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than is usually observed in other quadrupeds.

The viscera of the abdomen exhibited marks of the inflammation I have mentioned. The stomachs were distended with gas, and the mucous membrane inflamed. The epidermis of the ruminating sto mach had already peeled off, and the intestines were nearly in the same state. There was no urine in the bladder. The epiploons exhibited nothing but very thin membranous skins destitute of fat.

The distribution and figure of the stomachs were the same as in the camel. The scond was full of vesicles, from which a serous or aqueous fluid issued abundantly. The paunch and the other two stomachs did not differ in the interior form of their cavities from those of the camel. The cellular stomach was remarkable for the internal arrangement of the cells; they having apertures of communication furnished with membranous valves, which no doubt may still be discovered in the dried stomach of the animal. The last stomach is united to a portion of intestine, which may be considered as the duodenum. This was continued in another intestine of equal bulk, which, after forming an arch in the circumference of the abdomen, terminated in the left lumbar region in a cul-de-sac; whence issued another intestinal tube, very slender and smooth, and forming, ten or twelve concentric circles in the space made by the former. The circumvolutions were attached to a common mesentery. This slender intestine afterward made a thousand circumvolutions in the abdomen, terminating at length in another cæcum

without an appendage like the former; whence issued a portion of intestine of considerable bulk, which, after forming two or three curves in the manner of a colon, terminated in the rectum.

Thus it appears, that the vicuna has three sets of intestines, the first and third large, and the middle slender.

I met with no worms in the intestines, the infinite windings and intersections of which would appear favourable to their formation.

The liver, which I did not at first perceive, was found deeply concealed behind the stomach, and attached by very close membranous ligaments to the crura of the diaphragm, and to the corresponding dorsal vertebræ. It was of very small bulk, of an oval figure, flattened transversely, and exhibiting two lobules at its anterior edge. It was destitute of a gall bladder; and the bile was taken directly from the liver by a duct, that conveyed it into a portion of the duodenum. This duct and the vena portæ crossed each other.

The spleen, which was likewise very small, and of a rounded form, was situate in the left lumbar region, contiguous to the kidney of the same side. These two organs were enclosed in one common duplicature of the peritoneum.

The lungs exhibited nothing remarkable. They partook of the general inflammation, and the bronchiæ were filled with a frothy sanguineous fluid. The trachea and larynx had the same figure and organization as those of the camel.

The heart, which was of a size proportional to the animal, formed almost a perfect cone; only its point, which was very acute, curv

ed

ed upwards and to the left, and the cavity of the ventricle on that side reached to the point.

I did not see the brain, as I wished to preserve the skull entire.

After having examined the viscera of the animal, I proceeded with the dissection. The cartilaginous state of the extremities of the bones di not allow me to make an artificial skeleton of them.

Among the bony parts of the thorax the sternum merits some attention. It is in a horizontal plane, like that of the camel thick, rounded on its outward surface, and covered in the natural state with a fatty substance of a close texture. The integuments on this part are much thicker than elsewhere. This bone was intended to serve as a point of support for the animal when lying down; and the almost constant use he made of it during his il ness had pressed the extremities of the sternocostal cartilages inwards. The middle, spinal apophyses of the vertebræ formed a gibbosity, which, if it had been covered externally by a little fat, would have resembled the bunch of the camel. The remainder of the vertebral column inclined imperceptibly towards the pelvis, which was of itself inclined and of small capacity. The edges of the haunch bones were cartilaginous. The sacrum was lengthened by a series of caudal vertebræ, so as to form a tail in every respect similar to that of the camel.

The scapula, very thin and without clavicles, were connected with the trunk only by means of scapular muscles, as in the camel. The cervical vertebræ formed a a very long column, curving from below up

ward, so as to give the neck the same figure and length in proportion to the size of the animal as those of the camel. As in the latter, these vertebræ had no spinal apophyses; but a very strong cervical ligament, extending from the occiput to the spine of the first dorsal vertebra, supplied their place for the attachment of the muscles, and kept the head and vertebræ in their proper position. The interior face of these vertebræ had a longitudinal hollow, adapted for the reception of the trachea and œsophagus.

