ic on one fide of the globe than fhe is on the other. As if both fides were not warmed by the fame genials fun; as if a foil of the fame chemical compofition, was lefs capable of elaboration into animal nutriment; as if the fruits and grains from that foil and fun, yielded lefs rich chyle, gave a lefs extenfion to the folids and fluids of the body, or produced fooner in the cartila-ges, membranes, and fibres, that rigidity which reftrains all further extenfion, and terminates animal growth. The truth is, that a pigmy and a Patagonian, a mouse and a mammoth, derive their dimenfions from the fame nutritive juices. The difference of increment depends on circumstances unfearchable to beings with our capacities. Every race of animals feems to have received from their Maker certain laws of extenfion at the time of their formation. Their elaborative organs were formed to produce this, while proper obftacles were opposed to its further progrefs. Below these limits they cannot fall, nor rife above them. What intermediate station they fhall take may depend on foil, on climate, on food, on a careful choice of breeders. But all the manna of heaven would never raise the mouse to the bulk of the mammoth.

The opinion advanced by the Count de Buffon*, is, 1. That the animals common to both the old and the new world, are fmaller in the latter. 2. That thofe peculiar to the new are on a fmaller fcale. 3. That those which have been domefticated in both

* xviii. 100-156.

have

have degenerated in America: and 4. That on the whole it exhibits fewer fpecies. And the reafon he thinks is, that the heats of America are lefs; that more waters are spread over its surface by nature, and fewer of these drained off by the hand of man. In other words, that heat is friendly, and moisture adverfe to the production and developement of large quadrupeds. I will not meet this hypothefis on its first doubtful ground, whether the climate of America be comparatively more humid? Because we are not furnifhed with obfervations fufficient to decide this queftion. And though, till it be decided, we are as free to deny, as others are to affirm the fact, yet for a moment let it be fuppofed. The hypothefis, after this fuppofition, proceeds to another; that moisture is unfriendly to animal growth. The truth of this is infcrutable to us by reasonings à priori. Nature has hidden from us her modus agendi. Our only appeal on fuch questions is to experience; and I think that experience is against the fuppofition. It is by the affiftance of heat and moisture that vegetables are elaborated from the elements of earth, air, water, and fire. accordingly fee the more humid climates produce the greater quantity of vegetables. Vegetables are mediately or immediately the food of every animal; and in proportion to the quantity of food, we fee animals not only multiplied in their numbers, but împroved in their bulk, as far as the laws of their nature will admit. Of this opinion is the Count de Buffon himself

We

in

T

in another part of his work:* " en general il paroit 66 ques les pays un peu froids conviennent mieux á nos "boeufs que les pays chauds, et qu'ils font d'autant "plus grofs et plus grands que le climat eft plus bu"mide et plus abondans en paturages. Les boeufs de "Danemarck, de la Podolie, de l'Ukraine et de la "Tartaire que habitent les Calmouques font les plus "grands de tous." Here then a race of animals, and one of the largest too, has been increased in its dimenfions by cold and moisture, in direct opposition to the hypothefis, which fuppofes that these two circumftances diminish animal bulk, and that it is their contraries, heat and dryness which enlarge it. But when we appeal to experience, we are not to reft fatisfied with a fingle fact. Let us therefore try our question on more general ground. Let us take two portions of the earth, Europe and America for inftance, fufficiently extenfive to give operation to general caufes; let us confider the circumftances peculiar to each, and obferve their effect on animal nature. America running through the torrid as well as temperate zone, has more beat collectively taken, than Europe. But Europe according to our hypothefis, is the dryeft. They are equally adapted then to animal productions; each being endowed with one of thofe caufes which befriend animal growth, and with one which oppofes it. If it be thought unequal to compare Europe with America, which is fo much larger, I answer, not more

#viii. 134.

fa

fo than to compare America with the whole world. Befides, the purpose of the comparison is to try an hypothefis, which makes the fize of animals depend on the heat and moisture of climate. If therefore we take a region, fo.extenfive as to comprehend a fenfible diftinction of climate, and fo.extenfive too as that local accidents, or the intercourfe of animals on its borders, may not materially affect the size of those in its interior parts, we shall comply with thofe conditions which the hypothesis may reasonably demand. The objection would be the weaker in the present case, because any intercourfe of animals which may take place on the confines of Europe and Afia, is to the advantage of the former, Afia producing certainly larger animals than Europe. Let us then take a comparative view of the quadrupeds of Europe and America, prefenting them to the eye in three different tables, in one of which shall be enumerated thofe found in both countries; in a fecond, thofe found in one only; in a third, thofe which have been domefticated in both. To facilitate the comparison, let those of each table be arranged in gradation according to their fizes, from the greatest to the smallest, so far as their sizes can be conjectured. The weights of the large animals fhall be expreffed in the English avoirdupoife pound and its decimals; those of the smaller, in the fame ounce and its decimals. Those which are marked thus*, are actual weights of particular fubjects, deemed among the largest of their species. Thofe marked thust, are furnished

furnished by judicious perfons well acquainted with the species, and faying from conjecture only, what the largest individual they had seen would probably have weighed. The other weights are taken from Meffrs. Buffon and D'Aubenton, and are of fuch fubjects as came cafually to their hands for diffection. This circumstance must be remembered, where their weights and mine stand opposed: the latter being stated, not to produce a conclufion in favor of the American species, but to justify a fuspension of opinion until we are better informed, and a fufpicion, in the mean time, that there is no uniform difference in favor of either: which is all I pretend.