FOOTNOTES:
[a] It is very remarkable, that in all the Species of Quadrupeds, this Equality holds, except only the Elephant; and that there should be a sufficient special Provision made for that Creature, by its Proboscis or Trunk. A Member so admirably contrived, so curiously wrought, and with so great Agility and Readiness, applied by that unwieldy Creature to all its several Occasions, that I take it to be a manifest Instance of the Creator’s Workmanship. See its Anatomy to Dr. A. Moulen’s Anat. of the Elephant, p. 33. As also in Mr. Blair’s Account in Phil. Trans. Nᵒ. 326.
Aliorum ea est humilitas ut cibum terrestrem rostris facilè contingant. Quæ autem altiora sunt, ut Anseres, ut Cygni, ut Grues, ut Cameli, adjuvantur proceritate collorum. Manus etiam data Elephantis, qui propter magnitudinem corporis difficiles aditus habebant ad pastum. Cic. de N. D. L. 2. c. 47.
Quod iis animalibus quæ pedes habent fissos in digitos, Collum brevius sit factum, quàm ut per ipsum Cibum ori admovere queant: iis verò quæ ungulas habent solidas, aut bifidas, longius, ut prona atque inclinantia pasci queant. Qui id etiam opus non sit Artificis utilitatis memoris? Ad hæc quòd Grues at Ciconiæ, cùm crura haberent longiora, ob eam causam Rostrum etiam magnum, & Collum longius habuerint. Pisces autem neque Collum penitus habuere, utpote qui neque Crura habent. Quo pacto non id etiam est admirandum? Galen. de Us. part. L. 11. c. 8.
[] As in Moles and Swine, in [Ch. 2. Note (a).]
[c] Called the Whiteleather, Packwax, Taxwax, and Fixfax.
CHAP. IV.
Of the Stomachs of Quadrupeds.
From the Neck, let us descend to the Stomach, a Part as of absolute Necessity to the Being and Well-being of Animals, so is in the several Species of Quadrupeds, sized, contrived, and made with the utmost Variety and Art.[a] What Artist, what Being, but the infinite Conservator of the World, could so well adapt every Food to all the several Kinds of those grand Devourers of it! Who could so well sute their Stomachs to the Reception and Digestion thereof; one kind of Stomach to the Carnivorous, another to the Herbaceous Animals; one fitted to digest by bare Mastication; and a whole set of Stomachs in others, to digest with the Help of Rumination! Which last Act, together with the Apparatus for that Service, is so peculiar, and withal so curious an Artifice of Nature, that it might justly deserve a more particular Enquiry; but having formerly mention’d it[], and least I should be too tedious, I shall pass it by.