maintain the posture, or to support or restore the ba lance of the body, which is always the most unsteady where there is no weight to sink it. For these offices the fins are as large as necessary, though much smaller than wings, their action mechanical, their position, and the muscles by which they are moved, in the highest degree, convenient. The following short account of some experiments upon fish, made for the purpose of ascertaining the use of their fins, will be the best confirmation of what we assert. In most fish, beside the great fin, the tail, we find two pair of fins upon the sides, two single fins upon the back, and one upon the belly, or rather between the belly and the tail. The balancing use of these organs is proved in this manner. Of the large-headed fish, if you cut off the pectoral fins, i. e. the pair which lies close behind the gills, the head falls prone to the bottom: if the right pectoral fin only be cut off, the fish leans to that side; if the ventral fin on the same side be cut away, then it loses its equilibrium entirely: if the dorsal and ventral fins be cut off, the fish reels to the right and left. When the fish dies, that is, when the fins cease to play, the belly turns upwards. The use of the same parts for motion is seen in the following observations upon them when put in action. The pectoral, and more particularly the ventral fins, serve to raise and depress the fish: when the fish desires to have a retrograde motion, a stroke forward with the pectoral fin effectually produ ces it: if the fish desire to turn either way, a single blow with the tail the opposite way, sends it round at once: if the tail strike both ways, the motion produced by the double lash is progressive; and enables the fish to dart forward with an astonishing velocity*. The result is, not only, in some cases, the most rapid, but, in all cases, the most gentle, pliant, easy, animal motion, with which we are acquainted. However, when the tail is cut off, the fish loses all mo

Goldsmith's Hist. of An. Nat. vol. vi. p. 154.

tion, and gives itself up to where the water impels it. The rest of the fins, therefore, so far as respects motion, seem to be merely subsidiary to this. In their mehanical use, the anal fin may be reckoned the keel; the ventral fins, out-riggers; the pectoral muscles, the oars: and if there be any similitude between these parts of a boat and a fish, observe, that it is not the resemblance of imitation, but the likeness which ari-, ses from applying similar mechanical means to the same purpose.

We have seen that the tail in the fish is the great instrument of motion. Now, in cetaceous or warmblooded fish, which are obliged to rise every two or three minutes to the surface to take breath, the tail, unlike what it is in other fish, is horizontal; its stroke, consequently, perpendicular to the horizon, which is the right direction for sending the fish to the top, or carrying it down to the bottom.

Regarding animals in their instruments of motion, we have only followed the comparison through the first great division of animals into beasts, birds, and fish. If it were our intention to pursue the consideration further, I should take in that generic distinction amongst birds, the web foot of water fowl. It is an instance which may be pointed out to a child. The utility of the web to water fowl, the inutility to land fowl, are so obvious, that it seems impossible to notice the difference without acknowledging the design. I am at a loss to know, how those who deny the agency of an intelligent Creator, dispose of this example. There is nothing in the action of swimming, as carried on by a bird upon the surface of the water, that should generate a membrane between the toes. As to that membrane, it is an exercise of constant resistance. The only supposition I can think of is, that all birds have been originally water fowl, and web footed; that sparrows, hawks, linnets, &c. which frequent the land, have, in process of time, and in the course of many generations, had this part worn away by treading upon hard ground. To such evasive as

sumptions must atheism always have recourse; and, after all, it confesses that the structure of the feet of birds, in their original form, was critically adapted to their original destination. The web feet of amphibious quadrupeds, seals, otters, &c. fall under the same observation.

IX. The five senses are common to most large animals: nor have we much difference to remark in their constitution; or much however which is referable to mechanism.

The superior sagacity of animals which hunt their prey, and which, consequently, depend for their livelihood upon their nose, is well known in its use; but not at all known in the organization which produces it.

The external ears of beasts of prey, of lions, tigers, wolves, have ther trumpet part or concavity standing forwards, to seize the sounds which are before them, viz. the sounds of the animals, which they pursue or watch. The ears of animals of flight are turned backward, to give notice of the approach of their enemy from behind, when he may steal upon them unseen. This is a critical distinction; and is mechanical: but it may be suggested, and, I think, not without probability, that it is the effect of continued habit.

The eyes of animals which follow their prey by night, as cats, owls, &c. possess a faculty, not given to those of other species, namely, of closing the pupit entirely. The final cause of which seems to be this. It was necessary for such animals to be able to descry objects with very small degrees of light. This capacity depended upon the superior sensibility of the retina; that is, upon its being affected by the most feeble impulses. But that tenderness of structure, which rendered the membrane thus exquisitely sensible, rendered it also liable to be offended by the access of stronger degrees of light. The contractile range therefore of the pupil is increased in these animals, so as to enable them to close the aperture entirely; which includes the power of diminishing it

in every degree; whereby at all times such portions, and only such portions of light are admitted, as may be received without injury to the sense.

There appears to be also in the figure, and in some properties of the pupil of the eye, an appropriate relation to the wants of different animals. In horses, oxen, goats, sheep, the pupil of the eye is elliptical; the transverse axis being horizontal: by which structure, although the eye be placed on the side of the head, the anterior elongation of the pupil catches the forward rays, or those which come from objects immediately in front of the animal's face.

CHAPTER XIII.

PECULIAR ORGANIZATIONS.

I BELIEVE that all the instances which I shall collect under this title, might, consistently enough with technical language, have been placed under the head of Comparative Anatomy. But there appears to me an impropriety in the use which that term hath obtained: it being, in some sort, absurd, to call that a case of comparative anatomy, in which there is nothing to" compare;" in which a conformation is found in one animal, which hath nothing properly answering to it in another. Of this kind are the examples which I have to propose in the present chapter; and the reader will see that, though some of them be the strongest, perhaps, he will meet with under any division of our subject, they must necessarily be of an unconnected and miscellaneous nature. To dispose them, however, into some sort of order, we will notice, first, particularities of structure which belong to quadrupeds, birds, and fish, as such, or to many of the kinds included in these classes of animals; and then, such particularities as are confined to one or two species.

I. Along each side of the neck of large quadrupeds, runs a stiff robust cartilage, which butchers call the pax wax. No person can carve the upper end of a crop of beef without driving his knife against it. It is a tough, strong, tendinous substance, braced from the head to the middle of the back: its office is to assist in supporting the weight of the head. It is a mechanical provision, of which this is the undisputed use; and it is sufficient, and not more than sufficient, for the purpose which it has to execute. The head of an ox or a horse is a heavy weight, acting at the end of a long lever, (consequently with a great purchase,) and in a