MAN'S POOREST RELATION.
SOMEWHERE about the year 1780 the celebrated French traveller, naturalist, and philosopher, Sonnerat, in the course of a voyage to the East Indies and China, visited the island of Madagascar, from the west coast of which he procured two small beasts. Nothing like them had ever before been seen by him, or, probably, by any European even. To the natives of the other side of the island their appearance was so novel that they expressed their surprise by ejaculations which in the Frenchman's ears sounded like "Aye-aye," and he, at a loss for a name to bestow on the animal, was fain so to designate it, when, two years afterwards, on his return to Paris, he published an account of his voyages. The two specimens thus procured Sonnerat kept alive with him on board ship for a couple of months, and the stuffed skin of one of them he subsequently gave to the great Buffon, who at that time presided over the zoological department of the "Cabinet du Roi." This identical example is still to be seen in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, and for more than fifty years was the sole evidence in Europe of the existence of such a creature.
Meantime, however, stay-at-home naturalists were puzzling their brains to make out what were the nearest allies of this strange little beast. Buffon was induced to think its strongest affinity was to the Squirrels, and to another curious animal called by him is tarsier, and now known to be a Lemur, but which he considered was also a true gnawing quadruped or rodent. Accordingly, Gmealin a few years later, being obliged, in the course of his business, to find a place for everything, boldly entered it as a Squirrel, and in that category Cuvier was content at first to leave it, though several peculiarities which militated against such a view did not escape his acute observation. Later, when he had availed himself of the opportunities at his command for obtaining farther insight into its affinities, and had the skull extracted from Sonnerat's stuffed skin, he recognized in this important part of the skeleton, a structure similar to that of some Monkeys. Had Cuvier's instructions been fully obeyed, no doubt he would have come to a still more correct view of the case ; but it has lately been ascertained that the limb-bones contained in the skin were never removed, as he thought, and that he was misled by the substitution for them of the corresponding bones of another animal. But before all this happened, Sclueber had perceived that the form of the Aye-aye's feet showed its relations to the Lemurs, and to him belongs the honour of first discerning this fact. De Blainville followed the course thus indicated, and to him succeeded Geoffrey St. Hilaire, who, comprehending at once the value of the distinctions and resemblances between the Aye-aye and the true Lemurs, made of it a distinct genus, which he placed next to the group containing those animals. His determination was soon after acquiesced in by Cuvier, and since then the Aye- aye has been generally known to naturalists as Chiromys madagas- cariensis. Still, however, unbiassed zoologists of note and ex- perience have expressed their sense of the need of further know- ledge of its nature by the ever-shifting systematic place they have assigned to it. Thus Milne-Edwards, in 1834, and Vanderhoeven twenty years after, retained Chiromys as a rodent, while, on the
other hand, Desmarest, the younger St Hilaire, and Charles Lucien Bonaparte gave their assent to a contrary view.
But it is time to offer our readers some notion of the appear- ance of this little animal. It is about the size of a well-grown Cat—but in place of pussy's rounded head and moderately-propor- tioned ears, the Aye-aye has a triangularly-shaped visage—very broad across the temples, to give room for a pair of large eyes, and then rapidly narrowing towards the snout. Its ears, especially in their breadth, seem of preposterous dimensions, and are set on in a comparatively forward position. The whole body is clothed in coarse but soft woolly hair, more or less of a dark brown colour, and terminates in a thick bushy tail as long as the body itself. The hind limbs are large and muscular, and are furnished with very Monkey-looking bands—for their stout great-toes are opposable to the others, and may be almost called thumbs. The fore-legs- are shorter, their fingers a good deal elongated, and their thumbs scarcely opposible, as on the lower extremities. But one of the most curious peculiarities observable is in the middle finger of each fore-foot. It is nearly the longest, and of extreme slender- ness, as if all the muscles upon it had withered away, leaving the bone and sinew merely cased in skin. Late observers have not inaptly compared it in appearance to a piece of wire, and have further ascertained that the fore-legs have the peculiar structure of the joints which gives the power of rotatory motion to the hands. When we look at the teeth we find in front an upper and a lower pair of enormous incisors, just as in the jaws of any ordinary rodent ; and, as in them, eye-teeth or canines are entirely wanting, the same empty arched space existing between the front and the double teeth of the Aye-aye, as will appear to any of our readers who may take the trouble to look in the mouth of the first Rabbit or Hare they meet at dinner. Thus it is this singular combination of rodent and quadrumane characters that has led to the oscillation in natural-history systems which Chiromys has experienced—being swung from the one order to the other, according as the writer was inclined to ascribe most importance to the testimony of the teeth or the limbs.
