organs of some of the 
Cephalopods, and prior to them, of the Stelle- 
ridans and Echinidans,’ which likewise move 
and fix themselves by suckers. The mouth is 
situated in the cavity of the oral sucker, it 
is triangular and armed with three sharp teeth 
disposed longitudinally in a triangle, two being 
lateral and one intermediate, and higher up. 
These teeth are sharp enough to pierce not 
only the human skin, but even the hide of an 
ox, and have their edge armed with two rows of 
very minute teeth; at the bottom of the mouth 
is the organ of suction which imbibes the blood 
flowing from the wound made by the teeth. 
These animals inhabit fresh waters, in which 


" See above, p. 306, 201, 205. 


336 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


they swim like eels with a vermicular motion, 
In moving on a solid body, they first fix them- 
selves by their anal sucker, which is larger than 
the oral, and then by means of their annular 
structure, extend themselves forwards, when they 
fix their mouth, detach their anal sucker, 
and thus fixing themselves alternately by each 
proceed with considerable rapidity. They are 
hermaphrodites, and bring forth their young 
alive. When in their native waters they suck 
any animal that comes in their way, even those 
with white blood, as the larve of fore worms, 
and the like. 

Herodotus relates that the crocodile, in con- 
sequence of its. frequenting the water so much, 
has the inside of its mouth infested by leeches, 
which a little bird, named the érochilus, enters 
and devours, without receiving any injury from 
the monster. Geoffroy St. Hilaire asserts that 
no leeches are found in the Nile, and therefore 
supposes the Bdelle of the father of history 
were not leeches but mosquitoes. But Savigny 
has described a leech under the name of Ldella, 
nilotica’ which he regards as synonymous with 
the leech of Herodotus. Bosc mentions one 
which was found in the stagnant waters 
in Egypt, when not inflated as small as a 


horse hair, which very much annoyed the. ' 


1 Prate VILL. Frey de 


ANNELIDANS. 337 


French soldiers, attacking them in nearly the 
same way; when they drank, fastening itself to 
their throat, and occasioning hemorrhages and 
other serious accidents. 

Mr. Madox, in his Excursions in the Holy 
Land, Egypt, &c., states that he had frequently 
seen, on the banks of the Nile, a bird about the 
size of a dove, or rather larger, of handsome 
plumage, and making a twittering noise when 
on the wing. It had a peculiar motion of the 
head, as if nodding to some one near it, at the 
same time turning itself to the right and left, 
and making its congé twice or thrice before 
its departure. This bird, he was told, was called 
Sucksaque, and that tradition had assigned to 
it the habit of entering the mouth of the croco- 
dile, when basking in the sun, on a sand bank, 
for the purpose of picking what might be ad- 
hering to its teeth: which being done, upon 
a hint from the bird, the reptile opens his mouth 
and permits it to fly away.’ 

This seems evidently the V’rochilus of Hero- 
dotus, above alluded to, as clearing the mouth 
of the crocodile from the leeches. Aristotle, in 
more than one place of his History of Animals, 
mentions such a bird, and a similar tradition 
concerning it, with that of Mr. Madox. “The 
Trochilus flying into the yawning mouth of the 


1 Excursions, &c. i. 408. 


VOL. I. Z 


338 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


crocodile cleanses his teeth, and thus is provided 
with food. The latter, sensible of the benefit, 
suffers it to depart uninjured.” In another 
place,” he seems to speak of it as an aquatic 
bird, yet afterwards he describes it as frequent- 
ing shrubberies and subterranean places.’ Whe- 
ther this animal really attends thus upon the 
crocodile has not been ascertained, but it would 
be singular that such a tradition should have 
maintained its ground so long without any foun- 
dation. | 

As a further proof that the Bdella of the 
father of history is a true leech, and not a mos- 
-quito,—as M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, from the 
meaning of its primitive,* would interpret the 
word,—it may be observed that Aristotle com- 
pares the Bdella to an earth-worm,’ and de- 
scribes its peculiar motion ; and in Hesychius it is 
said to be a kind of Scolea or worm; Theocritus 
also alludes to its blood-sucking propensities.° 

That leeches infest the aquatic Saurians is 
further evident from a letter received by Mr. R. 
Taylor, and very kindly communicated by him 
to me, from a friend at Calcutta, Mr. W. C. 
Hurry, who having observed that the fauces of 
the gigantic crane’ were generally very full of 

1 Hist. An. 1. ix. c. 6. 2 [bid. \. viii. e. 3. 

3 Tbid. |. ix.c. 11. 4 Them. BéeAAw, to suck. | 

5 De incessu animal. c. 9. 


6 [dyll. ii. line 55, he calls it Acyuvarce BoedXa. 
7 Ciconia Argala ? 


ANNELEDANS. 339 


leeches, determined to examine the crocodile ; 
and upon a large alligator he found a small red 
species, of which he sent specimens. A friend 
of mine, Mr. Martin, of Islington, observed also 
that the alligators of Pulo Penang were infested, 
as he thought, by an animal of this kind, called 
by the natives its louse. 

The Trochilus of Aristotle, Mr. Stanley states 
to Mr. Taylor, is the Egyptian Plover ;' who 
further observes that the Green Tody?’ is also 
related to cleanse the mouths of the alligators 
in the West Indies, from the gnats and flies 
that stick, in great abundance, in the glutinous 
matter they contain. 

But there is a terrestrial kind of leech found 
in the island of Ceylon, which appears to be a 
greater pest than any other species of the genus, 
and one of the greatest scourges of that fine 
island. They infest, in immense numbers, the 
mountains, woods, and swampy grounds, par- 
ticularly in the rainy season. ‘They are oftener 
seen on leaves and stones than in the waters. 
The largest are about half an inch long when at 
rest. Their colour varies from brown to light 
brown, with three longitudinal yellow lines. 
They are semi-transparent, and when fully ex- 
tended are like a fine chord, sharp at the ex- 
tremity, and easily thread any aperture, so that 


1 Charadrius A:gyptius. 2 Todus viridis. 


340 | FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


they can penetrate through the light clothing 
worn in that climate, rendering it impossible, 
at that season, to pass through the woods with- 
out being covered with blood, Dr. Davy counted 
fifty on the same person; no sooner does any 
individual stop, than, as if they saw or scented 
him, they crowd towards him from all quarters. 
From their immense numbers, activity, and 
thirst of blood, they are the great pest of tra- 
vellers in the interior. Percival says that the 
Dutch, in their march into the interior, at dif- 
ferent times, lost several of their men from their 
attack. Other animals besides man suffer dread- 
fully from them, and horses in particular are 
rendered so restive, when they fasten upon them, 
as to be quite unmanageable and unsafe to ride. 
The only way to prevent their attack, is to cover 
the skin completely. 

The office devolved upon the present tribe, 
is one which, within certain limits, is beneficial 
to the animals who are the objects of it—though — 
those last mentioned would be inserted in a 


list of the destroyers of the animal kingdom— 


which contribute to maintain a just balance 


between the different members of it. The fly 


that bites the horse prevents it from over- 
feeding, and so the leeches may be of use to 


the larger aquatic animals, at the same time 
that the smaller ones, such as the grubs of — 


insects, must generally . perish from the inser- 


ANNELIDANS. 341 


tion of their sharp jaws, and the suction of their 
proboscis. | 

Yet, as we see, this is one of the animals 
that man has taken into alliance with him, 
and this no doubt Providence intended he 
should, and probably directed him to it, I mean 
by causing certain circumstances to take place 
that attracted his attention and indicated its 
probable use. So that what at first put him to 
pain, and caused him alarm, he found, upon 
trial, might be rendered a very valuable addition 
to his means of cure when attacked by disease, 
or when he was suffering from a local injury. 

The leech tribe, besides its utility in the 
exercise of its own function, may be useful as 


affording nutriment to some other animals, as 
fishes and birds. 


The earth-worms' form a principal feature 
of the next Order, and afford a delicious morsel 
to birds of every wing. The fisherman also 
baits his hook with them, and the ground- 
beetles* often make a meal of them, so that 
had they no other use, still they would be a 
very important part of the creation. But their 
great function appears to be that of boring 
the earth in all directions, whereby they are 
useful to the farmer and grazier, giving a kind 


' Lumbricus (Enterion Sav.) terrestris. L. &c. 
2 Carabus. L. 


342 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


of under-tillage to pasture and other lands, and 
by the casts which they every where throw up, 
they help to manure the soil, and do the same 
for pastures, that the spade does for the garden 
and the plough for arable land, place the soil 
that laid below above. Their food being vege- 
table detritus, what passes from them must be 
very good manure. 

The anatomy of these well-known animals 
is very singular and well worthy the attention 
of the physiologist and zootomist, the only 
circumstance relating to it that I shall here 
mention is that their long body is not only 
divided externally into rings, but internally into 
an equal number of cells separated from each 
other, if I may so speak, by a kind of dis- 
sepiment or diaphragm—there are more than 
a hundred of these cells in the common species, 
as appears by Mr. Bauer’s admirable figures 
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1823, to 
which I must refer the reader for further infor- 
mation on this subject, first observing that there 
seems some analogy between the cells of the 
earth-worm and the joints of the tape-worm, 

The motion of these animals, and of many 
other Annelidans, is accomplished by means of 
the rings of their body and their lateral bristles; 
the latter the Creator has given to them, in the 
place of legs: pushing with the anterior portion 
of these against the plane of position, by con- 


ANNELIDANS. 343 


tracting the rings, they bring up the posterior 
portion of their body, and then fixing that part, 
extend the anterior rings, and so proceed suc- 
cessively with a kind of undulating motion. 


_ 8. Weare next to notice a tribe of Annelidans, 
many of which, in one respect, make some ap- 
‘proach to the Testaceous Molluscans. Though 
truly annulated and furnished with a kind of false 
legs, they are defended by a shell resembling 
in its substance, that of the class just alluded 
to, but often by its irregular convolutions prov- 
ing that it belongs to an Annelidan and not to 
a Molluscan ; some indeed approach to the spiral 
conyolutions of a Trachelipod shell; others form 
a membranous sac, and cover it with agglutinated 
particles of sand, as the common Sabella; others 
again, likewise inhabit a tube, but they fix it in 
the rocks. The testaceous animals of this class, 
particularly the worm-shells,’ inhabit a tortuous 
tube which they form, probably with more ease 
and celerity than the Molluscans form their 
shells—for they appear almost to do this as they 
move, since the shape of the shell imitates the 
sinuous windings of a worm, and that of the 
Serpula adheres to the substances on which it 
is formed. We see it often upon the shells of 
bivalves, to which it adheres by the lower sur- 


1 Serpulide. 


344 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


face, looking like a little worm creeping upon 
them ;* and forming convolutions; I have a 
specimen on a valve of the cock’s-crest oyster,’ 
which is bound down by a process issuing ap- 
parently from the disk of the oyster-shell itself, 
how produced and thrown over the Serpula it 
seems not easy to conjecture. Different species 
of these worm-shells are often found, embracing 
each other with their convolutions, on the same 
shell; wherever the sea is or has been, they 
abound either in a recent or fossil state; they 
are found on rocks, and sea-weed as well as on 
marine shells, and those of lobsters. The Serpu- 
lidans, in general, imitate the spiral structure 
of the Trachelipod and other Molluscans, as is 
particularly evident m Stliquaria and Vermetus, if 
indeed the last genus is not itself a Molluscan, 
as Lamarck makes it. 

Other species of this Order are taught to estab- 
lish themselves in fissures of rocks, which serve 
them instead of a shell to protect the membranous 
tubes into which they retract their petaliform 
tentacles, which together represent a beautiful 
radiated blossom, or the nectarium of a passion- 


1S. Triguetra. 

2 Ostrea Crista-galli. Since the above was written, in the 
collection of the late Peter Collinson, I have seen two specimens 
of this oyster, which had produced from the back of their shell 
a double series of processes, with which, as with so many fingers, 
they had taken firm hold of a piece of stick. 


“ANNELIDANS. 345 


flower. Of this kind is the Magnificent Amphi- 
trite, figured in the Linnean Transactions.’ It is 
found in the rocks of various parts of the coast 
of Jamaica. When alarmed, it retracts its ten- 
tacles within its tube, and the tube itself into 
the rock. How it excavates its rocky burrow 
has not been ascertained. 

The Sabelle, which pass under various names 
in different authors, inhabit the sandy parts of 
the shore, and like certain case-worms form a 
covering for their tube of selected grains of sand, 
mixing sometimes other substances that suit 
their purpose, which, by some secretion at their 
disposal, they glue pretty firmly together so as 
to form a neat case tapering towards the tail. 
The animal buries itself and case in the sand, 
with its head towards the surface, so, probably, 
as to enable it to protrude it and expand its 
tentacles to collect its food when covered by 
the water. The bristles of the legs in some 
species resemble burnished gold. 

