as to cause him to say, "Thus the wonderfully diversified instincts, mental powers, and affections of ants are notorious, yet their cerebral ganglia are not so large as the quarter of a pin's head. Under this point of view, the brain of an ant is one of the most marvellous atoms in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of a man.' But, broadly speaking, ascending brain-power, shown not only by proportional weight and size of brain, but by complexity as well, marks all the vertebrate or chordate classes, especially mammalia.

The striking fact in regard to characters for protection is the diminishing power and complexity of "passive structures, correlated with the increasing power, through higher intelligences, of employing the "active" characters subserving protection.

The means subservient to the active protection of the body are such as the organs of movement, of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch-claws, teeth, and horns. The various powers of burrowing, climbing, swimming, diving, walking, running, hibernating, exhibit some of the different methods adapted to the differing organizations of mammalia, and serving to protect them against a thousand and one dangers.

In regard to passive structures concerned in protection we find many still among mammalia, but in a markedly lower proportion to their multiplying needs than all that have gone before. The enumeration of the most common passive structures among mammalia, viz., hairy coverings of all degrees of thickness, spines, coloration, and markings for protection, and a few specialized forms, will show their comparative insignificance in this the highest class of animals. In truth a survey of this subject forces one to the conclusion that as animals ascend the zoological ladder they have increasingly to learn the art of living by their wits; an art which naked-skinned, unprotected man has been compelled to study to perfection, in the course of many bitter lessons.

We will here only mention the successive orders of mammalia, as given by Lyddeker, alluding briefly to the protective character of each.

1. Monotremata possess fur, strong claws, and certain of them prickly spines. Marsupialia, or pouched animals

* Descent of Man, i, p. 54.

such as kangaroos, wallabies, and opossums, have the characteristic pouch for the young, hairy coverings, strongly made, powerful tail, and configuration adapted to rapid leaping.

2. Edentata comprise sloths, ant-eaters, armadilloes, and pangolias, and some have a remarkable extraneous greenish growth of fungus on their thick, coarse coat, protectively coloured anteaters a peculiarly tough, dense coat and hard skull, armadilloes a powerful cuirass of bony plates and the power of curling up into a ball and of burrowing rapidly. The South American apar can protect itself thus about as rapidly and efficiently on land as the "sea-hedgehog" was shown to do on the water.

3. Sirenia or sea-cows, with tough smooth skin, slow in movement, frequent shallow seas, rivers, and bays.

4. Cetacea, as whales, dolphins, porpoises, possess tough, smooth skin, "blubber" for protection against cold among whales, and large, active, quickly moving bodies.

5. Rodentia or gnawing animals-mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, hares, beavers, porcupines-are mostly terrestrial, burrowing and nocturnal in habits, a few aquatic and a few arboreal. They have as defensive armour only fur as a rule, a few have spines, especially "the fretful porcupine" of Shakespeare, and as indirect means of protection strong gnawing teeth, with strong chisel-like cutting edge, and no canine teeth, as the latter would, if present, be useless to them.

6. Ungulata or hoofed animals, such as horses, asses, zebras, rhinoceros, tapirs, pigs, sheep, oxen, goats, deer, antelopes, giraffes, elephants, camels, possess a few passive characters, such as hairy coverings of various kinds, thickened integument, and certain special instances of protection by diverse means; and as active characters horns, tusks, antlers on the one hand and fleetness of pace and agility (e.g., horse and goat) on the other.

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7. Carnivora, such as cats, hyenas, dogs, wolves, foxes, bears, weasels, racoons, all possess hairy coverings of great value to themselves and for protection against adverse influences, also many protective markings. Vibrissæ" or "whiskers' in all the cat tribe, a valuable tactile organ, each long hair being furnished at its base by a special sensory nerve; the singular papillæ on the tongue of cats, curved backwards, for the purpose of cleaning their fur, and licking clean the bones of their prey (in which character they differ from the dog tribe, which crush the bones with their teeth); the retractile

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claws found in many Carnivora, whose beautiful mechanism and economy of force compels our admiration-these are but a few general and special contrivances for protection among this important order of mammalia.

8. Insectivora, such as hedgehogs, moles, and shrews, are inoffensive, burrowing, hibernating, and mostly nocturnal animals, and these show some important protective characters such as dull, uniform colouring, strong, coarse coats, and formidable erectile spines among hedgehogs; a delicate, velvety, strong coat among moles, which lies smooth when rubbed forwards or backwards; very strong claws, spade-like forefeet, and elongated snout. Shrews show fur much like that of mice.

