remarkable property of all,) this tip is dentated on both sides, like the beard of an arrow or the barb of a hook. The description of the part declares its uses. The bird having exposed the retreats of the insects by the assistance of its bill, with a motion inconceivably quick, launches out at them this long tongue, transfixes them upon the barbed needle at the end of it, and thus draws its prey within its mouth. If this be not mechanism, what is? Should it be said, that, by continual endeavours to shoot out the tongue to the stretch, thẻ woodpecker's species may by degrees have lengthened the organ itself beyond that of other birds, what account can be given of its form, of its tip? how, in particular, did it get its barb, its dentation? These barbs, in my opinion, wherever they occur, are decisive proofs of mechanical contriv

ance.

III. I shall add one more example, for the sake of its novelty. It is always an agreeable discovery, when, having remarked in an animal an extraordinary structure, we come at length to find out an unexpected use for it. The following narrative furnishes an instance of this kind. The babyrouessa, or Indian hog, a species of wild boar, found in the East Indies, has two bent teeth, more than half a yard long, growing upwards, and (which is the singularity) from the upper jaw. These instruments are not wanted for offence;

*Fig. 2. The tongue, the natural size.

that service being provided for by two tusks issuing from the upper jaw, and resembling those of the common boar; nor does the animal use them for defence. They might seem therefore to be both a superfluity and an encumbrance, But observe the event:-the animal sleeps standing; and, in order to support its head, hooks its upper tusks upon the branches of trees.*

CHAPTER XIV.

PROSPECTIVE CONTRIVANCES.

I CAN hardly imagine to myself a more distinguishing mark, and consequently a more certain proof of design, than preparation, i. e. the providing of things beforehand which are not to be used until a considerable time afterwards: for this implies a contemplation of the future, which belongs only to intelligence.

Of these prospective contrivances, the bodies of animals furnish various examples.

I. The human teeth afford an instance, not only of prospective contrivance, but of the completion

* TAB. XXVII. Fig. 4. The skull of the babyrouessa, from a specimen in the Anatomy School, Christ Church, Oxford.

of the contrivance being designedly suspended. They are formed within the gums, and there they stop; the fact being, that their farther advance to maturity would not only be useless to the newborn animal, but extremely in its way; as it is evident that the act of sucking, by which it is for some time to be nourished, will be performed with more ease both to the nurse and to the infant, whilst the inside of the mouth, and edges of the gums, are smooth and soft, than if set with hard pointed bones. By the time they are wanted, the teeth are ready. They have been lodged within the gums for some months past, but detained as it were in their sockets, so long as their further protrusion would interfere with the office to which the mouth is destined.* Nature, namely, that intelligence which was employed in creation, looked beyond the first year of the infant's life; yet, whilst she was providing for functions which were after that term to become necessary, was careful not to incommode those which preceded them. What renders it more probable that this is the effect of design, is, that the teeth are imperfect, whilst all other parts of the mouth are perfect. The lips are perfect, the tongue is perfect; the jaws, the palate, the pharynx, the larynx, are all perfect the teeth alone are not so. This is the

* TAB. XXVIII. Fig. 1. The gums and outer plate of the bone are removed, shewing the teeth of the infant, as they exist at the time of its birth; they are without roots, and contained in a capsule within the jaws.