Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE SERVICE OF TAILS A TAIL,1 properly speaking, is a prolongation of the backbone behind (or beyond) the pelvic arch, which supports the hinder limbs. Sometimes this prolongation is the larger half of the entire length of the spinal column, as in some reptiles and a few mammals, — the acme being reached by one of the African pangolins (Manis tricuspis), whose tail is nearly twice as long as its body, and contains forty-nine caudal vertebrae, the largest number known among mammals ; sometimes it is extremely short, or altogether abortive, as among frogs and in our own case, foreven humanity possesses the rudiment of a tail concealed beneath the skin. The same is true of the more human-like kinds of monkeys (the apes). 1 To the light-minded a better title would be A Tale of Tails, or something of that miserable sort — perhaps A Caudal Lecture — instead of the words at the head of the page. That would be a pun of the most brutal kind, as obvious and headlong as one of the bulls of Bashan. A pun should not come gradually bulging out towards one's intelligence — looming up slowly before the mind like a light-house in a fog. It should appear unexpectedly at your elbow, startling, yet not affrighting you, after the manner of the Cheshire Cat. Not on the lookout, you do not at once perceive the allusion, but an instant later the essence of wit encased in the quibble declares itself, as certain candies, disappointing and flavorless at first, presently disclose a liquid centre of sweets to the surprised palate. Some tails, like those of the bear, deer, and goat, are so short, stubbed, and immovable as to defy any attempt to perceive a present purpose in their existence. Of what possible use to a turtle, for example, is its tail ? None, apparently, whatever might have bee...