The functions of a large proportion of the ani- 
mals of this order seem to correspond with those of 
the bivalve shell-fish ; they undermine the sands 
and the rocks, bore into sponges and corallines, 
and other submarine substances, and some pro- 
bably, ito submerged wood: like them, also, 
they seem to feed on animalcules brought within 
their reach by the tide. The Serpulidans, whose 


1 Tubulartia magnifica. Shaw. 


346 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


food is similar, are directed by the will of their 
Creator to affix themselves externally to any sub- 
merged bodies that come in their way, whether 
mineral or animal. All they require seems to be 
something to attach themselves to, on which 
they can protrude their tentacular gills, and 
seize their prey. They must contribute largely, 
as well as the mining Annelidans of this order, 
to the production of calcareous matter. Mr. 
Sowerly suspects that their proboscis may be 
instrumental in forming the shell, but it seems 
not properly a proboscis, but merely an opercu- 
lum on a long footstalk, which was requisite that 
it might be protruded so far as not to interfere 
with the action of the gills. 


The animals included in Mr. Savigny’s first 
Order, the Neréideans bring us very near to the 
Condylopes. They have a distinct head, jointed 
organs like antenne, eyes, a proboscis armed 
with maxille, and spurious legs. They have 
also certain dorsal scales, which M. Savigny 
calls elytra, and deems analogous to the organs 
of flight in insects. These animals seem to 
afford the first example of the conversion of 
organs of locomotion into others, employed for 
a different purpose. I do not mean _ by this, 
that, in the progress of the animal’s growth, one 
organ is really converted into another, but that 
analogous organs, in different tribes or genera, are 
employed for different purposes. Thus, what in 


ANNELIDANS. 347 


most Annelidans are locomotive organs, in Ly- 
coris, Phyllodoce, and some other Neréideans' 
become a kind of tentacle. The marine Scolo- 
pendra of Aristotle most probably belonged to 
this Order, and many species make a near ap- 
proach to the terrestrial ones.’ Like them they 
are long and often flat, consisting of a great num- 
ber of segments, some haying between two and 
three hundred, furnished according to the spe- 
cies, with one, two, or three pairs of legs in each ; 
like them also they twist about in all directions 
when handled, they conceal themselves in close 
places where they lie in wait for their prey. In 
one respect some of them add the instinct of 
the spider to that of the centipede, for they line 
and sometimes cover the cavities of the rocks 
which they inhabit with a slight silken web, and 
thus concealed they watch the approach of some 
animal, and, suddenly thrusting out the anterior 
part of their body, seize and devour it. 

My late indefatigable and talented friend, 
the Rev. L. Guilding once found a land species, 
in an ancient wood in the Island of St. Vincent’s, 
which from its soft body he regarded as a Mol- 
luscan, but from its figure, and annulose struc- 
ture, its jointed antenne, and seemingly jointed 
legs crowned with bristles, it* certainly belongs, 
as Mr. Gray has remarked, to the present class. 


1 Savigny, Syst. des Annel. 9, 12, 13. 
2 Prate VIII. Fic. 4. 
3 Prate VIII. Fic. 1. Mr, G. calls it Peripatus juliformis. 


348 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 


Though it has scarcely a distinct head, its re- 
semblance to the cylindrical myriapods' is 
very striking. Other species of this Order re- 
semble the Isopod Crustaceans, and some even 
roll themselves up like one tribe of them.’ 

These animals have their haunts sometimes in 
deep burrows and passages under the sea-weed 
or in the sea-sand. They are so fierce in their 
habits that some have been styled the tigers of 
the worms. Some fishes in their turn make 
them their prey. Many of them, as the sea- 
mouse,* are remarkable for the brilliancy of their 
metallic hues. Perhaps these dazzling splen- 
dours, as in the case of some insects,* may be 
of use to them in preventing the escape of their 
prey. Their forms and instruments of locomo- 
tion seem particularly adapted to the situation 
and circumstances in which they are placed ; 
their legs, which approach the jointed legs of 
crustaceans and insects, fit them for moving 
on the surface of the bed of the sea, their oars 
for swimming in the water, and the long form of 
many for threading the sinuous paths and 
burrows in which they have their habitation and 
place of refuge. So exactly are they fitted by 
the skilful hand of the almighty and benevolent 
Architect of all animal forms to live and move in 
the place he has assigned to them. 


1 Julus. L. 2 Nereis Armadillo. 
3 Aphrodita aculeata. 4 Introd. to Ent. ii. 221. 


APPENDIX. 


Since the preceding part of this treatise had 
mostly passed through the press, I have had an 
opportunity of consulting some recently pub- 
lished works, which contain accounts, illustrated 
by figures, of many very interesting animals 
belonging to several of the Classes of which I 
have there treated; and all of which more or 
less demonstrate a presiding Intelligence im- 
mediately connected with the globe that we 
inhabit, and who, viewed under every aspect, 
evidently careth for us, and all the creatures he 
has made. I shall select a few of these for the 
consideration of the reader. 

I formerly observed’ that types representing 
some of the higher forms of the animal kingdom 
were often to be detected amongst those belonging 
to its lowest grade: a remarkable instance of this 
may be seen in one of Ehrenberg’s late works,’ 
in which is described and figured a singular 
Polygastric Infusory, which seems to exhibit 
the first outline of an Arachnidan’ form; it has 


1 See above p. 320. 2 Symbole Physice. 
3 Discocephalus Rotator. 


350 APPENDIX. 


eight locomotive organs or bristles, representing 
the eight legs of those animals. By means of 
these organs, this animal, which was found by 
Dr. Ehrenberg in the Red Sea, performs a double 
rotatory movement, one by the rotation of the 
anterior pair, and the other by the three posterior 
pairs. The motion of these filamentous legs is 
so rapid that they appear as if, instead of eight, 
a hundred were revolving, and so form a kind 
of natural Phantasmascope. Another infusory 
genus, Bacillaria, seems to prefigure the Salpes, 
the species at first being concatenated in chains 
or ribands, and afterwards separating.© The 
animalcules forming this genus have sometimes 
been mistaken for plants, and the quadrangular 
form of the associated individuals gives them the 
appearance of the jointed stem of a plant, rather 
than of an animal chain. On a former occasion, 
I alluded to other imitations of the vegetable 
world exhibited by the polypes, particularly to 
some of them producing seeming blossoms, con- 
sisting, as it were, of many petals.* I shall now 
notice some that represent monopetalous flowers. 
A genus long known to naturalists, which seems 
intermediate between the Infusories and the 
Polypes, named originally by Linné Vorticella, 
exactly simulates a bell flower with a spiral 
footstalk. They are often found in fresh water, 


1 Pruate I. A. Fre. 6. 2 See above, p. 222. 
2. Pravres].:A. Fie. 4,'5. 4 See above, p. 169. 


APPENDIX. 351 


and present no unapt representation of a bunch 
of the flowers of the Lily of the valley, whence 
one species has been named Vorticella Conval- 
laria. Some of these have branching, and others 
simple stems,’ but they are all spiral, and capable 
of being lengthened or shortened at the will of 
the animal, which is thus enabled to elevate or 
depress its little blossoms, the mouths of which 
are furnished with a double circlet of filamentary 
tentacles, by the rotation of which, like the rest 
of its tribe, it can produce a food-conveying 
current to its mouth. Still nearer to the Polypes, 
with which indeed it is arranged, is another 
genus representing monopetalous flowers, named 
by Ehrenberg, who found it in the Red sea, 
Zoobotryon, or Animal-grape. This singular 
animal production will scarcely arrange under 
any of the Orders mentioned on a former occasion, 
but it may be regarded as intermediate between 
the Rotatories and the Polypes. Like the latter 
it is a compound animal, consisting of a naked 
branching stem; its lower extremity, as may be 
seen in the figure,’ appears as if sending forth 
numerous little radicles, and the branches termi- 
nate in ovate germs, from which issue a multi- 
tude of animalcules resembling monopetalous 
bell-shaped flowers, with the mouth surrounded 
by a filamentous coronet, each sitting upon a 


1 See above, p. 166. 2? Pratre dl. B, Fre.) 2) a. 


352 APPENDIX. 


spiral elastic footstalk,; by means of which the 
animalcule can either draw itself close to the 
stem, or, shooting out, dart on either side after 
its prey. When the mouth of every individual 
is open, each germ looks like what botanists call 
a raceme of bell-shaped flowers; and, when they 
are closed, they resemble a bunch of grapes.* 


To the class of Worms, especially those that 
have been denominated Entozoa, or internal 
worms, I have a few interesting additions to 
make, taken from a work of Dr. Nordmann’s,’ 
some of which are so extraordinary and wonder- 
ful, both as to their functions and structure, that 
the great object of the present treatise, Gloria 
Dei ex opere nature, will receive considerable 
illustration from some account of them. 

Dr. Nordmann’s first treatise is upon a tribe of 
these creatures that are interesting from their 
very singular situation, in the yes, namely, of 
the higher animals. 

Amongst the personal pests of our own species, 
enumerated in the chapter above alluded to,’ I 
mentioned none that attacked the organs just 
named; but this learned investigator of parasitic 
worms has noticed two which have been detected 
in them; one related to the Guinea-worm,* which 
was extracted from the eye of a person affected 


1 Prats I. B. Fig. 2.6. *% Micrographische Beitrige, &c. 
3 See above, p. 324.. 4 Filarva medinensis. 


APPENDIX. 300 


by acataract ;' and another, a Hydatid,’ from the 
eye of a young woman. 

Besides those that infest our own visual organs, 
quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fishes, have each 
their eye-worms. Amongst those to which the 
will of. Providence has assigned their station in 
the eyes of the latter class of animals, is a re- 
markable one,’ which Dr. Nordmann discovered 
in those of several different species of perch,* 
sometimes, in such numbers, as must have in- 
terfered with that distinct sight of passing objects, 
which appears necessary to enable predaceous 
animals to discover their prey in time to dart 
upon it and secure it; in a single eye the Doctor 
detected, in different parts, 360! of these ani- 
‘malcules: when much increased they often pro- 
duce cataracts in the eye of the fishes they 
infest. This little animal appears something 
related to the Planaria, or pseudo-leach, and, to 
judge from Dr. Nordmann’s figures, seems able, 
like it, to change its form.’ Underneath the body, 
at the anterior extremity, is the mouth ; and in 
the middle are what he denominates two suck- 
ing-cups ;° these are prominent, and viewed 
laterally form a truncated cone ; the anterior 
one is the smallest and least prominent, and 


1 F, Ocult humani. 2 Cysticercus cellulose. 
3 Diplostomum volvens, Puatel. B. Fie. 5. 
_ 4 Ibid. Fie. 6. 


5 See Nordmann’s Micrograph, i. t. 1. f. 1—9. 
6 Saugnapfe. 
VOL. I. A A 


304 APPENDIX. 


more properly a sucker; the other probably has 
other functions, since he could never ascertain 
that it was used for prehension. 
A kind of metamorphosis seems to take place — 
m these animals, for our author observed that — 
they appeared under three different forms. 
These little pests, small as they are, have a 
parasite of their own to avenge the cause of the 
perch, for Dr. Nordmann observed some very 
minute brown dots or capsules attached to the 
intestinal canal, which when extracted, by means 
of a scalpel formed of the thorns of the creeping 
cereus,’ and laid upon a piece of talc, the mem- 
brane that inclosed them burst, and forth issued 
living animalcules, belonging to the genus Monas, 
and smaller than M. Atomus,- which immediately 
turned round upon their own axis with great 
velocity, and then jumped a certain distance in 
a straight line, when they again revolved, and 
again took a second leap. 
Looking over our author’s list of eye-worms 
that infest fishes, we find that five out of seven 
are attached to different species of perch, and 
one cannot help feeling some commiseration fo 
these poor animals; but when we recollect tha 
they form the most numerous body of preda-_ 
ceous fishes in our rivers, we may conjecture that 
thus their organs of vision are rendered less — 
acute, and that thus thousands of roach, dace, M4 
1 Cactus flagelliformes. > 


at 


“ 


APPENDIX. 355 


carp, and tench may escape destruction. The 
ever watchful eye of a Father Providence is over 
all his works, and he has provided means, in 
every department of the animal kingdom, so to 
limit the inroads of the predaccous species, that 
a due proportion and harmonious mixture may 
every where be maintained, and that with respect 
to every individual species. ‘The means are va- 
rious, but the end is one; and the partial evil 
terminates in the general good and welfare of the 
whole. 