The head of the vicuna has the same shape and external characters as that of the camel. The jaws have the same number of grinding teeth. The lower has only four cutting teeth, the middlemost of which are the most prominent. The upper has none, as in other rumi. nating animals.

The fore and bind limbs in every respect resemble those of the camel.

The joints of the limbs form a perfect ginglymus, admitting a direct and complete flexure of one part against the next, so that this animal, like the camel, bends all his four legs underneath his breast when he lies down: and this double flexure is the effect of the natural structure of the limbs, as in the camel, which I had an opportunity of studying in Egypt, and of examining from its birth to its adult age. It is not therefore the result of training.

The fert of the vicuna are terminated by two, long, narrow, soft soles; and have much resemblance to the feet of young camels.

The outward figure of the head perfectly resembles that of a young

camel,

camel, except in the ears, which are erect and smooth like those of a kanguroo. The neck, body, and limbs are similarly disposed; and the body, like it, is cover d with a fawn-coloured, silky wool, but of extreme fineness. From it may be made stuffs as soft and fine as the shawls of Casimire. This tufted fleece keeps the animal so warm, that it seeks and prefers for its habitation the summits of mountains covered with snow. If the ears of this animal were uniformly cut, it would exactly resemble a camel two or three months old.

The vicuna has the same cries as the camel, the same gait, and nearly the same disposition. It is extremely shy and timid. It utters plaintive cries at the least unpleasant sensations; and when too much alarmed, its eyes are filled with tears. The very active movement of its tail and ears indicate its different sensations. It is very gentle and caressing when tamed.

The resemblance the vicuna bears to the camel in its external figure, internal structure, and qualities, would lead me to call it camelus parvus auribus rectis, the little camel with erect ears.

The owner of the animal gave me the following account of the Peruvian mode of hunting it.

The vicunas commonly inhabit the frozen summits of the high mountains of the Cordilleras. Several of the inhabitants assemble together to hunt them. They first surround the mountain where they are most numerous; and by means of mournful cries, or the discordant sound of large wind instruments, as hunting horns, they terrify the animals, who take flight to the

summit of the mountain, where no doubt they suppose themselves inaccessible. Here the hunters form a line of circumvallation with stakes, on which are small red flags. These stakes are connected with each other by cords placed pretty close. Two or three hunters then attack the herd, which disperses. Frequently some of the vicunas are surprised, and the rest rush down the mountain, but as soon as they reach the fence, instead of leaping over it, which they might easily do, terrified at the colour of the flags, they crouch down in the snow, or in holes, where hunters posted for the purpose easily take them. After tying their legs, they carry them to a convenient place, to sheer their fleeces. If the animals be old, they let them loose if young, they take them to their huts, keep them, and train them to carry burdens, loading them in the same manner as camels. They cannot live in the burning plains of America, and accordingly the inhabitants of the mountains alone can keep them. This no doubt is the reason why the animal has been hitherto so little known.

When the animal is young, its flesh is good eating; but the wool is justly in high estimation. The merchant assured me, that it was seldom sent to Europe pure, being almost always mixed with other wool of less value.

I think with him, that it might be naturalized and breed in the Pyrenees, on the summit of which the snow scarcely ever thaws; particularly as the pasture there is excellent.

On

ON THE CORAL FISHERY IN THE turalists, but to add some new

SICILIAN SEAS.

By Alfio Ferrara, M. D.
(From the same.)

Having for a long time employed myself in the study of the various natural productions, with which the sea that bathes the Sicilian shores abounds, the coral was the first object to attract my notice. This beautiful and elegant ornament of the sea could not fail of deserving first to come under my examination. I have been frequently present at the fishing of it, near the coast of Sicily: I have contemplated it in the very bottom of the sea, on its native spot: I have gathered it from stones, and shells, and other marine substances, recently taken out of the sea: I have had it worked in my presence: I have analysed the several varieties of it in fine, I have extended my researches to whatever would give me the least insight into the nature of this substance, comparing the results of my own observations with every thing the ancients and moderns have written on the subject, and consulting in every point the treasures of natural history, with which the present day has been so abundantly enriched by the accurate experiments and luminous theories of the many great men of the last century.

