are in other quadrupeds, but carrying a nearer conformity unto those of man; that is, the bought of the fore-legs, not directly backward, but laterally, and somewhat inward; but the hough or suffraginous flexure behind, rather outward: somewhat different unto many other quadrupeds, as horses, camels, deer, sheep, and dogs; for their fore-legs bend like our legs, and their hinder legs like our arms, when we move them to our shoulders. But quadrupeds oviparous, as frogs, lizards, crocodiles, have their joints and motive flexures more analogously framed unto ours: and some among viviparous, that is, such thereof as can bring their fore-feet and meat therein unto their mouths, as most can do, that have the clavicles or collar-bones, whereby their breasts are broader, and their shoulders more asunder; as the ape, the monkey, the squirrel, and some others. If, therefore, any shall affirm the joints of elephants are differently framed from most of other quadrupeds, and more obscurely and grossly almost than any, he doth herein no injury unto truth. But if, à dicto secundùm quid ad dictum simpliciter, he affirmeth also they have no articulations at all, he incurs the controlment of reason, and cannot avoid the contradiction also of sense.

As for the manner of their venation, if we consult historical experience, we shall find it to be otherwise than, as is commonly presumed, by sawing away of trees. The accounts whereof are to be seen at large at Johannes, Hugo,

6 the bought.] The bend or flexure.

7 other quadrupeds.] First edition added, "and such as can scratch the ear with the hinder foot."

8 camels.] In the beginning of March, 1652-3, I saw a dromedary, which at the command of his master, by the word (busy) began to lye downe, first, by bending his fore-knees, and then the upper knee of the hinder legg, which is next the groine.— Wr.

9 some others.] As mice sometimes, and dormice always, and among birds, the parat.-Wr.

If, therefore, any shall affirm, &c.] There is some inaccuracy in this sentence: the joints of the elephant are framed upon the same general plan as those of other quadrupeds belonging to the same group of mammalia, and they certainly are not more obscurely and grossly formed than those of any others; having merely the variation of structure rendered necessary by the magnitude and the consequent weight of the animal, as we shall presently show; but being, at the same time, as admirably formed, and as exquisitely adapted to its particular exigencies, as those of any other creature whatever.-Br.

Edwardus Lopez, Garcias ab Horto, Cadamustus, and many

more.

Other concernments there are of the elephant, which might admit of discourse. And if we should question the teeth of elephants, that is, whether they be properly so termed, or might not rather be called horns,3 it were no new enquiry of mine, but a paradox as old as Oppianus.* Whether, as Pliny and divers since affirm it, that elephants are terrified and make away upon the grunting of swine,4 Garcias ab Horto may decide, who affirmeth upon experience, they enter their stalls, and live promiscuously in the woods of

* Cygenet, lib. 2.

2 elephants.] There is another error concerning the teeth, which grow not, as most suppose, but as the tuskes of a boare proceed (like horns) from out the upper chawe, and soe bend up againe.— Wr.

3 might not rather be called horns.] It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the tusks, as they are commonly called, of this animal, are truly teeth, being implanted in bones corresponding to those which carry the incisors of other animals: see Cuvier, Règne Animal, édit. nouv. tom. i. p. 237.-Br.

4 making away upon the grunting of swine.] This aversion is alluded to in the following interesting passage from the Menageries: "But the elephant may be endued with this acute hearing, in addition to his exquisite touch, for the protection of the lesser animals from the accidents to which they would be subject from lying in his path. He has an extraordinary dislike to all small quadrupeds. Dogs running near him produce a great annoyance; if a hare start from her cover, he is immediately alarmed; and that pigs are his aversion, has been recorded by every naturalist, from Pliny to Buffon. It is even mentioned by Procopius, the historian of the Persian and Gothic wars, that, at the siege of Edessa, by Chosroes, King of Persia, in the time of Justinian, the besieged Greeks employed the cry of a pig to frighten from the walls the elephants of their enemy. The old naturalists explained this peculiarity by the doctrine of antipathies: in the same way that they affirmed that the elephant was fond of an ox, upon the principle of sympathies. It may appear something equally fanciful, to suggest the possibility that the elephant may dislike the smaller animals to come in his way from his instinctive disinclination to destroy them by an accidental tread. He always avoids a contest with inferior quadrupeds whenever he can; and if a helpless living creature, such as an infant or a wounded man, lie in his way, he will move the object. The elephant is naturally gentleanxious alone to procure his own food without molesting others. That he is so, is a merciful, as well as a wise dispensation. If he had possessed a ferocity equal to his power, he must have exterminated a very large part of the animal creation."-Menageries, vol. ii. p .69, 70.—Br.