Next to the eyes, the gills of fishes are subject 
to annoyance from internal worms; and amongst 
these there is none more remarkable or wonder- 
ful than one first discovered by Dr. Nordmann, 
upon those of the bream,’ and to which, on ac- 
count of its remarkable structure and conforma- 
tion, he has given the name of Diplozoon, or 
Double animal. In the Classes of Polypes and 
Tunicaries we have been introduced to many 
animals that appear to be compound; which, 
from a common stem or body send forth nume- 
rous oscula or mouths, in this emulating the 
members of the vegetable kingdom: but amongst 
all these plant-animals,? there is none can 
compete with this of Dr. Nordmann, which, like 
the Siamese youths, appears to be formed of two 
distinct bodies, united in the middle so as to pre- 


1 Cyprinus Brama. 2 Phytozoa. 


356 APPENDIX. 


sent the appearance of a St. Andrew’s cross, 
each half of the animal containing precisely the 
same organs; namely, an alimentary canal, a 
system for circulation and generation, and also a 
nervous system. Miller calls the innumerable 
and varying cohorts of the animal creation 
preachers of the infinite wisdom and power of the 
Sovereign of the world ;' and this is one of the 
most wonderful of them all, which singularly 
exemplifies those attributes. 

At first it might be imagined, that, like the 
youths just alluded to, this was a monstrous pro- 
duction of nature; but Dr. Nordmann relates 
that he has found thirty specimens, precisely 
agreeing with each other, all in a similar situa- 
tion, attached namely, to the gills of the fish 
mentioned above, and he never found it single, 
or in any other situation: there can, therefore, re- 
~main no doubt on the subject. In order to find 
these animals, it is necessary to examine all the 
leaves of the gills separately under water, or to 
separate the lesser whitish ones with a pointed 
instrument, when the animal may be detected by 
its movements: its station is between the leaves 
or folds of the inner gills. 

This singular creature consists of two lobes, or 
arms, above the point of union, and two below it. 
The upper pair are the longest and most diver- 


' Entomostraca. 27. 


APPENDIX. 307 


gent: they are somewhat lance-shaped, and at 
the extremity of each, on the under side, is a 
mouth, with a sucker, divided by a fleshy trans- 
verse septum; by means of these suckers, the 
mouths of this two-bodied monster are kept 
steady, so as to suck without intermission. The 
orifice of the mouth is large, and, when fully 
open, triangular: there is also an organ within 
the gullet which seems analogous to a tongue, 
resembling the sucking organ of the pseudo- 
leech. The alimentary canal branches out on 
both sides into numerous blind vessels. The 
whole of this canal, like the creature itself, is 
cruciform. The circulation of the blood is very 
visible: each half of the animal has on both 
sides two principal blood vessels, which are 
every where of almost equal diameter, without 
any enlargement ; in the two exterior ones the 
blood runs upwards, and in the two interior ones 
downwards, and its motion is extremely rapid. 
The generative organs and ovaries are also 
double. ‘The feces, as in the polypes and other 
lower animals, pass out at the mouth. The two 
lowest lobes are somewhat club-shaped, or thick- 
est at the extremity, towards which, in each, are 
two oval plates, or disks, containing four oblong 
acetabula, or suckers: the bodies below the 
plates terminate in a triangular piece, or flapper. 
In some of their movements it seems as if the 
two upper lobes had different wells, since some- 


398 APPENDIX. 


times one appears inclined to move to the right, 
and the other to the left, or one to move and the 
other to remain at rest; but the lower lobes 
always move simultaneously, either inwardly or 
outwardly. 

The animals that are found attached to the gills 
of other fishes are usually at their lower extremity 
furnished with several suckers; thus one genus’ 
infesting the gills of the sun* and sword fishes® 
has three; and another,* found in those of the 
tunny,’ has sex, whence Cuvier would rather 
call it Hexastoma. But these are nothing to 
those of our Diplozoon, which, on the four disks 
just named, has no less than s¢wteen suckers, four 
on each disk.° Under a strong magnifier, these 
suckers when opened, for they can open and 
shut, exhibit a complex machinery of hooks and 
other parts, by which their Creator has enabled 
them to take firm hold of the gills, so as not to 
be unfixed by their constant motion in respira- 
tion, especially when we consider their structure 
and substance. A further proof of this design is 
furnished by the form of the animal itself, for 
the body being divided upwards and downwards 
into two diverging lobes, it can fix itself at each 


1 Tristoma. 2 Mola. 3 Xiphias. 

4 Polystoma. 5 Scomber Thynnus. . 

6 Even this is nothing to those of a genus infesting some 
Cephalopods, Hectocotyle, the different species of which have from 
sixty to more than one hundred suckers, whence their name. 


a Re) a 


2 aa | 


APPENDIX. poy 


extremity more firmly than if it was single, not 
only by having more points of attachment, but 
also by the divergement of its lobes, especially 
the lower ones. When a man wishes to stand 
as firmly and steadily as possible, he separates 
his legs so as to form a certain angle: and this is 
what its Creator has fitted our animal to do; and 
so by all these means it maintains its station on 
the lubricous, multifid, and constantly moving 
organs, from which it is commissioned to suck 
the blood. Probably these Diplozoons may be 
of the same use to the fishes they infest, as the 
horse-flies are to the animal from which they 
take their name. 

Dr. Nordmann found this creature could exist 
submerged for three days, during which period its 
movements became gradually more feeble. One 
specimen, which he fed twice a day with fresh 
fishes’ blood, lived nine days in water, and ap- 
peared to die at last from being too much 
handled. 

What can more evidently illustrate both the 
power, wisdom, and goodness of the Deity than 
this most extraordinary animal? How nicely is 
it formed, in every respect, to fulfil the functions 
given in charge to it! How admirably is it 
secured against the mischances to which its sin- 
gular situation exposes it! When we see so 
much art and skill put in action to adapt such 
seemingly insignificant creatures, and so low in 


360 APPENDIX. 


the scale of creation, to the circumstances in — 
which they are placed; so many contrivances, 

exhibiting the deepest intellect, taking the most — 
comprehensive surveys of every possible contin- — 
gency, and rearing a structure calculated to stand 
against every pressure upon it,—we must feel 


convinced that the attention of the Creator is — 


directed to every individual in existence, whether — 
great or small, high or low, spiritual or material. 
To every thing that he created he gave a law, 
the law of its nature; a law emanating from — 
Him, enforced by the physical powers acting 
upon certain structures, and producing certain 
necessary effects under His constant superinten- 
dence, direction, and action, on and by those 
powers. 

The intestinal worms, as well as some other 
parasitic animals, are many of them so remark- 
able for the situation in which we discover them, 
that their transport to the spot where they are to 


exercise their function seems almost miraculous. 
How a mite should find its way intothe human 


brain seems past our conjecture. We cannot 
clearly ascertain by what means the eye-worms ~ 
are conducted to their assigned station, nor how — 
the various species of tape-worm invariably 
select each its proper pabulum: the same holds 
good with regard to the cyst-worms,' or hyda- 


1 Cystlicercus. 


APPENDIX. 561 


tids. Do they, like the Infernal Fury,' as fabled 


by Linné, fall from heaven upon the earth and 


waters, and instantly bury themselves in their 


allotted animals? But to speak soberly, all we 


ean safely affirm is, that He who decreed the end 


decrees the means, and these probably are phy- 
sical ones under his direction. He it is who 
guides the punitive animals that he employs to 
their several stations. Is there not an omnipre- 
sent Deity, whose action is incessant, and co- 
extensive with his presence? He it is that, as 


the Prophet speaks, causeth it to rain upon one 


city, and not to rain upon another city; that 


employs his instruments, both of benediction 
and punishment, according to his will. It is 
He, who by secret paths, and by means that 
mock our researches, conducts to their assigned 
station the animals in question. Every power 
of nature, every physical agent, is at His dis- 


posal. His is the earthquake and the volcano; 
the lightning of the thunder; the fire-damp of 


the mine; the overwhelming violence of the 
water flood ; the windy storm and tempest: His 


is the wide-wasting sword, that destroys my- 
riads, and the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
ness, and carries off millions; and He gives his 


commission to all his scourges against indivi- 


duals as well as against nations, which they un- 


! Furia infernalis.—L. 


362 APPENDIX. 


consciously execute and cannot exceed, for He — 


saith to them, as to the raging sea, Hitherto shall __ 


ye come and no further, and here shall the work | 
of destruction cease. | 

We have a remarkable instance of this special 
guidance and employment of natural objects in — 
the case of the prophet Jonah, when he diso- 
beyed the word of the Lord. In the first place 
God sent out a great wind into the sea; in the ~ 
next he prepared a great, fish to swallow him 


alive when he should be cast overboard, and at — 


the Lord’s command the same animal cast him — 
upon the dry land. Next God prepared a gourd — 
for a shadow against the heat; after that he — 
prepared a worm which destroyed the gourd ; 
and in the last place he prepared a silent east 
— wind, or a heat, like the sirocco, without sound. 
In all these cases the object employed was a — 
physical object, under the immediate direction — 
of the Deity. The wind, the fish, the gourd, the 
worm, the heat, were not new creations, but — 
well known objects, acted upon to take a parti- 
cular direction so as to produce particular events. — 

By what is here said, I by no means assert — 
the doctrine of inevitable fate, for then there — 


would be no use in the employment of means — 
of prevention. Sir H. Davy’s:safety-lamp would _ 


not preserve the life of the miner, nor Dr. Frank- : 


1 Awan ep vii, 


APPENDIX. 363 


lin’s conductor disarm the thunder cloud; and 
all the other means that, non sine Deo, have been 
invented to render harmless the action of the 
physical powers under certain circumstances ; 
but I would merely assert that constant super- 
intendence of the Deity over the world that he 
has created, and Who upholdeth all things by the 
word of his power, which we call Providence, by 
which, in general as well as individually, his will 
has full accomplishment; and every substance 
or being, whether animate or inanimate, takes 
the station which he has assigned to it. This is 
no miraculous interference out of the general 
course of nature, but the adaptation of that 
course to answer the wise purposes of Provi- 
‘dence, which selects individuals, and distin- 
guishes them from other individuals by events, 
as to this world, seemingly prosperous or adverse, 
but which have their ultimate reference to the 
spiritual world, and to their final destiny. As 
God willeth not that any should perish, so he 
withholdeth not from any the means, that, if 
duly used and improved, will be sufficient for 
his salvation ; and in all his dealings with man- 
kind he hath this great and merciful object in 


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APPENDIX. NOTES. 


Note 1, p. 2.—The life and motion. The word life may 
perhaps here be used, in some sense, improperly; but the 
original motion caused by the agency of the Spirit, and 
followed by Light and Expansion, may be called the birth, 
or beginning, of the life of the world, which followed, 
under the Divine Guidance, as a consequence of it. I 
speak only of animal life, not of spzritual, which resulted 
from the immediate insufflation, if I may so use the term, 
_ of the Deity himself. 

I may here be permitted to observe that the Mosaic 
account of the beginning of creation, especially of the 
incubation of the Holy Spirit and its consequences, has 
been transplanted, by many oriental and occidental 
nations, into their cosmogonies. The circumstances and 
consequences of it have, in most cases, been altered from 
their original simplicity ; and, in some, it has been assumed 
as a foundation, on which an Atheistic Philosophy has 
been erected amongst the Greeks. But when we consider 
attentively the terms in which these dogmata are del!- 
vered, and recollect that the Gods of the Greeks and 
Romans, especially him who was invocated as the father 
of gods and men, were really the great elementary powers 
which under God govern the universe—whence Homer 


* Genes. ii. 7, comp. John, xx. 22. 


366 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


describes him as aidega voiwv, and calls him Zeus vepeanyepetns, 
and Ennius appeals to him in these terms, 


Aspice hoc sublime candens quem invocant omnes 
Jovem. 


And to live abroad is to live sub Jove, sub Dio. It is 
evident that these Gods were subsequent to Chaos, and 
sprung from that motion of the Spirit which first gave 
birth to this world as we behold it; besides these, the sun, 
moon, planets, earth, ocean, &c. made part of the cata- 
logue of false Gods whom the Heathens worshipped and 
served instead of the Creator. These powers, which were 
originally reverenced as symbols and representatives of the 
Godhead, and, as it were, his vicegerents in Nature, in 
process of time were thus regarded and adored as the 
supreme and only God—the sign instead of the thing sig- 
nified—the instrument instead of the hand that guided 
it—the work instead of the workman. They deemed, as 
the author of the Book of Wisdom observes,! Hither fire, 
or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the 
violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the Gods which 
govern the world. 

