_The Foot._--Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the
foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect
stature which belongs exclusively to him.
_The Brain._--The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring
thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of
the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris
dissectors, larger than a pea.
_The Tongue_ does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste.
Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who
was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very
easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his
palate, and would express the taste of each in writing.
_Vulgar Error._--In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General Knowledge,
article, _Pelican_, we find it stated that the bird “has a peculiar
tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its
breast for their support.” We thought this error had long since been
expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted
in a book of the year 1830.
_Eyes._--Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size:
this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in
the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those
animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very
small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its
existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger
than a pin’s head.
_Teeth._--The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of
structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always
two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other.
_Bills of Birds._--Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the
cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a
considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to
the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out
the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species
of nourishment.
_Barbel._--Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach
with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked
and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters,
during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this
fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in
length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth.