DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0281
192 proportions op THE figure* [lEC. viii-
to shew part of the white above the iris, but they
cannot be raised so as to discover the white beneath.
III. The eye-brows of animals never meet,
and are always depressed at their extremities; while
those of man approach each other, and elevate them-
selves next the nose.
IV. The nostrils of animals hardly deserve the
name of a nose, being little more than slits whereby
they breathe and smell 5 they are not prominent, like
the nose in a human countenance.
Speech is not indeed an external sign, yet speech
may greatly contribute to a decision in our favor ;
especially, since dissection has proved, that in those
parts of the throat which should assist in the forma-
tion of sounds, animals whose forms approach the
human (anthropomorphous) have a certain orifice, or
slit, which, by dividing the passage of the air, pre-
vents articulate expression, by restraining the voice
to a mere whistle.
It must be owned, some birds articulate very di-
stinctly, but 1. This is not the effect of nature, but
of education : 1. They rarely have any conception
of the meaning of what they repeat, unless it refer to-
bodily wants, such as food, &c. . 3. Birds are, in their
forms, so unlike mankind, that their instances have
no consequences : had animals possessed the same
imitative powers, it might have been embarrassing,
perhaps, but we know of no animal capable of speech;
or of any exercise of the powers of reason ; though
some things related of the elephant, and indeed of
some other animals, are truly surprizing.
That
to shew part of the white above the iris, but they
cannot be raised so as to discover the white beneath.
III. The eye-brows of animals never meet,
and are always depressed at their extremities; while
those of man approach each other, and elevate them-
selves next the nose.
IV. The nostrils of animals hardly deserve the
name of a nose, being little more than slits whereby
they breathe and smell 5 they are not prominent, like
the nose in a human countenance.
Speech is not indeed an external sign, yet speech
may greatly contribute to a decision in our favor ;
especially, since dissection has proved, that in those
parts of the throat which should assist in the forma-
tion of sounds, animals whose forms approach the
human (anthropomorphous) have a certain orifice, or
slit, which, by dividing the passage of the air, pre-
vents articulate expression, by restraining the voice
to a mere whistle.
It must be owned, some birds articulate very di-
stinctly, but 1. This is not the effect of nature, but
of education : 1. They rarely have any conception
of the meaning of what they repeat, unless it refer to-
bodily wants, such as food, &c. . 3. Birds are, in their
forms, so unlike mankind, that their instances have
no consequences : had animals possessed the same
imitative powers, it might have been embarrassing,
perhaps, but we know of no animal capable of speech;
or of any exercise of the powers of reason ; though
some things related of the elephant, and indeed of
some other animals, are truly surprizing.
That