Veneration and love to those from whose actions or 
studies we derive great benefit, and respect for our an- 
cestors, amiable motives when they do not lead us away 
from God, often induce mankind to throw a kind of 
Divinity, a ray of glory, around such persons; first, 
perhaps, they are complimented with the title of suns of 
their people or race, and their wives as moons, and next 
we transform them into what we regarded as their symbol. 


So the Egyptians, in process of time, added the adjunct — 


On, or the Sun, to the name of their great ancestor, 


1 Wisdom, xiii. 2. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 367 


Ham; whence he was afterwards designated as Hamon, 
or Ham the sun, and became the Jupiter Ammon of the 
Greeks.1 

The idea of the incubation of the Spirit, of its being the 
principle of love that was in action, and that it produced 
the first motion, prevails, more or less, in all the cos- 
mogonics. 

Aristophanes, in his Aves, gives an account of the 
Grecian cosmogony, which proves that the heathen gods 
of the Greeks were all subsequent to the original creation 
of matter, in a passage, of which the following lines are 
nearly a literal translation : 


_ Once Chaos was and Night, dark Erebus 
And ample Tartarus; but Earth, and Air, 
And Heaven were not. First blackwing’d night 
In th’ infinite gulfs of Erebus brought forth 
The wind-nurs'd egg, from which in circling hours, 
Love the desir’d, his shoulders golden-wing’d, 
Sprung like a wind-swift vortex, he who mix’d 
With Chaos wing’d and dark, and Tartarus wide 
Nested our race, and them brought first to light. 
Ere love commingled all, emmortal Gods 
Were none, but from that commixture rose 
Heaven, Sea, and Earth, and Gods incorruptible. 


Wind-nurs’d egg. Gr. imnemov wov. Literally, the egg 
under the wind, alluding to the incubation of the Spirit. 

Love. This is the motion infused by the Spirit into the 
ehaos which was followed by light and expansion, and 
the whole harmonious circle of creation, in which there 
was no discord, but all was very good. 

His shoulders golden-wing’d. Gr. YraCwv voroy wlepuyow 
xpucav, Literally, his back shining with two golden 


1 Cudworth, 1. it. 338. 


368 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


wings; these two golden wings were, perhaps, light and 
the expansion, which carried love through his whole 
work, 

Sprung. Gr. ECaasev, germinated. 

Wind-swift vortex. Gr. eins avenouect Swais. Literally, 
like whirlwinds or whirlpools, swift as the wind. 

He who mixed with Chaos wing’d and dark. Gr. Oi'os 
de xaer mlepoevts myers vuxiw. This describes love or motion 
entering into chaos and beginning to produce order. 

Nested our race. Gr. Eveotlevce yevos nuetepov. The birds 
here claim an early origin. The allusion probably is to 
the mundane egg and the birth of winged love. 

But from that commixture rose heaven, sea, and earth, &c. 
Gr. Lumpsryvouevay 0° ETEPWV ETEDOIS, EYEVET HpaLOS, OMECVOS TE, KGL 
yn, Tavtov te Ocwv Mana PWV yev@- aparor.. Literally, “ one 
thing being mingled with another, heaven, ocean, and 
earth, and the incorruptible race of all the immortal Gods 
were produced.” . 

It is evident from this passage that those whom the 
Greeks accounted their Gods were the elements, the hea- 
venly bodies, and other works of creation. Thus they 
changed the truth of God into a he, and worshipped and 
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed 
for ever. 


Nore 2, p. 5.— Kindred Monsters. I allude here to the 
gigantic Reptiles, those especially which are now seen only 
in a fossil state, many of which instead of legs are fur- 
nished with paddles; as the Ichthyosaurt and Plesiosaurt. 
These animals seem intermediate between the amphibious 
Saurians and the Chelonians. Some of them also exhibit 
several characters in common with some of the Cetaceans, 
Amphibians, &c. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 369 


Nore 3, p. 8.—Intermediate, as it were, between matter 
and spirit. 1 find a similar idea in the Nouveau Diction- 
naire D? Histoire Naturelle,' “Le mot de maticre porte 
avec soi l’idée d’un corps lourd et grossier: cependant il 
est des substances auxquelles on donne le nom de maticre, 
telle que la maticre éthérée, et qui sont d’une si inconceiy- 
able tenuité, qu’on diroit qu’elles tiennent le milieu entre 
Lesprit et la matiere.” Sir Humphry Davy seems to have 
adopted a similar opinion, which I have given in another 
part of this work ;* and Dr. Wollaston also, in his Religion 
of Nature delineated, asks—“ Might it not be more reason- 
able to say, it (the soul) zs a thinking substance intimately 
united to some fine material vehicle which has its residence 
in the brain?” > And again—“ If we should suppose the 
soul to be a being by nature made to inform some body, 
and that it cannot exist and act in a state of total 
separation from all body; it would not follow from thence, 


that what we call death, must therefore reduce it to a 


state of absolute insensibility, and inactivity, which to it 
would be equal to non-existence. For that body, which 
is so necessary to it, may be some fine vehicle that dwells 
with it in the brain, and goes off with it at death. This 
vehicle, which is so necessary to the soul, dwells with it 
in the brain, and gces off with it at death, he further 
supposes, is that by which it acts and is acted upon, by 
means of the nerves.© This vehicle seems not very diffe- 
rent from the vital powers of modern physiologists, who 
regard the nervous power as their agent.® 

The Doctrine of a vehicle for the soul which accom- 


1 xix. 449, article Matiéres. Patrin. 

* See Vou. II. p. 253. 3. P;, 192, 

4 Ibid. 196. 5 Ibid. 197. 

6 Dr. Wilson Philip, in Philos. Tr. 1829, 271, 278. 


370 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


panies her when separated from the body is not a modern 
hypothesis, but was held by the Platonists and many of 
the fathers.! 

Our Lord says to his disciples—The hairs of your head 
are all numbered: upon which we may observe that the 
head of man is clothed with hair to answer a certain end, 
an end which has not yet been duly investigated, but 
which in Scripture has been intimated by making it the 
symbol of strength or power—by which latter term it is 
designated by St. Paul*—as in the case of Samson, 
whose superhuman strength seems to have departed from 
him, when his seven locks were shorn off; symbolizing 
might from the seven spirits of God,® or in other words, 
the sevenfold might of the Spirit. It is well known that 
the hair is affected by the electric fluid, and it may 
conduct it to the brain or other organs. Whatever be its 
function, however, its force will depend upon the quantity, 
and the quantity upon the number of conductors, and this 
God regulates in the case of individuals, according to 
circumstances, so that, though some receive more and 
some less, He that receives much has nothing over, and he 
that receives little has no lack.* 


Note 4, p. 9.—Lor if the instinct of the predaceous 
ones was not restrained, they would soon have annihilated 
the herbivorous ones, even if, as Lightfoot supposes, they 
were at first created by sevens. If the fall of man, as is 
generally supposed, happened soon after his creation, the 
first sacrifice, which as the Lord God clothed the first 
pair with skins before their expulsion from paradise, 


' See Dr. H. More, On the Immortality of the Soul, B. iii. 
Axiome xxvil. and Cudworth’s Intellectual Syst. 799. 
2 1 Cor. xi. 10. 3 Revel. i. 4, 5. 


4 2.Cor. vii. 15, 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 371 


must have been offered immediately after the former sad 
event, would have caused the annihilation of a species; 
which, in conjunction with the circumstance of Noah 
being directed to admit clean animals into the ark by 
sevens the male and his female, afforded no slight ground 
for Lightfoot’s supposition alluded to in the text. He 
thus expresses his opinion. “ Besti@ munde create sunt 
septene, tria paria ad prolem, et relique singule Adamo 
wm sacrificium post lapsum: at immunde tantummodo 
bine, ad generis propagationem.”: Lightfoot here speaks 
of three pairs and a half, and some writers quoted by 
Poole, seem to think, that the same number were received 
into the ark, and that the seventh, a male, was intended 
for sacrifice after the deluge; others think there were 
seven pairs. 


Nore 5, p. 1l.—Jn the fiercest enmity and opposition 
to each other, There was a show-man, who in the year 
1831, exhibited on one of the London bridges, as I was 
informed by a friend upon whose accuracy I could rely, 
the animals here spoken of in a state of reconciliation. 
In one cage were cats, rats, and mice, and in another 
hawks and small birds living together in the utmost 
harmony, and without any attempt on the part of the 
predaceous ones to injure their natural prey. 


Nore 6, p. 16.—Concerning the kind of which inter- 
preters differ. The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word 
12, which our translation renders lice, by cunges, which 
is supposed to mean the mosquito or gnat, but I cannot 
help thinking with Bochart,? that it rather means the 


' Lightfooti Opera, Ed. Leusden. i, 154. conf. 2. 
2 Hierozoic. 574. 


372 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


louse, not only on account of its derivation from a root, 
12, which signifies to fix firmly, which agrees better with 
the animal just named than with the mosquito, but also 
because it was produced from the dust of the earth like 
other apterous animals, and not from the waters, like the 
winged ones.1. The African negroes, as was before ob- 
served, have a peculiar louse.? 


Note 7, p. 17.—Geologists have observed, from the 
remains of plants and animals embedded in the strata of 
this and other northern countries, that the climate must 
formerly have been warmer than it now is. That the 
inclination of the earth’s axis was once different from what 
it now is was a very ancient opinion; but whatever might 
be the cause, the fact seems to have been certain, from 
the existence in very high latitudes of the plants and 
animals here alluded to, such as various species of palms, 
of elephants, hippopotami, turtles, and similar tropical 
forms. Cuvier indeed has conjectured, that the carcase 
of a mammoth found in Siberia belonged to a cold climate 
because it was clothed with .wool as well as hair. Its 
hair was stated to consist of three kinds. One being 
stiff black long bristles, another flexible hair of a reddish 
brown colour, and the third a reddish brown wool which 
grew among the roots of the long hair. Now with respect 
to sheep, there is evidently a difference with regard to 
their coat in those that live in warm climates, and those 
that inhabit cold ones, the coat of the former usually 
consisting chiefly of hairs, and the latter of wool;* but 


‘Genes. ¥. 21. 

2 Fabr. Syst. Antliat. 340. 2. 

’ Cuvier, Theory of the Earth, by Jameson, 275. 
4 See above, Vol. I. p. 64. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 373 


Dr. Buckland,1 and Dr. Virey® have advanced some satis- 
factory arguments which prove that the Mammoth could 
not have existed in the countries in which its fossil 
remains are so abundant, if it had been exposed to a 
great degree of cold. It is remarked with respect to the 
remains of fossil elephants, which are so numerous without 
the tropics, in regions too cold for their existence, that 
none have been hitherto found in those countries which 
they actually inhabit at the present time.? This throws 
no small degree of doubt upon that hypothesis which 
assigns them for their habitation the countries in which 
their remains are now deposited: but with regard to the 
remains of coral reefs* found in the Arctic seas, no 
doubt can be entertained that at the period of their 
formation, those seas were warm enough to suit the tem- 
perature of the animals that formed them; but which no 
longer exist and rear their structures in those latitudes. 
I met with the following extract in the Literary Gazette 
for April 7, 1832; it is taken from a work entitled Sir 
Months in North America, by G. T. Vigne, Esq.: “The 
fossil remains of about thirty animals, now supposed to 
be extinct, have been found at the Big-bone lick; and 
Mr. Bullock conjectures that there are more remaining. 
That these animals did not perish on the spot, but were 
carried and deposited by the mighty torrent, which it is 
evident once spread over the country, is probable from 
the circumstance of marine shells, plants, and fossil sub- 
stances having been found not only mixed with the 
bones, but adhering to them, and tightly wedged in the 


' Supplement to Captain Beechey’s Voyage, i. 355, 356. 
iN. D, DE. Nx. 162. 
3 Ibid. 169. 


* Dr. Buckland in the Appendix to Beechey’s Voyage, i. 355. 


374 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


cavities of the skull—‘ those holes where eyes did once 
inhabit,’ were often stopped up by shells or pieces of coral 
forcibly crammed into them.” The bones of the Mastodon 
were found by Humboldt at an elevation of more than 7,000 
feet above the sea, and in central Asia those of horses 
and deer have been met with at an elevation of 16,000.1 


Nove 8, p. 19.—Burchel and Campbell appear to have 
met with more than one new species of rhinoceros in their 
journey from the Cape of Good Hope into the interior. 
Burchel describes one under the name of Rhinoceros 
sumus.* Campbell’s had a straight horn projecting three 
feet from the forehead, different from any he had seen, 
and its horn resembled that of the supposed unicorn.’ 
There is in the Norwich Museum a horn flattened at the 
summit, nearly straight, and three feet long, which also 
seems to belong to another species. 