Malavar. That the situation of the genitals is averse,5 and their copulation like that which some believe of camels, as Pliny hath also delivered, is not to be received; for we have beheld that part in a different position; and their coition is made by supersaliency, like that of horses, as we are informed by some who have beheld them in that act. That some elephants have not only written whole sentences, as Elian ocularly testifieth, but have also spoken, as Oppianus delivereth, and Christophorus à Costa particularly relateth,6-although it sound like that of Achilles' horse in Homer, we do not conceive impossible: nor, beside the affinity of reason in this animal, any such intolerable incapacity in the organs of divers quadrupeds, whereby they might not be taught to speak, or become imitators of speech, like birds. Strange it is, how the curiosity of men, that

5 That the situation of the genitals, &c.] Browne is quite correct in his statement of the manner in which coition is effected in the elephant ; and from his mode of authenticating that statement, it might have been inferred, even in his time, that the notion of the modesty of the animal, or of its unwillingness or inability to continue its race in captivity, was merely a vulgar error; this, however, is not mentioned by our author.—Br.

6 have also spoken, as Oppianus delivereth, and Christophorus à Costa particularly relateth.] In the volume on the elephant, in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, before cited, occurs the following satisfactory explanation of this relation of Acosta :-"At Cochin, according to this writer, there was an elephant that worked at the port with all the skill of a human labourer. One day, when he was much fatigued, the governor of the port desired him to assist in launching a boat. The elephant refused; and the man of authority, having in vain employed all his caresses, commanded him to do it in the name of the King of Portugal. The loyal beast, it is added, instantly replied, I will, I will,' and performed his task. This story may explain some of the old fables of the elephant speaking; for, in the Malabar language, 'I will,' is expressed by 'hoo,'- -a very natural sound for an elephant to make, not upon the invocation of the King of Portugal, but upon the more effectual stimulus of the blow which probably accompanied the utterance of the magical name."-Menageries, vol. ii. p. 154.-Br.

7 might not be taught to speak, &c.] To expatiate on the futility of our author's reasoning, as to the probability of animals being taught to speak (to speak rationally, as he would seem to insinuate), is needless; but it will be proper to make a few remarks on the imperfect knowledge of his subject, which renders his reasoning futile. Like almost every other author who has written upon subjects connected with the instinct of brutes, he regards their perceptive faculties as lower degrees of reason;

have been active in the instruction of beasts, has never fallen upon this artifice; and among those many paradoxical and unheard of imitations, should not attempt to make one speak. The serpent that spake unto Eve, the dogs and cats that usually speak unto witches, might afford some encouragement. And since broad and thick chaps are required in birds that speak, since lips and teeth are also organs of speech; from mistaking the analogical relation to reason which they exhibit (using the term analogical in the same sense, mutatis mutandis, as that in which it has lately been employed in natural history, by Mr. W. S. Macleay), and by which they represent its attributes, for an actual community of nature with reason. The truth seems to be, with respect to the particular subject now before us, that brute animals, not having reason, and being consequently devoid of analytical thought, which is the activity of reason, are equally devoid of the means of uttering articulate speech, which is merely the exponent and vehicle of such thought in man. That this is the true nature of articulate speech, is proved by the fact, that those unfortunate individuals of the human race (of whom we may cite Peter, the wild boy, as an example), who have never been taught to think, and are devoid of reason, are equally devoid of the power of articulation, though their vocal organs are as perfect as those of educated men possessed of the full powers of speech. Some animals can be taught to produce sounds by their organs of voice, which closely resemble those of human speech; but sounds of this description can also be produced by inanimate machinery, as in the speaking automata, &c. of Kempelen and Kratzenstein; and such sounds, when uttered by animals, are indicative only of their own instinctive perceptions, like their ordinary inarticulate cries, and they are not indicative of these even in any greater degree than those cries are.