9. Cheiroptera or bats show modifications of the digits of the fore-limbs into a long framework on which is stretched the wing-membrane, enabling them to fly; the thumb being furnished with a claw, the hind-limb with hook-like claws by which the creature can suspend itself when asleep. They also have a beautifully sensitive sense of touch in the wingmembrane, nose, and external ears.

10. The remaining order of mammalia, the Primates, contains lemurs, monkeys, apes, and man, the least protected of all animals, except for such help as he obtains from his elevated intelligence. The armour, offensive and defensive, of the primates below man consists of hairy coverings, some protectively coloured, strong teeth, especially tusk-teeth, prehensile tails, powerful fore-limbs, generally extreme agility of movement, all of which conduce to a considerable power of taking care of themselves.

I think this rapid survey of leading forms of animal life with the methods of protection adapted to each will tend to bear out as far as it goes the statement of Weismann that "everything is adapted in animate nature." It is a catalogue of contrivances for the important purpose of protection of individual animals, hardly less eloquent of design than such a record as the Patent Office, for instance, affords of the multiform inventions of the human intellect. "Means adapted to calculable ends" may well describe this varied series of protective characters. And I venture to affirm that the conception of an intellect and will and power, not human and yet in measure interpretable by the human mind, concerned in the production of these characters, cannot be avoided.

This small contribution to teleology is offered to those who, in the words of Professor Campbell Fraser, "are trying,

as many now are, to realize intellectually, whether or not we are living and moving and having our being in an essentially divine universe-that is to say, in a universe that in its final principle is morally trustworthy, and that is more or less interpretable by man, in an exertion of theistic or religious faith, as well as of physical faith.”

DISCUSSION.

The CHAIRMAN.-Is it your pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to return thanks to Dr. Kidd for his communication? (Applause.)

I think we have listened to an exceedingly interesting and graphic account of the modes of protection, which are often the same as those used for supplying the needs of animals from the lowest to the highest order. We might often wish that some of those forms were not so well furnished with means of protectionfor instance, when Dr. Kidd came to the question of the insect tribe, bugs, fleas, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and other forms which infest hot countries, and which require curtains to keep them from persecuting unhappy individuals sleeping under them, we might wish that Nature had not been so very adaptive to their wants for the purpose of perpetuating those noxious pests. But I suppose we must feel that every animal has its use. We cannot always see what their use is. We could very well, for instance, do without some of those I have mentioned, and such forms as scorpions, or flocks of those destructive insects, the locusts; and I hope as civilization extends over the regions where those animals seem to multiply, and to develop to an extraordinary extent, that man will be able, if not to exterminate them, at any rate certainly to reduce their number for the benefit of mankind generally. In the vast majority of cases that Dr. Kidd has enumerated this evening I think we must admit that we see most clear evidence of design, both for protection and for the supply and support of the animal life.

* Giffard Lectures for 1895-6, Series 2, p. 2.

Professor ORCHARD, D.Sc., in response to the Chairman, said : In response to your invitation, Mr. Chairman, I am very glad to express our sense of debt which we owe to Dr. Kidd for his thoughtful and suggestive paper this evening.

The subject of the protection of animals is, of course, a subsidiary branch of the great argument of design. It is a branch, however, which has generally been very much neglected. Dr. Kidd has done good service in the cause of truth in calling attention to it this evening.

The AUTHOR, in reply, said: I am much obliged to you for your very kind reception of this paper, which I am afraid was rather hurriedly written and is imperfect in parts.

I did not refer to anything in regard to the protection of man because that to deal with this subject would require a paper itself. It is well worthy of study-the subject of the protection that is given to almost every part and organ of the human body, the veins and arteries and those structures, apart from his own powers of taking care of himself. I often think that one of the most wonderful things is the little tube called the thoracic duct, conveying the lymph from the abdominal regions to the venous organs. It is in a most elaborately and carefully arranged position, so that it is never pressed upon by any large organ, and a wound in that tube or a stoppage is quite a rare case in medicine; illustrating the way in which this means of communication from one portion of circulation to the other has been thought out and protected. I can see no other view than that it is a matter of infinite and perfect knowledge and design. The substance is softer than a vein and far more important than a main vein, simply because there are no other means of communicating this immense supply of lymph to the body than by this little channel provided with valves.

The CHAIRMAN.--Perhaps Dr. Kidd may be induced some day, either this session or next, to give us a paper on this particular subject. (Applause.) He referred to Mr. Lyddeker's work. suppose that is the Royal Natural History?

Dr. KIDD.-Yes, and Dr. Sclater?

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The CHAIRMAN.--Yes, and Dr. Sclater's. I have been recently turning over its pages with the greatest admiration. I think it is one of the most beautiful works on Natural History that was ever