running, in others for that, and fwimming too; in others for walking and digging; and in others for walking and flying: in fome they are made more lafk and weak, for the plainer lands; in others rigid, ftiff, and lefs flexible, for traverfing the ice, and dangerous precipices of the high mountains ; in fome they are shod with

wife; for there was no membrane, which held thofe toes joined together; and this was requifite for the conveniency of this animal, which ufeth them as hands like a fquirrel, when he eats.' Memoirs for a Natural Hiftory of Animals, p. 84.

The moles feet are a remarkable inftance.

The wings of the bat are a prodigious deviation from nature's ordinary way. So it is in the virginian fquirrel, whofe skin is extended between the fore-legs and its body.

Of the legs of the elk, the French academifts fay. though fome authors report, that there are elks in Mufcovia, whofe legs are jointlefs; there is great probability, that this opinion is founded on what is reported of thofe elks of Mufcovia, as well as of Cæfar's Alce, and Pliny's Machlis, that they have legs • so stiff and inflexible, that they do run on ice without flipping; which is a way that is reported that they have to fave themselves from the wolves,' &c. p. 108.

The common tame goat (whofe habitation is generally on mountains and rocks, and who delighteth to walk on the tops of pales, houfes, &c. and to take great and feemingly dangerous leaps) I have obferved, hath the joints of the legs very ftiff and ftrong, the hoof hollow underneath, and its edges fharp. The like, I doubt not, is to be found in the wild goat, confidering what Dr. Scheuchzer hath faid of its climbing the most dangerous craggs of the Alps, and the manner of their hunting it. Vide Iter Alpin 3. p. 9.

rough and hard hoofs, fome whole, foine cleft; in others with only a callous skin. In which latter, it is obfervable that the feet are composed of toes, fome short for bare-going; fome long to fupply the place of a hand h; fome armed with long and strong talons to catch, hold, and tear the prey; fome fenced only with fhort nails, to confirm the steps in running and walking.

For

II. As the pofture of man's body is the fittest for a rational animal, fo is the prone pofture of quadrupeds, the most useful and beneficial to themselves, as also most serviceable to man, they are hereby better made for their gathering their food, to purfue their prey, to leap, to climb, to fwim, to guard themselves against their enemies; and, in a word, to do whatever may be of principal ufe to themselves; as alfo they are hereby rendered more ufeful and ferviceable to man for carrying his burdens, for tilling his ground; yea, even for his fports and diverfions.

And now I might here add a furvey of the excellent contrivance of the parts miniftring to this pofture of the four-footed animals, the admirable

Thus in apes and monkeys, in the beaver before, and divers others.

mirable ftructure of the bones, the joints and muscles, their various fizes and strength; their commodious lodgment and fituation, the nice æquipoife of the body, with a great deal more to the fame purpose, But I fhould be tedious to infist minutely upon fuch particulars; and befides, I have given a touch upon these kind of things, when I spake of man.

Paffing by therefore many things of this kind, that might deserve remark, I fhall only confider fome of the parts of quadrupeds, differing from what is found in man k, and which are manifest works of defign.

It is a fingular provifion nature hath made for the strength of the lion, if that be true, which Galen faith is reported of its bones being not hollow, as in other animals, but solid: which report he thus far confirms, that most of the bones are fo; and that thofe in the legs; and fome other parts, have only a small and obfcure cavity in them. Vide Galen. de ufu Part I. 11. c. 18.

k These forts of differences in the mechanism of animals, upon the fcore of the pofition of their bodies, occur so often, that it would be no mean fervice to anatomy-if any one would

give us a history of thofe variations of the parts of animals, which fpring from the different poftures of their bodies.' Drake Anat. vol. 1. Book 1. chap. 17.

CHAP. II.

OF THE HEADS OF QUADRUPEDs.

'Tis remarkable that, in man, the head is of

IT

one fingular form; in the four-footed race, as various as their fpecies. In fome, fquare and large, fuitable to their flow motion, food, and abode; in others lefs, flender, and fharp, agreeable to their fwifter motion, or to make their way to their food', or habitation under ground m. But paffing by a great many obfervations that might be made of this kind, I fhall stop a little

1 Thus fwine, for inftance, who dig in the earth for roots, and other food, have their neck, and all parts of their head very well adapted to that fervice. Their neck fhort, brawny and strong; their eyes fet pretty high out of the way; their fnout long; their nofe callous and strong; and their fenfe of fmelling very accurate, to hunt out and diftinguish their food in mud, under ground, and other the like places where it lies concealed.

"What hath been said of swine is no lefs, rather more remarkable in the mole, whofe neck, nofe, eyes, and cars, are all fitted, in the niceft manner, to its fubterraneous way of life.

at

at the brain, as the moft confiderable part of the body, being the great inftrument of life and motion in quadrupeds, as it is in man of that, as also in all probability the chief feat of his immortal foul. And accordingly it is a remarkable difference, that in man the brain is large, affording fubftance and room for fo noble a guest ; whereas in quadrupeds, it is but fmall. And another thing, no lefs remarkable, is the fituation of the cerebrum and cerebellum, or the greater and leffer brain, which I fhall give in the words of one of the most exact anatomifts we have of that part: Since, faith he, God hath given to man a lofty countenance, to behold the heavens, and hath alfo feated an immortal foul in the brain, capable of the contemplation of heavenly things; therefore, as his face is erect, fo the brain is fet in an higher place, " namely, above the cerebellum, and all the fenfories. But in brutes, whofe face is prone towards the earth, and whofe brain is incapable of speculation, the cerebellum, (whofe bufinefs it is to minister to the actions and functions ' of the præcordia, the principal office in those 'creatures) in them is fituated in the higher C place, and the cerebrum lower. Alfo fome of the organs of fenfe, as the ears and eyes, are A 4

Willis Cereb. Anat. cap. 6. 4 dederit.' &c.

placed,

Cumque huic Deus os fublime