36 Mr. W. S. Macleay on the Comparative Anatomy 



Being now legitimately arrived among the essentially carni- 

 vorous animals, I may be charged with having omitted to express 

 that most evident affinity which all authors have remarked be- 

 tween the Primates and FercB. This affinity, it will be said, 

 must be granted to exist in nature, whether with Linnaeus we 

 place the Bats among the Primates, or whether with M. Cuvier 

 we range them at the head of this naturalist's group of Carnivores. 

 It is equally true, whether with Schreber, Hermann, and lUiger 

 we pass from Lemur to Didelphis*, or whether with Linnaeus and 

 Erxleben, we place the Opossums among the Ferce. 



But if by carefully following the progression of affinity, we 

 have thus returned to the order of Primates, from which we 

 departed, the group is a natural one+ ; and the following series, 

 connected by affinity, harmonizes perfectly with that arrange- 

 ment which we before acquired by comparing them analogi- 

 cally with Mr, Vigors's series of Birds. 



1, Normal GroupX- (" !• FsRiE. 



Teeth of three kinds, and forming a con- 

 tinuous series. 



Amphodonta Arist. ^ 2. Primates. 



2. Aberrant Group. /* 3. Glires. 



Teeth not of three sorts, or not forming ) . tJngulata 

 a continuous series. 



{ 

 { 



Anamphodonta Arist. v. 5. Cetacea. 



On reviewing this series, we must recollect that there is an 

 imiversally acknowledged connection between the Ferce and the 

 Glires by means of the Marsupial Animals, or Marsupiaux of 



* See on this subject particularly. Tab. Aff. Anim. p. 63. 



t See Linn. Tram. vol. xiv. p. 55. 



X The Normal and Aberrant groups were distinguished and named by Aristotle in 

 his Historia Animalium, but have not to my knowledge appeared again in any work, 

 until Mr. Gray had the honour of reviving them in the Annals of Philosophy. 



Cuvier, 