NoTE 9, p. 23.—The word of God, in many places, 
speaks of an abyss of waters under the earth. Scientific 
men in the present day seem to question this, The passages 
in Holy Writ, besides those quoted in the text, that 
appear evidently to affirm that an abyss exists in the 
earth, are chiefly the following. 

In the book of Genesis, in the blessings pronounced, 
both by Jacob and Moses,* previous to their death, upon 
the tribes of Israel, in that relating to Joseph, amongst 
others are mentioned—The blessings of the deep that lieth 
under, or as the same words are more literally translated 


Quarterly Review, No. LVII. p. 155. 
Travels, ii. 75. Bulletin des Sc. Juin 1817. 96. 
Travels, 295. 


+ Comp. Genes. xlix. 25 with Deut. xxxiii. 13. 


oe cos) ba 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 375 


in Moses’ blessing—The deep that coucheth beneath.! The 
expression in these passages evidently alludes to an abyss 
under the crust of the earth, from which blessings may be 
derived ; and which is emphatically described as couching 
beneath, as if the mighty waters it contained were lying 
in repose like a beast at rest, and chewing the cud, in con- 
trast with the incessantly fluctuating and stormy ocean. 

When the children of Israel murmured for water in 
Rephidim, Moses at the Divine command smote the rock 
im Horeb, and water flowed out of it in a copious stream, 
which there is reason to believe followed them in all their 
wanderings through the wilderness. If we consider the 
nature of that dry and thirsty land where no water is, it 
is evident that this perennial stream could not be derived 
from the clouds that hovered round the summits of Mount 
Sinai, the rocks of that district were washed by no rivers 
derived from above, and seem not calculated for perco- 
lation. But what was the case—the stroke of the wonder- 
working rod of the Lawgiver of Israel produced a fissure 
in the rock, which opened a channel through which the 
waters, before in repose in the great deep, rushed forth in 
a mighty stream; and therefore the Psalmist says—LHe 
clave the rocks in the wilderness, and he gave them drink, 
as out of the great abysses. Alluding evidently to a source 
of sweet waters below. 

The prophet Jonah, in the prayer he uttered when 
incarcerated in the fish’s belly, has these words—TI went 
down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her 
bars was about me for ever. A parallel expression is used 
in Moses’ song—A fire shall burn to the lowest hell 
it shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.* 


1 Heb. nnn nya5 2 See 1 Cor. x. 4. 
3 Jonah, ii. 6. 4 Deut, xxxni 22% 


376 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


This last passage shews that the Hades! of Seripture— 
usually translated Hell, but distinct from the Gehenna or 
Hell of the New Testament—is synonymous with the 
abyss. As is further proved by the following passage of 
the book of Job. Hast thou entered into the springs of 
the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the abyss? 
Have the gates of death been opened unto thee, or hast thou 
seen the gates of the shadow of death?* In this passage 
the springs of the sea, the abyss, the gates of death, and 
the gates of the shadow of death, seem nearly synonymous, 
or to indicate, at least, different portions, of the womb of 
our globe. The bottomless pit, or rather the pit of the 
abyss of the apocalypse, also belongs to the same place: 
the word rendered pit means also a well. Schleusner, in 
his lexicon, translates the phrase by Puteus seu fons 
abyssi, so that it seems to indicate a mighty source of 
waters. But as the terms abyss and great abyss are applied 
to the receptacle of waters exposed to the atmosphere, as 
well as to those which are concealed in the womb of our 
globe,> it is evident that they form one great body of 
waters in connexion with each other. 


Norte 10, p. 27.—He who willed the deluge, and the 
destruction of the primeval earth and heavens by it, &c. 
When it is considered that all the knowledge which we 
have, and can have, of the contents of the globe that we 
inhabit, is very superficial; that it is only, as it were, skin 
deep, and consequently very imperfect, it seems as if we 
stood in great need of some other guide, besides our own 
reasonings and guesses upon the little that we can explore 
of the earth’s crust, to enable us to form a correct judg- 


1 Heb. dingy. 2 Job xxxviii. 16, 17. 
3 Job xii. 31.‘ Ps. evi. 9, JLsaz. li. 10,84. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 377 


ment, and to arrive at the truth as to what changes may 
have taken place in it, and by what means. When we 
further consider that we are informed by the highest 
authority, that the original earth and its heavens, with all 
their animal inhabitants—those only excepted, which, by 
his command, took refuge in a vessel built according to 
his direction—were destroyed by a universal deluge, which 
overtopped the highest mountains, and continued in force 
for nearly a year: when this great catastrophe is duly 
considered, surely, from the account given of it in Scrip- 
ture, much may be gleaned that will throw a light upon 
the subject, that can never be struck out by the unassisted 
investigations of the Geologist who can penetrate so little 
below the earth’s surface. 

My own knowledge of Geology and its principles, as 
now laid down, is too slight to qualify me to compare them 
with what has been delivered in Scripture on the subjects 
here alluded to; but as it appears to me that the scrip- 
tural account of the great Cataclysm has not been duly 
weighed, and its magnitude, duration, momentum, varied 
agency, and their consequences, sufficiently estimated by 
geologists, I will endeavour, as briefly as I can, to call 
their attention, and that of Christian Philosophers in 
general, to the most striking features exhibited by it, as 
stated in the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of 
Genesis, still requesting them to bear in mind these words 
of the poet, as expressing my own feelings. 


Fungor vice cotis exors ipse secandi. 


My only wish being to excite others better qualified, by 
their knowledge both of Scripture and Nature, the Word 
and the Work of the same Almighty Being, to undertake 
the task. 

It must be borne in mind that the scriptural account 


378 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


is not a figurative one, in which the object is to represent 
one thing by another, but a statement of epochs, and. 
naked facts; of causes and effects; in which all that is 
requisite is to ascertain the meaning of the terms employed 
to describe them. 

The cause of the universal deluge, every one is aware, 
was, with the exception of one family, the universal cor- 
ruption of the human race. All flesh had corrupted his 
way upon the earth. In consequence of which God. de- 
termined to—Bring a flood of waters upon the earth to 
destroy all flesh, wherein was the breath of life from under 
heaven; and every living substance from off the face of 
the earth.2 To accomplish this purpose, it was evidently 
necessary that the whole globe should be submerged, and 
the tops of all the mountains covered to such a depth as 
to prevent any thing in which was the breath of life from 
making its escape. 

Having mentioned the cause and object of the delags 
we must next consider the means by which this universal 
destruction is stated to have been effected. Three only 
are mentioned. Ad/ the fountains of the great deep were 
broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and 
the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 

1. All the fountains of the great deep were broken up. 
The radical idea of the word here rendered broken up is 
that of division or disruption, therefore the meaning is 
that those fountains by which the waters of the great 
abyss issued ordinarily upon the earth to water it by 
numerous streams and rivers, were so cleft, disruptured, 
and broken up, as to form vast chasms vomiting up the 
fluid contents of the womb of the earth, and sending 


1 Genes. vi. 12. 2 Ibid. 17, and vii. & - 
3 Ibid. vii. 11. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 379 


forth torrents of incalculable force and volume. The 
vestiges of such clefts in the earth’s crust are still to be 
traced in many places. Malte Brun, in his Geography, 
observes, with respect to valleys—“ Those which are found 
between high mountains are commonly narrow and long, 
as if they had originally been only fissures! dividing their 
respective chains, or for the passage of extensive torrents. 
The angles of their direction sometimes exhibit a singular 
symmetry; we see in the Pyrenees, says M. Raymond, 
some valleys whose salient and reentrant angles so per- 
fectly correspond, that if the force that separated them 
were to act in a contrary direction, and bring their sides 
together again, they would unite so exactly, that even the 
fissure would not be perceived.”’? 

2. The windows of heaven were opened—is stated by 
Moses to be the second cause by which the deluge was 
effected. The word,*> which in our translation of the 
Bible, is here and in other places rendered windows, does 
not mean an opening for the transmission of light, for 
which another term is usually employed.* In the Septua- 
gint and other ancient versions it is supposed to signify 
water falling from the heavens in large masses, and cataract 
or a corresponding term is used. 

The radical idea is that of dying im wait, as a wild beast 
in its den. In other parts of Scripture it is used for 
dovecots, or the holes in rocks that doves frequent ;> for 
the sockets of the eyes ;° for the heavens when shedding 
copiously blessings or plenty ;7 and for the action of some- 
thing from above producing earthquakes.® 


1 mypa is Hebrew for a valley, and ypai is the verb used to 
express the disruption of the fountains of the great abyss. 

2 System of Geography, \. i. 168. E. Tr. 

3 nas 4 bn 5 Jsai. |x. 8. 6 Eccles. xii. 3. 

7 2 Kings, vii. 2. Malachi, iii. 10. 8 [sat. xxiv. 18. 
VOL. I. C 


wp) 


380 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


My venerated friend, the late Rev. Wm. Jones, of Nay- 
land—well known for his knowledge of the Hebrew, and 
the variety and ability of his researches on every subject 
connected with the interpretation of Scripture—in his 
Physiological Disquisitions thus expresses himself, con- 
cerning the term in question. “ We suppose then that 
the air was driven downwards, for this purpose, through 
those passages which are called windows of heaven. These 
may seem very obscure terms to express such a sense by; 
but heaven is the firmament, or expanded substance of the 
atmosphere; and windows, as they are here called, are 
holes, or channels of any kind. The same word is used 
for chimneys,’ through which smoke passes, and for the 
holes, probably cliffs of a rock, in pats the doves of the 
eastern countries have their habitation.” 

It strikes me as not very improbable that the term I am 
speaking of may allude to volcanos and their .craters, 
which may be called the chimneys of this globe, by which 
its subterranean fires communicate with the atmosphere, 
and by which the air rushing into the earth, when circum- 
stances are favourable, may possibly act the part of the 
fabled Cyclops, and blow them up previous to an erup- 
tion: thus they become literally channels or chimneys, 
through which the matter constituting the expanse or 
firmament. passes, either from heaven, or, in an eruption, 
towards heaven. The expression, in Isaiah, quoted above, 
The windows from on high*® are opened, and the founda- 
tions of the earth do shake—seems to indicate that earth- 
quakes are connected with the opening of the windows of 


1 Hosea, xiii. 3. 

2 Tsai. lx. 8. See Jones’ Works, x. 264. See also Park- 
hurst, Heb. Lex. under a4 II. 

3 Heb. nynn 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 361 


heaven, thus pointing to volcanic action as the result. 
Still the expression is ambiguous, and requires further 
elucidation: it may, however, be intended to include both 
interpretations. The violent disruption of the fountains of 
the great deep, which appears to have been the first step 
towards producing the deluge, since God generally employs 
means to effect his purposes, was probably occasioned by 
the expansive power of heat, and the same agent would, as 
it does at this very time in some countries, send out the 
waters, and it seems equally probable, that in proportion 
as the waters rushed out the air would rush in and take 
their place, and thus form a centre of repulsion, or vs 
centrifuga, to counteract the. pressure of the superin- 
cumbent waters. It seems not improbable, if this were 
the case, that in its transit from the surface of the earth, 
to its centre, the air might bring with it vast cataracts 
of water attended by thunder and lightning and other 
electric phenomena. 

Heat, the most elastic of all fluids, at the first creation, 
under the name of the expansion or firmament, acting in 
the bosom of the chaotic waters divided them, and there- 
fore it is consistent with the Divine proceedings that the 
same mighty element should be put in action to bring 
them again together. And we learn from Scripture, that 
the same irresistible agent will be employed for the destruc- 
tion of the present earth and its atmosphere or heavens, 
which ‘are reserved unto fire, when the heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein 
shall be burned up.’ As the opening of the windows of the 
heavens seems the consequence of the breaking up of the 
fountains of the great deep, it is therefore mentioned in 
the second place. 

oe7 Fer. ii. 7, 10. 


382 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


3. The third instrument of Divine Power to produce 
the deluge was rain. And the rain was upon the earth 
forty days and forty nights. It is a common form of 
expression,—It rains as if heaven and earth would come 
together; and this probably was the character of the rain 
that now fell for forty Nycthemera, or entire days of 
twenty-four hours. A circumstance that does not require 
further explanation. 

