other animals, terminate in the lungs, but extend, in numerous branches, through the whole body, even to the bones themselves. The sounds, therefore, which are stopped, or muffled, by the feathers of the bird, will be rendered more distinct from the greater quantity of air contained in all parts of the body.

ANIMAL FUNCTIONS A SOURCE OF HEAT.-It is one of the remarkable facts in nature, that living animal bodies, and to a certain degree living vegetables also, have the property of maintaining in themselves a peculiar temperature, whether surrounded by bodies that are hotter or colder than they. It was, at one time, the favourite explanation of this, that animal heat was produced in the lungs, during respiration, from the oxygen then admitted. This oxygen combines with carbon from the blood, and becomes carbonic acid as in combustion, and it was supposed to give out a portion of its latent heat, as in actual combustion; which heat being then spread over the body by the circulating blood, maintained the temperature. We now know that if such a process exist, which it probably does, for the animal heat has generally a relation to the quantity of oxygen expended in any particular case, and when an animal, being already much heated, needs no increase, very little oxygen disappears, still much of the effect is dependent on the influence of the nerves, either directly or indirectly, through the vital functions governed by them. The power in animals of preserving their peculiar temperature has its limits. Intense cold coming suddenly upon a man who has not sufficient protection, first causes a sensation of pain, and then brings on an almost irresistible sleepiness, which, if indulged, would be fatal. Sir Joseph Banks having gone on shore one day near the cold Cape Horn, and being fatigued, was so overcome by the feeling mentioned, that he intreated his companions to let him sleep for a little while. His prayer granted, might have allowed that sleep to come upon him which ends not-the sleep of death! as, under similar circumstances, it came upon so many thousands of the army which Buonaparte led into Russia, and lost there during the disastrous retreat through the snows. Buonaparte's celebrated bulletin allowed, that in one night, when the thermometer of Reaumur stood at 19 degrees below zero, 30,000 horses died. Cold, in inferior degrees, and longer continued, acting on persons imperfectly protected by clothing, &c., induces a variety of diseases, which destroy more slowly. A great excess of heat, again, may at once excite a fatal apoplexy, and heat in inferior degrees, but long continued,

may cause those fevers, &c., which prevail in warm climates, and which are so destructive to strangers in these climates. Each species of animal has a peculiar temperature natural to it, and in the diversity are found creatures fitted to live in all parts of the earth, what is wanting in internal bodily constitution being found in the admirable protecting covering which nature has provided for them-covering which grows from their bodies, with form of fur or feather, in the exact degree required, and even so as in the same animal to vary with climate and season. Such covering, however, has been denied to man; but the denial is not one of unkindness-it is the indication of his superior nature and destinies. Godlike reason was bestowed on man, by which he subjects all nature to his use, and he was left to clothe himself. The human race is naturally inhabitant of a warm climate; and the paradise described as Adam's first abode, may be said still to exist over vast regions about the equator. There the sun's influence is strong and uniform, producing a rich and warm garden, in which human beings, however ignorant of the world which they had come to inhabit, would have their necessities supplied almost by wishing. The ripe fruit is there always hanging from the branches; of clothing there is required only what moral feelings may dictate, or what may be supposed to add grace to the form; and as shelter from the weather, a few broad leaves, spread on connected reeds, will complete an Indian hut. The human family, in multiplying and spreading in all directions from such a centre, would find, to the east and west, only the lengthened paradise, with slightly varying features of beauty; but to the north and south, the changes of season, which make the bee of high latitudes lay up its store of winter honey, and send migrating birds from country to country in search of warmth and food, would also rouse man's energies to protect himself. His faculties of foresight and contrivance would come into play, awakening industry; and, as their fruits, he would soon possess the knowledge and the arts which secure a happy existence in all climates, from the equator almost to the pole. It is chiefly because man has learned to produce at will, and to control, the wonder-working principle of heat, that in the rude winter, which seems the death of nature, he, and other tropical animals and plants which he protects, do not, in reality, perish-even as a canary-bird, escaped from its cage, or an infant exposed among the snow-hills. By producing heat from his fire, he obtains a novel and most pleasurable sort of existence: and in the night, while the dark and freezing winds are howling

over his roof, he basks in the presence of his mimic sun, surrounded by his friends, and all the delights of society; whilst in his store-rooms, or those of merchants at his command, he has the treasured delicacies of every season and clime. He soon becomes aware, too, that the dreary winter, instead of being a curse, is really in many respects a blessing, by arousing from the apathy to which the eternal serenity of a tropical sky so much disposes. In climates where labour and ingenuity must precede enjoyment, every faculty of mind and body is invigorated; and hence the sterner climates form the perfect man. It is in them that the arts and sciences have reached their present advancement, and that the brightest examples have appeared of intellectual and moral excellence.