I have endeavoured in the present memoir to establish a clear and precise notion of the origin, increase, and nature of coral. This work has been the more pleasing to me, as I flatter myself I have been able not only to confirm by my own observations what has been already written on the subject by former Philosophers and Na

facts, that may tend to elucidate the history of this marine production, which has at all times as much occupied the researches of naturalists, as it has engaged the admiration of the fair sex, with whom the beauty of its colour, and brilliancy of its texture, have rendered it a favourite ornament of dress.

The ancients, attending only to its external form, conceived coral to be a plant; to which from its ramifications it bears some resemblance, and named it lithodendron, or stony plant, on account of its hardness. It was so called by Dioscorides and Pliny. These authors and their contemporaries did not attempt to contradict by the most trifling examination, what the poet Ovid (his head full of transformations) had asserted: that under the water it was a soft plant, but, immediately on being taken from the sea, became hard. This opinion prevailed for a long time, and was encouraged in later times by many great naturalists. Of this number was the celebrated Cesalpino.

Our Baccone, who took much pains to investigate the nature of coral, could not divest himself of this idea; but, gifted as he was with great sagacity and penetration, not being convinced, either from his own observations or those of others, that coral was a mere plant, and still less that it was a stone, he imagined, that the milky juice, which drops from the pores of fresh coral, was its seed; which, being dispersed in the sea, is precipitated and gradually accumulated in a regular form in the capsules nature provides for it.

This opinion, tending to alienate naturalists from the belief of the vegetable nature of coral, was entirely removed by the publication of the valuable and erudite work of the celebrated conte Marsigli, entitled Storia de Mare; who, led away by his imagination, or rather deriving little aid from the state of natural philosophy at that time, suggested the idea, that the moveable substances at the extremity of the branches were the octopetalous flowers of the coral, and thus revived the old opinion.

Tournefort, who, in the pursuit of his favourite study of botany, had remarked the vegetation of stones in the grotto of Antiparos, eagerly adopted this idea; and was followed by Ray, Boerhaave, Klein, and many others of that time.

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No sooner had naturalists begun again to take up the observations of Baccone, than they discovered in the hard substance of coral a sort of earthy concretion but this not being sufficient to induce them to expunge it from the list of vegetable substances, they considered it as a marine plant encrusted with calcareous earth deposited by the sea. Lehman was of this opinion, to which the mineralogist Beaumer was also much inclined.

Our Ferrante Imperato, in his work on natural history (which, like many other works of the ancients, has been almost buried in oblivion, though well deserving our attention from its containing the principles of many important truths, which have since been brought to light), had already supposed, that some of the species of coral were merely the habitation of marine worms. This opinion had so much

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of probability, that it has always been entertained by naturalists since; and the di covery of the polypi assists to explain on solid principles the true nature and origin of coral and on this account the works of Peyssonnel, Jussieu, Guetard, Trembley, Reaumur, Donati, Ellis, Pallas, Cavolini, Spallanzani, and many others, on coral, became so interesting. Coral is found round nearly all the Mediterranean islands. Pliny and Dioscorides speak much in praise of that found in the Sicilian seas in their time. It is fished for at present on every part of the shores of Sicily.

The Messineze collect a great quantity in those straits, even as far as Melazzo; but the Trapanese, who are chiefly employed in working the coral, not only fish it in the neighbouring seas about the Eolian and other islands, but extend their search to all the southern shores as far as Cape Passaro, and beyond Syracuse, and even to the coast of Barbary. They are obliged to occupy so large an extent of sea, as they cannot fish again on the same spot for several years, the re-production of coral requiring a great length of time, even nearly eight years. I have myself collected it on the shores of Catania, and thence as far as Taormina.

The instrument with which the coral is detached from the bottom of the sea has been known a long time. It is composed of a large wooden cross, having fastened to each of its four extremities nets sufficiently capacious to enclose the coral, which is broken from its root by a large stone hanging from the centre of the cross. The in

strument

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