By the united operation of these three mighty agents, 
guided by the Almighty hand of the Deity— Whose way 
as in the sea, and whose path is in the great waters, and 
whose footsteps are not known?—the waters kept gradually 
rising and prevailing more and more, till they overtopped 
all the high mountains? that were under the whole heavens 
fifteen cubits, by which the Divine decree to destroy the 
earth with al/ its inhabitants, both rational and irrational, 
except those in the ark, was fully executed. With respect 
to the earth itself, when we consider the violent action of 
the ascending and descending waters, and of the firmament 
rushing downwards; the disruptions, dislocations, intro- 
versions, comminutions, deportations here and there of the 
original strata of the crust of our globe, can scarcely be con- 
ceived, and are still more difficult to calculate and explain 
exactly. In the waters thus again, as at the creation, 
masters of the whole earth, God had an instrument by 
which his will with respect to its crust, and the changes 
to take place in it, might have full accomplishment, espe- 
cially when we consider the long time during which the 
waters kept rising or prevailed, till they reached the height 


1 Genes. vil. 12. 2 Ps. \xxvii. 19. 

3 Genes. vii. 19. In our translation, pnn in this verse is 
rendered Aills, and in the 20th mountains. 

4 Ibid. 20. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 385 


necessary to fulfil the Divine decree. It seems not clear 
whether the forty days during which the rain fell are in- 
cluded in the hundred and fifty days that the waters are 
stated to have prevailed. If they were included, the 
period would be five lunar months and ten days; and if 
they were not, it would extend to six such months and 
twenty-two days. What a time, even according to the 
shortest calculation, for the continued action of such a 
body of fluctuating waters, continually increasing, till they 
left no peak or pinnacle of the most elevated mountains 
of the globe visible! Who can calculate the effects of 
that action ? 

During this period of the increase and prevalence of 
the waters, when the mountains were covered, all ingress 
of the atmosphere into the earth by the chimneys of the 
volcanos, if that is the meaning of stopping the windows of 
heaven, would cease; and the abyss, at or before the end 
of it, no longer vomit forth its waters by its innumerable 
mouths. 


Having considered the secondary causes to which the 
Word of God attributes the rise and prevalence of the 
deluge, I must next make a few observations upon the 
means to which Divine Wisdom, Power, and Goodness 
had recourse to effect this, and to cause the waters to 
return to their ancient receptacle. At the first creation, 
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The 
consequence of which was that order arose out of con- 
fusion. The motion was then begun, by which the wind! 
bloweth where it listeth, the light shines forth, heat 
expands, the clouds are formed, and the physical che- 


1 Avepog edev ese mAnv anp jwoAdug pewy Osig cpa Kae TvEvpO 
Aeyerar. Aristot, De Mundo. 


384 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


rubim, under the guidance, and according to the will of 
Jehovah of Hosts, are in action, and fulfil his purpose, 
and the consequence is that The waters under the heaven 
are gathered together into one. place and the dry land 
appears. Similar steps were taken at the deluge. For 
God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the 
cattle that were with him in the ark: and God made a wind 
to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.? It is not 
here said, as on the occasion just alluded to, that the 
Floly Spirit brooded over the water, but literally that God 
passed (a) wind (or spirit) over the earth. The action, 
though not the same, was analogous, wind under the 
direction of God was employed to do, in part, what the 
incubation of the Holy Spirit had before effected, to begin 
that action by which the globe and its atmosphere would 
be again placed in statu quo, the water again divided, so 
that one part should return to the great abyss, its destined 
abode; and the other be suspended in the atmosphere ; 
and, by the same means, the dislocated crust of the earth 
be re-formed ; the matter suspended in the water or float- 
ing on it deposited, the detritus of the old one being 
mixed, and often, as it were, intercalated with vegetable 
and animal substances and remains. This wind from God 
having passed over the earth, the waters assuaged ; that 
is, their rage and violence ceased; the fountains of the 
abyss and the windows of heaven being stopped; the one 
no longer poured forth its waters upon the earth; and the 
other no longer descended to occupy their place; and the 
rain had ceased to fall. When the above three causes of 
the deluge ceased their action, and had given place to the 
wind from God, the waters of course began to subside. 


1 Genes. i. 9. | 2 Ibid. viii. 1. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 385 


We are now arrived at the last epoch of this great 
event, the gradual decrease and final subsidence of the 
diluvial waters. The period of their increase, if with 
Lightfoot we add the 40 days to the 150, would be 190 
days, or, as was before observed, six lunar months and 
about.three weeks. In the seventh month of the deluge, 
as the same author observes,! on the seventeenth day of 
the month, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat,’ 
from which period the waters returned off the face of the 
earth, going and returning, as it is in the Hebrew,’ ren- 
dered in our translation by the word continually, but 
‘almost all the ancient versions adhere to the literal sense, 
which seems to be important, and to indicate a flux and 
reflux of the waters, which would affect the deposition of 
the matters floating upon or suspended in them. Whether 
this flux and reflux partook of the nature of a tide, and 
was produced by the action of the moon, or whether it was 
occasioned by the wind, which, as Solomon observes, 
Goeth towards the south and turneth about to the north, 
does not appear. | 

After the resting of the ark, more than two months elapsed 
before the tops of the mountains were seen, and finally, 
in nearly two months more the waters had universally 
disappeared; and after their long domination over the 
earth, lasting nearly eleven months, were confined again 
within the limits that God had originally assigned to 
them. Reckoning to the day of Noah’s going out of the 
ark, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the 
whole period of his confinement appears to have been one 


1 Ubi supra. 2 See above, Vou. I. p. 45. 
3 Heb. ay on yosn Syn on iawn 
4 Eccles. i. 6. 


386 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


year and ten days. It is evident, from the period that 
intervened between the resting of the ark, and the subse- 
quent emergence of the tops of the mountains more than 
two months afterwards,! that the subsidence of the waters 
at first was very gradual ; but, in proportion as their volume 
diminished, it probably became more and more rapid. 

The tumult and violence of the descending waters, and 
the effects produced by them, in the new mixture, as it 
were, of the substances now forming the crust of our globe, 
and the putting it into its present order—always under 
the direction and guidance of the Deity, who satteth above 
the water-flood, employing as his hands those physical - 
agents which rule in nature, to fulfil his purpose—must 
have been the reverse of those of the ascending ones: the 
object now was not disruption, and dislocation, and de- 
struction, but to form anew the earth and its heavens 
which had been thus destroyed, and by the addition of a 
vast body of fresh materials not entering into the compo- 
sition of the old crust of the former, to render it materially 
different from it ; and that when the attention of mankind 
was directed to the study of God’s works, and of those 
remains of the former world, a proof might be supplied of 
the existence of this sad catastrophe, confirmative of the 
account given in Holy Scripture, and adding to the force 
of the warning that universal corruption will be a prelude 
to universal destruction. 

When we consider what an infinite host of animals of 
every description must have perished in the diluvial waters, 
as well as the incalculable magnitude of the mass of vege- 
table substances that must have been severed by the vio- 
lence of the conflicting waters from the earth’s surface, or 
uprooted afterwards in consequence of its being so tho- 


1 Genes. vill. 4, 5. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 387 


roughly soaked by them, we see immediately that their 
deposition and sepulture, as well as the putting together 
again of the dislocated remains of the primeval earth, must 
have been an important part of the office of the subsiding 
waters, upon which I shall now offer a few observations. 

It has been a matter of surprize that amidst so many 
fossil animals which are daily brought to light, and those 
of some of the largest quadrupeds in great numbers,’ no 
remains of the human race have yet been discovered, except 
in one or two solitary instances. As the deluge was caused 
by the wickedness of these old grants, as they have been 
ealled, but really apostates,? these men of renown, it was 
evidently a miraculous interference of the Deity for their 
punishment ; it seems, therefore, by no means improbable, 
that the place of their burial was not left to chance, or the 
uninfluenced action of physical causes, but, like the burial 
place of Moses, was decreed by God, and fixed so as to be 
placed beyond discovery. 

It seems to have been the opinion of most modern 
geologists, that fossil animals in general were natives of 
those districts or countries in which their remains have 
been discovered. But whoever takes into consideration 
the account, above detailed, which the sacred writings 
give us of the universal deluge, and of the prevalence of the 
waters above the summits of the highest mountains, will 
see at once, with the exception of those that were over- 
taken and drowned by the waters in dens or caverns, they 
must have floated when the waters had reached and 
flooded all the elevations upon which they had taken their 
last refuge, and they would have drifted off north or south, 
or in any other direction the fluctuating element was 
taking, and if there was an alternate flux and reflux, they 


1 See Reliquie Diluv. 138—182. 2 Heb. ovdp3 


388 APPENDIX. NOTES: 


would have been carried by it backwards and forwards 
till they were deposited some here and some there; some 
upon mountain summits,! and others at different heights 
ruled by the circumstances of the earth’s surface and the 
action of the subsiding waters. Few, indeed, would be im- 

bedded in their native country, except those that perished, 
as above mentioned, in caverns ; though probably, in many 
cases, those of the same species might congregate, and so 
floating off together might be buried together. It has 
been remarked that no fossil elephants have been found 
in the countries that those animals now frequent. It 
seems, therefore, by no means certain that the gigantic 
Saurians now found in our southern coasts, or that the 
Mammoths or other gigantic Pachyderms of Northern 
Russia or Nova Zembla, were really natives of those 
recions. 


What Geologist, then, however practised, however 
deeply conversant with his subject, can estimate and 
exactly calculate the action and operation of these mighty 
waters, both during their rise, prevalence, and subsidence 
for so extended a period; especially when those of an 
Almighty superintending and directing Cause, upon the 
whole body of means that he employed to accomplish his 
purposes, and execute his decrees with regard both to the 
destruction and renovation of our globe, are duly con- 
sidered ? | 

By what I have here argued I do not mean to contend 
that there may not have been many partial convulsions 
which may have produced very important changes in 
different countries of our globe: it is not moreover at all 
improbable that while its population was concentrated, 


1 See above, p. 374. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 389 


many regions when uninhabited, God so willing, by dilu- 
vial, volcanic, or other action of the elements, might be 
materially altered, new mountain ridges might be elevated, 
mighty disruptions take place, and other changes to which 
there could be no witnesses, but which can only be con- 
jectured by the features such countries now exhibit. 


Note 11, p. 41.—We learn from the Apostle St. Peter, 
that the primeval globe, and its heavens or atmosphere, 
perished at the deluge. I shall add a few words here on 
the passage of St. Peter alluded to in the text. Speaking 
of the scoffers of the last days, and of the deluge, Whereby, 
he says, the world that then was being overflowed with 
water perished ; he adds, But the heavens and earth, which 
are now, by the same word are kept in store, &c. In this 
passage it must be observed that the term world in the 
sixth verse is synonymous with the heavens and the earth 
~ taken together of the fifth and seventh verses, and by it 
seems to be meant that the earth with its own heavens, or 
the atmosphere that surrounds it, both perished or were de- 
stroyed,’ which is rendered further evident by the expres- 
sion: But the heavens and earth which are now. From 
which it may be gathered that the heavens and earth 
which are now, are different from the heavens and earth 
which were destroyed at the deluge; and as the latter has 
evidently been reconstructed, and vegetable and animal 
remains have been mixed with the dislocated materials 
and as it were detritus of the original world ;* so the new 
atmosphere might be, and probably was differently mixed, 
so as to be less friendly to health and longevity, which 


1 Gr. arwXero. 


* See above, p. 384, and Herschel in Cab. Cyclop. xiv. 141. 
No. 135, 


390 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


would account physically for the gradual reduction of the 
former extended period of human life to its present brief 
standard. Animals as well as man might be affected by 
this change, their bulk might be diminished, and other 
variations be produced in them which have not been ascer- 
tained. When God fixed upon the rainbow as the token 
of his covenant with Noah, the changes, here alluded to, 
in the atmosphere might be the cause of the appearance, 
under certain circumstances, of that phenomenon. 

