The opinion advanced by the Count de Buffon*, is I. That the animals common both to the old and new world, are fmal- ler in the latter. 2. That thofe pecuhar to the new are on a fmaller fcale. 3. That thofe which have been domefticated in both, have degenerated in America: and 4. That on the whole it exhibits fewer fpecies. And the reafon he thinks is, that the heats of America are lefs; that more waters are fpread over its furface by nature, and fewer of thefe drained oft' by the hand of man. In other words, that heat is friendly, and moijlure adverfe to the production and developement of large quadrupeds. I will not meet this hypo- thefis on its firfl: doubtful ground, whether the climate of America be comparatively * Buffon, xviii. loo— 156. N [ 9° ] more humid? Becaufe we are not furnilhed with obfervations fufficient to decide this queflion. And though, till it be de- cided, we are as free to deny, as others are to affirm the faft, yet for a moment let it be fuppofed. The hypothefis, after this fuppofition, proceeds to another; that moifiure is unfriendly to animal growth.
The truth of this is infcrutable to us by reafonings d priori Nature has hidden from us her modus agendi. Our only ap- peal on fuch queftions is to experience;
and I think that experience is againfl: the fuppofition. It is by the affiftance of heat and moijlure that