Now, as we have said, for upwards of half-a-century, only one specimen of the Aye-aye was known to science, for Sonnerat's second example was lost sight of—it may have perished in the revolution for anything we know to the contrary—but at last the remains of another, and this a young one, made their appearance in the galleries of the museum at Paris. In August, 1855, M. Lienard, a resident at Mauritius, much addicted to natural history, com- municated to the French Academy a note on an Aye-aye which he had procured from Madagascar. It lived for some months with him, and we believe its skin is now preserved in the museum at Port Louis. In October of the same year, Dr. Vinson, of the sister island, Reunion, addressed to the same body an account of another example, also obtained alive, and brought to the niuseilm at St. Denis. Both these gentlemen gave some entertaining aneodotes of- their captives, but their exploits have been sur- pasped by Dr. Sandwith, who, while filling the office of Colonial Secretary at Mauritius, was especially asked by Professor Owen to procure an Aye-aye for him. Though the means of communication with Madagascar were uncertain, and the access of foreigners to the interior was forbidden by its sovereign, the diplomacy of the ci-devant Kars medico overcame the prohibitive restrictions of Queen Ranavaloo, and in due time a fine lively Aye-aye was safely landed at Port Louis, and placed in his charge, when it at once became an object of much anxiety to him. With those formidable front teeth it could gnaw its way out of any wooden cage. In dismay Dr. Sandwith had its domicile lined with tin-plate, and wrote to Professor Owen, stating the risk he ran of losing so valuable a prisoner, and asking for further instructions. While awaitingthe reply, he narrowly watched the Aye- aye, and was enabled to make some interesting observations on its habits, though, as far as we are able to judge, none that had not been already recorded by Sonnerat. At length Professor Owen's answer was received,—the Superintendent of the British Museum thought the chance too good to be missed. If the animal could be sent home alive with safety so much the better, but all things con- sidered, he suggested a merciful death by chloroform and a keg of colourless spirit as the surest means of rendering it available to science. So the corpse of this Aye-aye found its way to England and was made the most of. Its skeleton and stuffed skin are now contained in the National Collection, but a minute dissection and examination were first effected by Mr. Owen. Of this a detailed account appears in the last published part of the "Transactions of the Zoological Society of London," whence we have derived most of the informa- tion above given. Here the professor incontestably proves the lemurine—and consequently the quadrumane (Professor Huxley would call them the primatial)—affinities of Chiromys, which we apprehend will never again be doubted. Hence it is that we have ventured upon the heading of this article, for few of our readers, who indulge in the pleasures of memory, will be ignorant, we imagine, of the playful title by which the late Mr. Rogers used to designate the Monkeys in his frequent visits to the Zoological Gardens.