THE PULSE.-It does not appear that the pulse beats except when it is felt for, or the stream of blood through an artery is interrupted by some obstacle, such as an inflamed swelling, in which case the pulse beats so strongly that the patient feels throbbing in the part. A particular bend of the wrist also, we have remarked, will sometimes render the beating of the superficial arteries visible to the eye. In an adult man, in good health, between thirty and forty years of age, the pulse usually beats from 73 to 75 times in a minute, or a little more than one pulsation in a second. In females, of the same age and condition, the pulse beats quicker, being at the rate of about 84 in the minute. The difference seems to arise from greater irritability in the blood-vessels, for in fever it often rises to 120, or more, and it is no less than 140 in the new-born infant. Difference of size also affects the beating of the pulse, it being very slow in the horse and elephant, and so rapid as scarcely to be counted in the mouse and the humming bird.

THE NOSTRILS.-The nerves of smell do not, like those of taste and touch, terminate in papillæ or feelers, but in a spongy uniform pulp, in the substance of the membrane which lines the nostrils, and which, from its discoverer Schneider, has been called the Schneiderian membrane. Besides the nerves of smell, called the olfactory nerves, a branch of the nerve of the eye enters the nostrils. It is very small, but it is through its influence that we shed tears from smelling strong odours; and that we sneeze when the eyes are exposed to bright sunshine; for the strong odours irritate the nerve in the nostril, and through it the eye; while, on the contrary, the sunshine irritates the eye, and through it the nostril.

Every body must have remarked, that in men, the entrance

of the nostrils is beset with hairs, which, however, are wanting in females. We are not aware that any physiologist has attended to this circumstance, or attempted to account for it. Hairs, we know, have no feeling in their own substance, but they may be the instruments of exciting feelings in the skin from which they grow. May not, then, the hairs in the nostrils have some unknown influence on the sense of smell? Or, may they not divide more minutely the principle of odours diffused in the air, before it passes inwards to the more sensible parts of the membrane ?

HYMN.

"THERE is a God," all nature cries;
A thousand tongues proclaim
His arm almighty, Mind all wise,
And bid each voice in chorus rise
To magnify his name.

Thy name, great Nature's Sire divine,
Assiduous we adore;

Rejecting godheads, at whose shrine
Benighted nations blood and wine
In vain libations pour.

Yon countless worlds in boundless space,
Myriads of miles each hour

Their mighty orbs as curious trace

As the blue circle studs the face

Of that enamell'd flower.

But Thou, too, mad'st that floweret gay

To glitter in the dawn;

The hand that fired the lamp of day,
The blazing comet launch'd away,
Painted the velvet lawn.

"As falls a sparrow to the ground,

Obedient to thy will,"

By the same law those globes wheel round,

Each drawing each, yet all still found

In one eternal system bound,

One order to fulfil.-LORD BROUGHAM.

BILL OF THE TOUCAN.-Most of our readers must have been struck, on visiting a collection of stuffed birds, or on looking at the prints, in books of Natural History, with the great disproportion which the bill of the Toucan (Ramphastos) bears to the size of the bird. Buffon supposed that it was an oversight in Nature, and was useless. It would have been better, we think, at once to have confessed his ignorance. As it lives upon small fruits, it should seem to be

of little use as an instrument for procuring food; yet, from the recent examination of its anatomical structure by Dr. Traill of Liverpool, it is not improbable that it may give it a superior power in discriminating the poisonous from the nutritious sorts. The Doctor found, on examining a preparation by Mr. C. Waterton, that the great size of the Toucan's bill is to afford a surface for the expansion of the olfactory nerve, and consequently to increase its sense of smell. We have hitherto supposed that it was chiefly useful in defending itself and its nest during incubation, from the attacks of monkeys, which are its principal enemies.

ARTIFICE OF THE GLUTTON.-The quadruped which, from its habit of gorging itself with food, has received the appellation of glutton, is reported by a writer in 'The Gazette Literaire,' to use the following artifice. It carries with it two thick branches of a tree, a quantity of the moss (Cenomyce ranyiferinus) upon which the deer of Kamschatka feed, and after dropping portions of the moss as a bait, the glutton waits patiently till some incautious deer stops to feed upon it, when it darts down from its lurking-place upon its victim. It is said to master horses in a similar manner.

ANIMAL CHEMISTRY.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.-In the anatomical examination of human bodies after death, nothing is more common than to find the body charged with inflammable gases, whence the insufferable odour that exhales from it. That so a great a quantity of these gases might accumulate, so as to support combustion, is, perhaps, not impossible; but it is to be remembered that they are the result of decomposition, and that such decomposition cannot take place to any extent in the living fibre. When animal matter runs to decay, it parts with many of the laws which vitality imposed upon it, and enters under the dominion of others; but chemists, who in general are indifferent physiologists, have neglected these facts, and have thus been the means of introducing into medicine much that is erroneous both in theory and practice. Mr. Macnish, in his clever little work on Drunkenness, mentions several cases of spontaneous combustion, all of them more or less doubtful, at least in the details, though it would certainly be carrying scepticism too far to doubt of the occurrence altogether.

THE BLOOD PURIFIED BY THE LIVER.-Dr. Pierson, of the Physico-Medical Society of New York, is of opinion, with some other physiologists, that the liver assists the