CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALIA. 181 



formed the grounds for their distribution into the following 

 Orders : — 



" Amongst the Unguiculate animals, the first is Man, who, 

 in addition to his peculiar privileges in every other respect, 

 is distinguished zoologically, by possessing hands on the an- 

 terior extremities alone; the posterior extremities being 

 destined to sustain him in the erect position. 



" The Order which comes nearest to Man, — that termed 

 Quadrumana, — has hands on the four extremities. 



" Another Order, termed Carnivora, has not the thumb 

 free and opposable to the anterior extremities. 



" These three Orders possess likewise severally the three 

 kinds of teeth, viz. molaries, laniaries, and incisors. 



" The quadrupeds of the fourth Order, viz. the Rodentia, 

 have the digits differing little from those of the Carnivora ; 

 but they want the laniary teeth, and have the incisors of a 

 form and disposition altogether peculiar to themselves. 



" To these succeed the animals whose digits now become 

 much cramped, being sunk deep in large and, most commonly, 

 crooked claw r s. They are further defective in the absence of 

 incisor teeth 5 some of them even want the laniaries, and 

 others are altogether destitute of dentary organs. We shall 

 comprehend them under the term Edentata. 



" This distribution of unguiculate animals would be perfect, 

 and would form a v ery regular chain, if New Holland had not 

 lately furnished us with a small collateral chain, composed of 

 the Marsupial animals, all the genera of which, while they 

 are connected by a general similarity of organization, at the 

 same time correspond in their dentition and diet, some to the 

 Carnivora, others to the Rodentia, and a third tribe to the 

 Edentata. 



" The Ungulate animals are less numerous, and present 

 fewer variations of form. 



" The Rnminantia, by their cloven feet, their want of upper 

 incisors, and their complicated stomach, form a very distinct 

 Order. 



" All the other quadrupeds with hoofs might be united into 

 a single Order, which I would call Pachydermata or Ju- 

 menta, the elephant excepted, which might form an Order of 

 itself, having some remote affinities to the Order Rodentia. 



" Last of all come the Mammalia which have no hinder 

 extremities, and whose fish-like form and aquatic life would 

 induce us to form them into a separate Class, if their ceconomy 

 was not in every other respect the same as in the Class in which 

 we shall leave them. They are the warm-blooded fishes of the 

 ancients, or the Cetacea, which, combining the powers of other 

 Mammalia with the advantage of being sustained upon the 



