OF BARON CUVIER. 19 



of branchiostegi, and formed that of plectognathi l . He was 

 thus enabled to bring together many species formerly kept 

 remote, particularly those of the muraenae. His principal 

 object being an arrangement which would show a class of 

 animated beings according to their real affinities, his efforts 

 were unceasingly directed towards the construction of real 

 natural families, and when these were established, to the 

 arrangement of the genera, and their subdivision into sub- 

 genera, so as to facilitate the knowledge of the species, by 

 locations as far as possible suited to their mutual relations. 



In this view the Baron states in substance, the Acantho- 

 pterygian character assumes a preponderance over all the 

 others, and renders them secondary, and incapable of being 

 placed in opposition to it. The very constancy of the 

 characters materially increases the difficulty wherever it 

 exists, to find precise and sensible distinctions for subordinate 

 application ; different tribes of Acanthopterygians passing 

 from one into the other by such gradual transitions that the 

 line of demarcation between them is scarcely^perceptible. 



Thus the percoides, essentially distinguished from the 

 sciaenae by their palatinal teeth, includes a group of some 

 strength, and completely natural in every other respect, but 

 that one part of it is provided with that kind of teeth, and the 

 other is without them. The same case recurs in the mailed 

 cheek family, in other respects distinctly characterized ; the 

 greater number of the genera being linked to the percoides ; 

 and the other to the sciaenoides by the circumstance of their 

 having teeth on the palate. The sciaenoid genera approach 



1 Branchiostegi formed an order of fish with free branchiae, and what 

 was called a cartilaginous skeleton. Plectognathi, bony fish with gill 

 rays and operculum concealed by a thick skin, allowing but a small open- 

 ing, and having the maxillary bone soldered to the side of the inter- 

 maxillary, which forms alone tbe jaw, the upper having no motion. 



c 2 



