Samuel Goodrich - Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom

First Grand Division, VERTEBRATA, or back boned animals, having a bony skeleton, and including four classes.

Class

I. Mammalia, or sucking animals; as, man; bats, monkeys, bears, oxen, sheep, deer, and many other four-footed beasts; as well as seals, walruses, whales, &c.

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II. Aves, birds of all kinds.

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III. Reptilia, or reptiles; as, lizards, frogs, serpents, toads, &c.

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IV. Pisces, fishes generally.

Second Grand Division, INVERTEBRATA, or animals without a bony spine, or a bony skeleton, and including three classes.

Class

I. Mollusca, embracing pulpy animals mostly enclosed in shells; as, the nautilus, oyster, clam, cuttle-fish, &c.

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II. Articulata, or jointed animals; as, crabs, lobsters, spiders, insects, leeches, earthworms, &c.

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III. Radiata, branched or radiated animals; as, the star-fish, tape-worm, coral insect, sea anemone, &c.

The mammalia include not only man, the head of creation, but, generally, those animals which have the most numerous and perfect faculties, the most delicate perceptions, the most varied powers, and the highest degrees of intelligence. All the species have a double heart; red, warm blood; and a nervous system more fully developed than that of any other animals. This class is divided into nine orders, under each of which we shall notice some of the more remarkable species.

Of this race there is one species, yet divided into many nations, kingdoms, and tribes. These are all grouped under five races: 1. The Caucasian , or white race, including the most highly civilized nations; 2. The Mongolian , or yellow race, including the Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, &c.; 3. The Malay , or brown race, including the people of Malacca, and most of the Oceanic islands; 4. The American , or red race, including the American Indians; and 5. The African , or black race, including Negroes.

Philosophers have been a good deal puzzled for a definition of man; yet it would seem by no means difficult to point out characteristics which distinguish him from all other animated beings. He is not only the acknowledged lord and master of the animal kingdom, but he is the only being that knows God, yet the only one that worships stones, apes, and idols; the only being that has the Bible, and the only one that makes systematic warfare on his own species. He is the only created being that perceives the force of moral obligation, and the only one that makes slaves of his fellow-beings; he is the only creature that has reason, and yet the only one that besots himself with intoxicating drugs and drinks. Man is the only being that has tasted of the tree of knowledge, and yet the only one that appears, in all ages and countries, to be a fallen being , – one not fulfilling, here on the earth, the purposes of his creation. Must we not, from the analogy of the works of God, look to a future state, to find the true end of human existence?

That we may not omit to give at least one illustrative and characteristic anecdote, under the head of " homo sapiens ," we copy the following from the quaint pages of Carlyle: —

"What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport of war? To my own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumdrudge, usually, some five hundred souls. From these, by certain 'natural enemies' of the French, there are successively selected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men. Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained them to crafts – so that one can weave, another build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected, all dressed in red, and shipped away at the public charge some 2000 miles, or, say, only to the south of Spain, and fed there till wanted.

"And now to that same spot, in the south of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending; till, at length, after infinite effort, the parties come into actual juxtaposition, and thirty stand fronting thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word 'Fire' is given, and they blow the souls out of one another; and instead of sixty brisk, useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anon shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest. They lived far enough apart, were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a universe, there was indeed unconsciously, by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their governors had fallen out; and instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot."

This numerous order of animals is divided into three families: 1. Apes , which are destitute of tails; 2. Baboons , having short tails; 3. Monkeys , having long tails. The whole group are confined to warm countries, and none but the latter kinds are met with in America. They are not found in Europe, except at Gibraltar. Here, among the rocks, are considerable numbers of apes; and it has been conjectured that they come hither from the African coast, by means of passages under the Straits. This idea, however, is groundless. No doubt these animals were once common in Europe; but they have been gradually extirpated, except at Gibraltar, where they have made a stand. Its rocks and caverns seem to have proved as impregnable a garrison to them as to the British.

The Orang-Outang; – a native of Cochin China, Malacca, and the large adjacent islands. It has a countenance more like that of man than any other animal. It seldom walks erect, and seems to make its home in the trees. It is covered with reddish brown hair.

An Orang-Outang in Holland. – This was a female, brought to that country in 1776. She generally walked on all fours, like other apes, but could also walk nearly erect. When, however, she assumed this posture, her feet were not usually extended like those of a man, but the toes were curved beneath, in such a manner that she rested chiefly on the exterior sides of the feet. One morning she escaped from her chain, and was seen to ascend with wonderful agility the beams and oblique rafters of the building. With some trouble she was retaken, and very extraordinary muscular powers were, on this occasion, remarked in the animal. The efforts of four men were found necessary in order to secure her. Two of them seized her by the legs, and a third by the head, whilst the other fastened the collar round her body.

During the time she was at liberty, among other pranks, she had taken a bottle of Malaga wine which she drank to the last drop, and then set the bottle again in its place. She ate readily of any kind of food which was presented to her; but her chief sustenance was bread, roots, and fruit. She was particularly fond of carrots, strawberries, aromatic plants, and roots of parsley. She also ate meat, boiled and roasted, as well as fish, and was fond of eggs, the shells of which she broke with her teeth, and then emptied by sucking out the contents. If strawberries were presented to her on a plate, she would pick them up, one by one, with a fork, and put them into her mouth, holding, at the same time, the plate in the other hand. Her usual drink was water; but she also would drink very eagerly all sorts of wine, and of Malaga, in particular, she was very fond. While she was on shipboard, she ran freely about the vessel, played with the sailors, and would go, like them, into the kitchen for her mess. When, at the approach of night, she was about to lie down, she would prepare the bed on which she slept by shaking well the hay, and putting it in proper order; and, lastly, would cover herself up snugly in the quilt.