NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 265 



that consequent!}' they should be approximated to each other in 

 contrast with any forms to which the}^ should be next placed, 

 wherever that may be. In this respect, as already indicated, he is 

 at variance with some most learned and accomplished naturalists, 

 who have expressed decided views to the contrary; it being in- 

 sisted by them that the Sirenians are most nearly related to the 

 Pachyderm Ungulates, and even (by some of them) that those 

 forms belong to the same special order as the Proboscideans, 

 H_yracoids, Perissodactyle Ungulates, and Omnivora ; in other 

 words, the Cuverian order Pachydermata modified by the addi- 

 tion to it of the Sirenians. 



Relations of Sirenians. 



The affinities of the Sirenians and Ungulates have been urged 

 with special emphasis, the view repeatedly reiterated in the United 

 States, and even generally' adopted by all but special students of 

 mammals (and not even excluding all of them), and in one of our 

 latest and most approved text-books on zoology, it is remarked ; 

 "The so-called Herbivorous whales, which Cuvier gi'ouped with 

 the Cetaceans, are now placed with the Pach^'derms, with which 

 they undoubtedly belong." It is, therefore, by no means a labor 

 of supererogation to examine into the evidence which has seemed, 

 to men justh' celebrated for learning and acuteness, to justify 

 such a combination. 



The best epitome of the arguments (in English) in favor of 

 snch collocation, has been published by Dr. S. Kneeland, in a 

 special memoir,* and for that reason it has been subjected to 

 examination and analysis, the data classified (no distinction being 

 made as to value or subordination in the memoir), and their value 

 weighed. 



It may be added, before proceeding to this analysis, that Dr. 

 J. F. Brandt has also compared, at much length, the characteris- 

 tics of the Sirenians with those of the Ungulates;- but he has 

 exhibited their differences as well as certain resemblances, and 

 has, indeed, been much more successful in the former portion of 



' The Manatus not a Cetacean, but a Pachyderm ; by S. Kneeland, Jr., 

 of Boston, Mass. Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. Thh-d Meeting (I80O), pp. 42-47. 



2 Symbols! Sirenologicaj (1868), pp. lGG-304; also, pp. 832-32G. 

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