Scientific men have judged it not improbable, without 
referring to this doctrine of Revelation, that changes in 
the composition of the atmosphere, according to circum- 
stances, may have taken place.} 


Note 14, p. 52.—Whoever examines the animals of 
North America will find a vast number that correspond 
with European species—on the Rocky Mountains, and in 
the country westward of that range Asiatic types are dis- 
coverable. The rein-deer, the fox, the weasel, the rat, the 
mouse, the golden eagle, the peregrine falcon, and many 
other birds are of the former description. In the latter 
paragraph I allude to a fine Carabus,? which is found in 
Siberia; and likewise to a new genus® related to Trechus, 
of which I possess a specimen, found in India, both taken 
also in the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Sabine informed me 
that several new Pceonias, and a Laurus that reached the 
height of sixty feet, were natives of the same country. 
In Chili, Molina found the green and temporary frogs, 
the heron, the turtle-dove, and several other old-world 
animals, 


1 Ann. Des Sc. Nat. xix. 432. 
2 C. Vietinghovit. Fisch. 3 Isopleurus, K. M.S. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 391 


Nore 15, p.54.— But which in their immediate or remote 
consequences, may be productive of effects that are important 
to be attended to, and provided for. When we reflect 
upon the action of the Deity, we can scarcely avoid taking 
our ideas of it, in some degree from that of man. Man’s 
attention is usually directed to things that appear to him 
important, as affecting either his passions or his interests, 
but he passes by those that appear to him trivial, as having 
no bearing upon his pain, or pleasure, or welfare. But 
here there is a great difference, for though some 


By long experience do attain 
To something like prophetic strain, 


the generality can trace the chain of causes and effects, 
but for a very few links; and therefore they disregard 
some things as trivial, which, in the event, produce effects 
of the greatest importance. But it is not so with God; 
he sees the most distant consequences of every thing that 
happens in his whole universe, and therefore knows exactly 
in what proportions every thing appertaining to the nature 
of every creature should be measured out to it in order 
to produce the effects he intends should take place, if [ 
may so speak, during its ministration; so combining 
agents and actions, as may infallibly fulfil his law, and 
general purpose. He foresees the effect of what are 
regarded as the most trivial things, as the number of our 
hairs and the death of a sparrow, as well as of those that 
are most important: and his general object is to provide 
for the execution of the laws both physical and meta- 
physical by which he governs the universe, and so upholds 
all things, but not so as never to suspend the action of 
these laws. The following events recorded in Scripture 
were remarkable instances of such suspension. 


392 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


1, The Universal Deluge, by the means of which the | : 


heavens and the earth of the primeval world were 
destroyed. 

2. The Egyptian palpable darkness for three days and 
nights. 

3. The passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, 
the waters standing as a wall on either hand. 

4. The sun apparently standing still im the heavens at 
the command of Joshua, or the earth ceasing to 
revolve on its axis. 

5. The shadow going back on the dial of Ahaz three 
degrees, or the earth retrograding. 

6. The supernatural darkness that took place at our 
Saviour’s crucifixion. 


Nore 16, p. 86.—Which will take place in his time 
and at his word; and by the means and instruments that 
he empowers and commissions. Ever since the fall of our 
first parents a copious harvest of evil and sorrow, the fruit 
of sin, has been reaped by their descendants, amongst 
others, that of slavery has been one of the bitterest. In 
the case of Ham it was predicted and decreed by the Deity 
himself that his son Canaan should be a servant of servants 
or slave to his brethren, a prediction which, to judge by 
the event, affected all the descendants of the offending 
patriarch, for no races have been so much degraded, in 
all respects, as the African negroes who derived their 
origin from him. 

Much has of late been done with the view of ame- 
liorating their condition, and most of the European nations 
have concurred in the benevolent endeavour. In conse- 
quence of the exertions of this country, the debasing traffic 
in slaves, and the miseries and waste of human life that it 
occasioned, have been very much diminished. But though 


: 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 393 


Christian nations have agreed to relinquish the trade in 
slaves, and it is to be hoped that many of the wars that 
were expressly kindled amongst the Africans themselves, 
for the purpose of making slaves will cease: still there are 
markets for slaves that we have no power to close, and 
therefore it is to be apprehended that the good expected 
from the abolition, by European states, of the traffic in 
question, will not be altogether realized: so that it still 
seems doubtful whether slavery is near its extinction, or 
whether it ever will be extinguished during the present 
state of society, and while the nations amongst whom it is 
practised continue to be apostates from the knowledge and 
worship of their Creator. While the souls of the sons of 
Adam are thus enslaved and sold under sin, it seems im- 
probable that God’s time for their general emancipation 
from bodily slavery should be at hand; but when their 
heart shall turn to the Lord, this, and numberless other - 
evils, at his bidding, and by instruments that he appoints, 
will cease. The best way therefore of accomplishing this 
object is by providing means, wherever God has made an 
opening, for the education of the negroes, and for training 
them to habits of industry and order: to give them freedom 
before they are qualified to use it for the benefit of society, 
is giving them not a boon, but a curse. 


Nore 17, p. 87.—Should another and last cloud of error 
envelope the world with darkness. There are many passages 
of Holy Writ, from which it appears that, before the final 
triumph of the gospel, there shall be a time of great 
spiritual darkness upon earth; and it seems also to be 
intimated that this reign of evil shall be brought on by 
men that Despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities,! 


' Jude, 8. 


394 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


who shall promise liberty to their followers, while they 
themselves are the servants of corruption; who shall 
resemble Corah, and his companions in rebellion Dathan 
and Abiram,® and rise up against their civil and eccle- 
siastical rulers; and who shall for a time prevail against 
them, as seems to be intimated by one of the most ancient 
prophecies in the Bible. Dan shall be a serpent by the 
way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so 
that has rider shall fall backward.? So says the venerable 
patriarch, in his valedictory and prophetic address to his 
twelve sons before his death. These words seem to foretell 
that serpents, or apostates, symbolized by the tribe of Dan, 
would, in the last times, incite the lower orders to rebel 
against their governors and reject their authority ; and when 
Jacob adds I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah, it 
seems to be further indicated that this event will be followed 
by the great day of salvation. It was am ancient opinion 
that Antichrist would be an individual of the tribe of Dan, 
who, in the last times, to use the words of Irenzeus, would 
leap like a lion upon the human race ;* an opinion probably 
derived from this prophecy, or from that of Moses delivered 
on a similar occasion, Dan is a lon’s whelp: he shall leap 
from Bashan ;> and from the exclusion of that tribe from 
the number of those that were sealed, as recorded in the 
Apocalypse.® St. Paul, in his description of the man of 
sin, describes him as exalting himself above all that is 
called God, or that is worshipped or venerated.’ This has 
been interpreted as meaning ido/s, but in Scripture princes 
and rulers are called Gods, as when it is said Thow shalt 


12 Pet. ii. 9, 19. 
3 Genes. xlix. 17. 
5 Deut, xxxin: 22. 
7 Gr. ceBaopa. 2 Thess. ii, 4. 


Numb. xvi. 1—3, 31—35. 
Adv. Heres. |. iii. e. 38. 
Revel. xvi. 5—8. 


a & © 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 395 


not revile the.Gods nor speak evil of the ruler of thy 
people ;1 whence it seems as if St. Paul meant to indicate 
a power that was to exalt itself above all authority whether 
civil or ecclesiastical. Irenwus expected his personal 
Antichrist to reign three years and a half, interpreting the 
prophetic period of 1260 days literally ;? but this period, 
if interpreted a year for a day, would only agree with a 
succession of individuals. The ancient opinion of a personal 
Antichrist, may be reconciled with the modern one of a 
succession of individuals entitled to that appellation, by 
considering St. John’s prophecy of the two witnesses. They 
are to prophecy clothed in sackcloth 1260 days.? This 
period synchronizes with the reign of the Antichristian 
power which corrupts the gospel, headed by a succession of 
individuals. Again, they are to be killed, and their bodies 
exposed without sepulture in the street of the great city 
for three days and a half ;* this second period synchronizes 
with the reign of the personal Antichrist, who denies the 
gospel, who is to be a single individual; and more particu- 
larly entitled to the name of Antichrist by his infidelity, 
and atheistic principles. He is the Antichrist that denieth 
the Father and the Son.) It may be asked— When God 
doeth this, who shall be able to stand? will any Christian 
church escape? We learn from the case of that of Phila- 
delphia,® that if any such church holds fast her profession, 
has kept the word of Christ, and not denied his name, 
though beset by a host of enemies, she shall be kept from 
the hour of temptation. 


Norte 18, p. 87.—And be restored to the favour of their 
God and their own land. Some Divines have thought 


1 Exod. xxii. 28. 2 Ubi supr. |. v. c. 25. 
3 Revel. xi. 3. 4 Ibid. 7—11. 
5 1 John, i. 22. 6 Rev. iii. 7—10. 


VOL. I, DD 


396 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


that there will be no restoration of the Jews to their own 
land; but as it is evident, from what St. Paul says, that 
they will at a period fixed in the Divine councils be 
converted to the faith of Christ,1 so it appears equally 
clear, from what is foretold in the concluding chapters of 
Ezekiel and by other prophets,? that they shall also again 
inhabit Judea and Jerusalem. Some interpreters are also 
of opinion, that the pouring out of the vial of the sixth 
angel upon the river Euphrates and the drying up of its 
waters,° signify the dissolution of the empire of the Turks; 
that, by the Kings of the East therein mentioned, are 
meant the Jews; and that their return to their own land 
is indicated, by their way being prepared. Bishop Horsley 
supposes, likewise, that the eighteenth of Isaiah foretells 
this event, and that the great commercial nation of the day 
will be instrumental in bringing it about.* 

St. Paul’s conversion is thought to have been a type of 
the conversion of the Jewish nation in the latter days, and 
as his zeal and success seem to have exceeded that of the 
other apostles, and he was the great instrument of the 
conversion of the gentile world to the faith of Christ, so it 
has been supposed that the Jews when converted, will be 
the main instruments of the conversion of the then heathen 
world. 


Note 19, p. 88.—Unless some means can be devised at 
home, by which the pressure may be lightened, and the 
suffering classes be enabled to procure the necessaries of life. 
There are two mighty nations on our globe in which a 
system has long been acted upon, enabling them to support 


1 Roni. xi..25, 26; 

2 Ezek. xxxvil. &c. Tsai. lx. Jerem. xxx. &ce. 
3 Rev. xvi. 12. comp. ix. 14. 

4 See also Ix. 8, 9, and Zeph. iii. 10. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 397 


a population, never diminished by foreign wars, greatly 
exceeding that of any other country, whose numbers have 
only been diminished occasionally by famine, by devas- 
tating inundations and unfavourable seasons, from which 
nothing can altogether insure a people. The nations | 
allude to are China and Japan. We are informed, in the 
Account of Lord Macartney’s Embassy, that in the former 
of these countries, “ Every square mile contains upon an 
average one third more inhabitants, being upwards of three 
hundred, than are found upon an equal quantity of land, 
also upon an average, in the most populous country in 
Europe.”! The population of the latter is also stated to be 
prodigious.* The encouragement of Agriculture appears 
to be the sole mean which enables these countries to main- 
tain so vast a mass of population. In China, it is stated, 
that the whole surface of the country is dedicated to the 
production of food for man alone, that even the steepest 
mountains are brought into cultivation; they are cut into 
terraces, and the water that runs at their feet is raised by 
chain-pumps, worked each by two men, from terrace to 
terrace, to irrigate them ; and steep and barren places are 
not suffered to run waste, but are planted with pines and 
larches.*? A similar account is given of the state of agri- 
culture in Japan, where attention to it is enjoined by the 
laws as one of the most essential duties; and if any one 
leaves his land uncultivated his more active neighbour 
may take possession of it. In both these countries no 
article that ean possibly be used as manure is wasted, so 
that the soil and crops have every possible attention of 
this kind. Malte-Brun has given a very interesting 


1 Macartney Embassy by Sir G. Staunton, iii. 388. 

2 Malte-Brun. Syst. of Geogr. Asia Il. ii. 533. E. T. 
3 Macartney Embass. i. 386. Malte-Brun. Asia, 560. 
4 Thumb. Japan, iv. 82. Malte-Brun. 561. 


398 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


account of the honours paid by the Emperor of China and 
his court to agriculture: who annually in the beginning 
of March, after adoring the God of Heaven, and invoking 
his Blessing on his labour and on that of his whole people, 
himself, laying aside his imperial robes, holding a plough 
opens several furrows, and is succeeded by his chief 
mandarins, who in succession, follow the example of the 
prince.t Some allowance probably must be made for too 
warm colouring in these statements, as most of them must 
have been derived from the report of the natives, yet there 
seems no doubt with respect to their general accuracy. 
What an example is here set by nations which we are 
accustomed to consider as far behind ourselves in every 
art of life: how vast a portion of our own home empire is 
suffered to lie waste, while all the time hundreds of 
thousands of our agricultural population are languishing 
for want of employment, and compelled to live upon a 
pittance, which, unless they add to it by theft or fraud, is 
scarcely sufficient to keep body and soul together; and in 
the mean while the morals of our peasantry are gradually 
corrupted; they grow daily less industrious; they will 
often congregate at the beer-shops, and get inveterate 
habits of intemperance; they lose all respect for their 
superiors, and the bonds of union betwixt the upper and 
lower classes are gradually dissolving; and unless some 
remedy for this fearful evil is soon discovered, who can 
say what the consequences may be? When a man once 
loses his self-esteem, and is degraded from his natural 
dependence upon himself, under God, and the labour of 
his hands, for the support of himself and family, being no 
longer of use to himself or others, he becomes careless of 
his actions; and being, as it were, rejected by society, 


1 Malte-Brun, 561. 


J 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 399 


becomes the enemy of those above him, and the ready 
_ associate of evil men, in evil works. 