In 1861 the bloodthirsty Queen of Madagascar died, and her son at once opened the island, which had been so long considered the promised land of naturalists, to foreigners. The following year an English gentleman of Mauritius, Mr. Edward Mellish, visited the country, and the good fairy who presides over, zoology placed in his way another live Aye-aye. That gentleman, luckily aware of the value of the opportunity, did not hesitate to become possessed of it, though we have been informed that he paid no less than 50/. for the prize, and with rare liberality at once sent it home, under careful custody, a free gift to the Zoological Society. The animal survived the voyage, though its attendant pains and perils were increased by the fact that on the way it gave birth to a young one (which, unfortunately, not living, was hove overboard), and reached the gardens in the Regent's Park on the 12th %f August, 1862. There it still thrives, one of the most interestink objects to a naturalist in the whole collection, but from its nocturnal habits not very attractive to the public at large. It has already been of no small use by enabling Mr. Wolf faithfully to perpetuate, in the figures which illustrate Professor Owen's memoir, the appearance of one of the rarest and most curious of animals ; and whenever its death (absit omen) occurs, it is expected to furnish important evidence in the Great Brain Case, that cause cilebre in Modern physiology, of "Owen v. Huxley." Mr. Bartlett, the observant superintendent of the establishment, has also published in the Society's proceedings some remarks on its. habits in captivity, which are important as supplying several blanks left and correcting several misconceptions made by previous writers. We have only room to state in outline the chief points of its economy.
Like the wolf in the story of "Little Red Riding-hood," the Aye-aye appears to have good use for all its special features. Its hand-like lower members give it a firm hold on the boughs of trees. Its large expressive eyes serve to guide it on its midnight rambles. Its wide sensitive ears enable it to detect the difference of sound emitted on tapping a hollow or a solid piece of timber, or„ perhaps, even the slight movements of the wood-boring grubs con- tained therein. Its marvellous gnawing teeth, those instruments that misled Buffon, Milne-Edwards, and Vanderhoeven, as to its true affinities, quickly lay bare the cavity in which the delicate morsel is snugly ensconced, and, last of all, its wonderful wire-like middle finger picks out the dainty tit-bit, which is conveyed to its mouth by the rotatory motion of the elbow and wrist. All these, as may be supposed, are adduced by Professor Owen in support of the doctrine of final causes, as opposed to the theories, advanced by various naturalists, of transmutation, development, or derivation. We have no intention of pursuing the subject further, but it appears to us that the grounds upon which a teleological argument rests are always liable to be taken in the rear. In spite of what Professor Owen says, it seems to us not less impossible that such peculiar structures as the rodent-like incisors and attenuated middle digit of Chiromys should be the ultimate result of the long-continued working of some process like that attributed to natural selection, than that they should be the specially designed machinery whereby the animal is to secure its own livelihood. The advocates of the final-cause hypothesis have need to be warned of indulging in any- thing like the false reasoning of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc."' But Professor Owen states his opinions in a comparatively tem- perate manner here. They are not, unfortunately, worded as plainly as we could wish. Had they been so, we might very pos- sibly have come more nearly to agree with him. It must be men- tioned that here, for the first time, we believe, he forcibly declares his conviction that the creation of species is, in all probability, the result of secondary causes. This may, perhaps, stagger some of his hitherto most violent partizans ; but we do not see how a naturalist of his attainments was long to avoid so necessary a conclusion.
Our having devoted so much space to the Aye-aye's history will of itself assure our readers that the subject is one of no small importance. It is something to have called from Professor Owen's pen so valuable a treatise, one quite equal, if we may venture upon such an opinion, to any of those which formerly gained him his deservedly high reputation. Regarded also in another light it is worthy of attention. The interest caused by the Aye-aye's extraordinary structure is heightened by the. animal's rarity. For
more than two generations only one specimen was to be seen in the civilized world. Up to the present time, naturalists have certainly not set their eyes on a dozen examples of this wonderful little beast. We believe that only two public museums in Europe possess it. Numerous efforts have been constantly made to pre- cuts it. Sganzin lived for many years as commandant of the French settlement at St. Marie without being able to get sight of one, though, as he himself says, he offered large rewards for a specimen. Nor were the labours of Desjardins, Bernier, Telfair, Ellis, or Madame Pfeiffer more successful. We learn from a recent traveller in Madagascar that the natives are yearly burning enormous tracks of forest to gain ground for agricultural purposes. Had King Raclama continued to reign in peace and prosperity, the population of the island would have been certain to increase with rapidity, and we might have expected still more wasteful destruction of the woods to follow. We may yet look forward, as an event by no means improbable, or very remote, to the utter extirpation of the Aye-aye in Madagascar, and no naturalist requires to be told that the animal does not exist in any other country.
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