>775; which yet is in contradiction with the former. This, how- December. ■ J W v ; ever, he feems again to have forgot, when, in page 195, ;( without producing any authority for it) he affures us, that javelins [les javelots & les lances) are not able to pierce this animal’s fide. M. d e B u f f o n , not content with aflerting that the hide o f the rhinoceros is impenetrable, in page 176, will not even allow it the leaft portion whatever of fenfibility, (prive de toute fenfibilite) and this merely without quoting any authority, or having any other foundation for the affertion, than what his own imagination has furnifhed him with. And yet, had M. d e B u f f o n but paid a moderate degree of attention to the clear and diftinCt account drawn up by Dr. P a r s o n s in the Phil. T’ranf. which he himfelf has quoted, it would feem that he muft have been of a different opinion. In that paper it is mentioned, that the rhinoceros emitted his penis, when he was tickled under the belly with a wifp of ftraw. M. d e B u f f o n too remarks himfelf, that the rhinoceros is fond of wallowing in the mire like the hog : but I will leave it to others to judge, how this accords with the abfolu'te infenfibility he attributes to the hide. And, indeed, when even the thick hide of the elephant is affeCted by the flinging of flies, how can we fuppofe that of the rhinoceros to be abfolutely infenfible ? Again, the ikin at the bottom o f a man’s foot, though thicker than it is in other parts of the body, is neverthelefs by no means void of fenfibility. Moreover, the ikin of the rhinoceros, however tough and clofe in its texture, has, at leaft about the groin, veflels, blood, and juices, adapted for the nouriihment o f infeCts, which, indeed, actually do nouriih them ; this beaft being infefted \gith a kigd kind of acariy which I have difcovered on its pubis and groin, *77i- and have' drawn up an account of them, inferted in the Vllth Tome of Mémoires fu r les In f elles. Neither does the thick- nefs of this animal’s hide prevent it from perfpiring. This creature, which at all other times appears to be o f a grey colour, foon becomes black when it is hard hunted. This proceeds from the duft and dried mud flicking to the animal’s ikin, and moiftened by fweat. Befides that I have been allured of this. faCt by others, I think I once- myfelf faw a manifeft inftance of it, in the cafe of a rhinoceros, which was purfued by fome other fportfmen, and very unexpectedly paffed within the diftance of forty or fifty paces of my waggon, fortunately for me, without perceiving it, or doing it any damage. This beaft was much darker coloured than any I ever faw, the number of which, however, in all, did not exceed eight. From the figure of the rhinoceros referred to above, and from the defcription I have already given, it follows, that M. d e B u f f o n , in his notes to page 186, ac- cufes koLBE, without any foundation, of having defcribed the leifer horn as being placed in a ftrait line behind the other, and upon the animal’s forehead. It is impofjibley fays he, that the two horns Jhould be placed fo fa r from each other ; for in Jbe horns which are preferved in S i r H a n s S l o a n e ’s mufeumy there is only the di/lance of three inches between the larger horn and the fmaller. In faCt, this eminent naturalift feems rather too hafty in the foregoing remark, and forgets that every animal’s nofe is placed near its forehead; fo that while one horn is fixed on the rhinoceros’s nofe, the other may be very well fixed, and ac- 6 tnallv
27f 72-2
To see the actual publication please follow the link above