Nore 20, p. 156.—Those that are loricated and covered 
with some kind of shell, The varied means by which a 
provident and beneficent Creator has provided animals 
with different means of defence ought not to be over- 
looked. When we see even these invisible atoms as it 
were provided with armour, to defend them probably 
from the attack of animals of their own class, we feel 
confident that he will not neglect us. This distinction 
of animals into loricated and naked may be traced 
through most of their Classes; thus the Coleoptera stand 
in contrast with most of the other Orders of insects; 
the fishes and reptiles that are covered with scales with 
those that are covered with skin. In birds, however, this 
distinction does not appear to obtain at all: in quadrupeds 
. the giant Megatherium, the Armadillo, the Chlamyphorus, 
and the Manis, are distinguished from the other Mam- 
malians by the armour that protects them. 


Nore 21, p. 162.—The first plants and the first animals 
are scarcely more than animated molecules, and appear 
analogues of each other; and those above them in each 
kingdom represent jointed fibrils. A discovery may here 
be noticed of one of the most scientific Botanists of the 
present age, and whose keen eye and philosophic spirit 
have penetrated into depths and mysteries before unex- 
plored, belonging to the science of which he is so great an 
ornament. In the investigation of some of these, he dis- 
covered that not only vegetable, but even mineral mole- 


1 In some fishes the scales are invisible, so that they may be 
almost reckoned naked. Vol. II. p. 306. 


400 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


cules, when placed in a fluid medium, would move about 
in various directions, but by what cause these motions 
were generated he offers no conjecture. He very kindly 
shewed me this singular phenomenon, if my memory does 
not deceive me, with respect to some mineral substances. 
Mr. Brown has observed that the motions in question, he 
was satisfied, arose neither from currents in the fluid, nor 
from its gradual evaporation, but belonged to the particle 
itself; and of the spherical molecules mixed with the other 
oblong particles obtained from Clarckia pulchella, that 
they were in rapid oscillatory motion :? in both mineral, 
vegetable,# and animal substances, along with the mole- 
cules, he found other corpuscles, like short fibres some- 
what moniliform, or having transverse contractions, corres- 
ponding in number, as he conjectured, with that of the 
molecules composing them: and these fibrils, when not 
consisting of a greater number than four or five molecules, 
exhibited motion resembling that of the mineral fibrils, 
while longer ones of the same apparent diameter were at 
rest.© It does not appear clearly from the words of the 
learned author, whether the motion of the mineral mole- 
cules was similar to that of the vegetable ones, which he 
describes as oscillatory. The motions of the mineral fibrils, 
when not composed of more than two or three molecules, 
were at least as vivid as those of the simple molecule, and 
which from the fibril often changing its position in the 
fluid, and from its occasional bending, might be said to 
be somewhat vermicular;7 now vermicular movement is 
a kind of progressive oscillation, the anterior extremity 
going from side to side and being followed by the body. 


1 Brief Account of Microscopical Observations, &c. 4. 
2 [bid. 5, 6. 3 Thid. 10. * Pode ry 5 [hid. 
6 bid. comp. 10, 11. 7 [bid. 10. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 401 


In other mineral bodies, as in white arsenic, which did 
not exhibit the fibrils, he found oval particles about the 
size of two molecules, which he conjectures to be primary 
combinations of them: their motion, which was more vivid 
than that of the simple molecule, consisted usually in 
turning on their longer axis, and then often appearing to 
be flattened.1. The revolution of a body upon its axis, it 
may be observed, implies the action upon it of two equal 
conflicting forces, by the counteraction of which the revo- 
lution is produced and maintained: the same action on 
the longer fibrils? would keep them at rest. 

My motive for introducing a topic, which, at the first 
blush, seems to have a very slight connexion with the 
subject now before me, was a suspicion that sometimes 
Mr. Brown’s molecules may have been mistaken for 
Infusory Animals. Comparing the oscillatory motion he 
observed in them, and Carus’ observation that the motions 
of Infusories occasionally present the appearance of attrac- 
tion and repulsion,’ this suspicion seems to merit attention, 
and to call for more close examination; and it may be 
observed that the action of these two powers seems sufli- 
ciently to account for the oscillatory motions of the mole- 
cules, and takes away all idea of any spontaneity. With 
regard to the Infusories this has been most satisfactorily 
established in a former part of this chapter,* and this 
clearly proves their animal nature, as do their modes of 
motion, &c.° but when we recollect that they abound in 
vegetable infusions, and that the more vegetables are 
macerated, and as it were decomposed, the more numerous 
are the animalcula that they appear to give out when 


1 Ubi supra. 2 Ibid. 11. 
3 Introd. to Comp. Anat. KE. Tr. 1. 45. § 57. 
* See above, p. 150. 5 Ibid. 153. 


402 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


infused, it would be nothing extraordinary either that they 
should be mistaken for moving molecules, or moving mole- 
cules for them. Farther we may observe a kind of analogy 
between the spherical Infusories and the Molecules, and 
between the filiform ones transversely annulated with a 
-vermicular motion, and the fibrils of Mr. Brown. 

Another law of nature seems to result from the experi- 
ments of this acute naturalist—that all bodies whether 
organized or inorganized, are formed, as fibrin is in the 
animal kingdom, by spherical molecules made, as it were, 
into necklaces, and then adhering in bundles, and that 
these are the substratum of all substance. In fluids the 
spherules are not united, and so have free motion inter se. 


Note 22, p. 198.—-Several of them, for it is not common 
to them all, when touched cause a sensation similar to that 
produced by the sting of a nettle. Aristotle mentions a 
marine animal, under the name of Acalephé,’ and another, 
if it be not the same, under that of Cnidé,? both of which 
words, according to the Greek lexicographers, are used to 
designate the same plant, the stinging-nettle;* but it 
seems not quite certain that, in either case, he had the 
stinging Gelatines or sea-nettles in his eye. Describing 
his Acalephe, he says, “ It adheres to the rocks, as do 
some of the shell-fish, but sometimes it roves at large. 
It has no shell, but the whole body is fleshy. If the hand 
is moved to it, it perceives, seizes, and adheres to it, like 
the Polype, by means of its tentacles,* so that the flesh 
swells. It has its mouth in the middle, and the rock 


1 Gr. Axadnon, Aulus Gellius (Noct. Ait. 1. iv. c. 11.) writes 


it Akadugy. 
2 Gr. Knidn. 3 Heschius explains Acadngac by Kvidac. 


4 Gr. wrexravat. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 405 


seems to serve it for a shell: if it meets with any of the 
small fishes, it detains them in the same way that it does 
the hand. Thus whatever edible thing it meets with, it 
devours. One kind of them is at large, and devours 
whatever sea-urchins,! or cockles,’ it meets with: it appears 
to have no excrement, in this respect resembling plants. 
There are two kinds of Acalephés; one smaller, and best 
adapted for the table; the other large and hard, such as 
are produced about Chalcis. In the winter their flesh is 
firm—they are therefore caught and eaten at that season 
—but in summer they dissolve, for they become watery, 
and when touched they immediately are so damaged as 
not to be removable. When suffering from the heat they 
withdraw within the rocks.”* And again—“It has a 
mouth in the middle, which is chiefly conspicuous in the 
large ones; it has, like the bivalve shell-fish, a passage 
by which the excrements are voided, which is in their 
upper surface: like them too it has the fleshy part 
within, but it uses the rock as a shell.” 

With regard to his Cnidé, of which he treats at the 
same time with the sponges, as inhabiting the caverns 
of the rocks—he says, “‘ Of the Cnidés there are two 
kinds, one in the hollows, which adheres to the rocks; 
others, that range at large, are met with in smooth places,° 
and on the flat shore.”? 


1 Exivoe. 2 Gr. krevec. 

5 The word I have rendered watery (yadapoc) means properly 
without hairs; but padaw is used by Theophrastus to express 
moisture, and is used here evidently in a similar sense. 

4 Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. iv. c. 6. * Tbid. |.) viii... c.-2. 

6 In the text it is ev rove pecfoor, but Atheneeus reads ev rouc 
Aetorc, Which better agrees with the context. 

7 Gr. rarapwoeo.v—it may perhaps mean flat rocks. Aristot. 
Ibid. |. v. c. 16. 


AOL APPENDIX. NOTES. 


It seems not accordant with the usual accuracy of this 
great Philosopher and Naturalist, where he is treating 
formally of the same kind of object, to distinguish it by 
two different names, nor is it likely that he would have 
placed them in separate chapters, as if they were distinct 
things. He would surely not have devoted one whole — 
chapter to the Tethys and Acalephé, and another to the 
Cnidé and Sponge, unless he had meant they should be 
considered as distinct animals. Still there is one circum- 
stance that seems in one respect to indicate their identity, 
one species of each appears to be usually fixed, and the 
other free. But this, by itself, does not furnish a satis- 
factory proof. With regard to these Acalephés or Cnideés 
of Aristotle having any right to be considered as belonging 
to Linne’s genus Medusa, it seems chiefly based upon 
their name of Nettles, which probably was given them, 
from a faculty they possessed of stinging, in some measure, 
like a nettle, a faculty which some of the Medusas are 
known to possess in a remarkable degree. But Aristotle 
does not appear to intimate that such an effect follows 
its touch, except that the fixing of its tentacles caused a 
swelling. If either of his species is entitled to be con- 
sidered as a Medusa it must be the smaller; the larger or 
fixed one appears in one respect to resemble the Amp/i- 
trite magnifica :? they are stated to use the rock to which 
they are fixed as a shell, whence it should seem that they 


1 The stinging property of many such Tentacula, for stance, 
in the Medusa and Holothuria, likewise deserves notice. This, 
which, with some modifications, also exists in several plants, 
appears to be the lowest degree of the, so called, electric power 
in several fishes, not recurring in the higher orders of animals, 
and perhaps comparable as regards man, to the magnetic influ- 
ence alone.—Carus. 1. 47. § 60. 

° Tubularia magnifica, Linn. Tr. v. 228. t. ix. 


APPENDIX. NOTES. 405 


retire occasionally into it, like the above animal. With 
regard to his second species, though some parts of his 
description agree with the common jelly-fish, yet their 
devouring Echini and Cockles seems to indicate some 
animal furnished with a more powerful apparatus for 
making their way to the animal inhabiting these shells. 
Pliny does not in his description merely copy Aristotle ; 
for he speaks of his sea-nettle as producing the same 
effect as the vegetable nettle. Yet he mentions them and 
the sponges as being something intermediate between the 
animal and the plant, which can scarcely apply to our 
Jelly-fish. It seems, I think, probable, that the term in 
question was employed by the ancients, to designate more 
than one group of animals, and more particularly the 
Tunicaries of Lamarck, both those that are fixed and those 
that are free. Aristotle’s fixed species, which he describes 
as retreating into the rocks, as into a shell, will probably 
one day be found near the eastern coast of the Black Sea. 
It is worth while also to inquire whether any animal 
answering the description of Aristotle’s second species is 
still eaten, in the winter, by the Greeks, customs of that 
kind seldom changing. 


Nore 23, p. 240.—Jt seems to me most probable that 
they are the animals, and not the pholads, as is usually 
supposed, which the Roman naturalist describes under the 
name of Dactyle. Pliny says of his Dactyli that they are 
so called, because of their resemblance to the human nail ;! 
in the Pholads this resemblance is very slight, but in the 
rasor-shells and some tulip-shells it is much more striking. 
He also observes that the Dactylus when replete with 
moisture sparkles in the mouth of the eater, and that the 


1 Hist. Nat. 1. ix.:c. 61. 


406 APPENDIX. NOTES. 


falling drops also emit light.1. If Pliny, in his account of 
this creature, was really speaking of the pholad, it is sin- 
gular he should not mention its habit of boring rocks. 


Nore 24, p. 252.—Their byssus has long been celebrated, 
for it is mentioned by Aristotle. Aristotle’s mode of ex- 
pression is singular. Ai de riven ogSau Quovron ex Ts Rugos ev 
TOS AlA[AwOEoL nal BoBopwdecww. He says also when they are 
deprived of the pinnophylax, they perish.* Pliny, who 
mostly copies Aristotle’s account, does not notice the 
byssus.® 


! His natura in tenebris remoto lumine, alio fulgere claro; et 
quanto magis humorem habeant, lucere in ore mandentium, 
lucere in manibus, atque etiam in.solo et veste decidentibus 
guttis. Ibid. 

2 Hist. Anim. |. v. c. 16. 3 Hist. Nat. |. ix. c. 42. 


END OF VOL. I. 


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