The only accurate view of the nature of the analogue of reason in brutes, with which I am acquainted, is contained in an enquiry into the nature of instinct, by Mr. John O. French, published in the first and second volumes of the Zoological Journal.

But, to proceed with our author, quadrupeds have been taught to "become imitators of speech like birds." Leibnitz has recorded the history of a dog, who had been taught, by the son of his master, a peasant in Saxony, to pronounce thirty different words. This fact may be regarded as throwing some degree of light upon, and rendering credible, many old relations of a similar kind, some long anterior to the time of our author. The substance of Leibnitz's account will be found in Rees's Cyclopædia, under the article DOG.-Br.

8 serpent, &c.] See my notes at the very end, and on book v. c. 4.Wr.

9 And since broad and thick chaps are required in birds that speak.] An error is involved in this expression parallel to that popular one, which ascribes the ability of parrots to imitate the human voice, essentially to their broad and human-like tongue. Mr. Yarrell has remarked, in his Memoir on the Organs of Voice in Birds, that the raven, magpie,

these there is also an advantage in quadrupeds, and a proximity of reason in elephants and apes1 above them all. Since also an echo will speak without any mouth at all,2 jay, and starling, produce a close imitation of the human voice with tongues long, slender, and horny. But the proper source of correction of both errors is the knowledge we now possess, that the organ of voice, in all birds, is the inferior larynx, situated at the bifurcation of the trachea, where the bronchic go off from it to the lungs, or in other words, at the bottom of the windpipe; the superior larynx or glottis, opening into the cavity of the mouth, being little more than a simple slit, giving utterance to the sounds produced below, or being at most one of the accessary organs for their regulation. The true cause of the accuracy with which the birds having "broad and thick chaps," especially the parrots, imitate speech, seems to be their accurate ear for sounds of every description, together with the arrangement and functions of the muscles of their organ of voice, giving them a greater compass of voice than other birds; by which means they are enabled to imitate any kind of sound they hear for parrots, &c. it will be remembered, imitate the ticking of a clock, or the sharpening of a saw, or a whistled tune, as accurately as they do the voice itself.

This error, however, like the greater number of those entertained by our author himself, was an almost universal one, and continued to be so until the true nature and situation of the organs of voice in birds were first accurately shown by Cuvier, about the commencement of the present century. A summary view of the results of his investigation will be found near the end of the article, BIRDS, Anatomy of, in Rees's Cyclopædia, from the pen, we believe, of Professor Macartney, of Trinity College, Dublin, an accomplished comparative anatomist: and an excellent general account of the organs of voice in birds, illustrated by details and figures of them in many individual species, is given by Mr. Yarrell, in the paper before referred to, published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, vol. xvi. p. 305.—Br.

apes.] In February, 1652-3 itt was constantly reported from some of the Portugal embassador's followers, that the present King of Spain had a baboone that went upright and spake many things: whether itt bee è Satyrorum or Cynocephalorum genere is not sayde. The way were to gain a pregnant female, and to traine the younge by language: they about Conge beleeve they can speake, but will not, fearing least soe they might be forced to labor. Sed de hujusmodi monstris, consule Gassendum in Vita Pereskii, p. 397, mira edisserentem.— Wr.

The author here falls into the still prevalent error, of attributing an extraordinary degree of sagacity to the apes, which, as has been observed by Cuvier (Règne Anim. tom. i. p. 88), do not in reality greatly surpass the dog in this respect, being chiefly indebted to their bodily conformation for the close resemblance of their gestures and actions to those of man.

It is almost needless to add, that Dean Wren's stories about apes speaking, or being taught to speak, are all futile and unfounded.—Br. 2 Since also an echo, &c.] The " query of no great doubt," with