1910.] Analysis of Linnes Ordinal Definitions. 31 



All the characters chosen as diagnostic are such as are intimately related 

 to sustenance or to the mode of feeding and obtaining food. The first 

 character listed in this and succeeding orders (except 'Cete') is the number 

 of front teeth, and the next is the number of laniariform teeth, whether none, 

 solitary, or several (in reference to the more or less caniniform premolars 

 of Dasijpus, Erinaceus, etc.). These number characters were doubtless 

 suggested by analogous cases in botanical systems. They were also used 

 by others, especially Brisson. 



The Primates being the "chiefs" of the Mammalia, the number and 

 character of the mammae is especially noticed. The presence of clavicles 

 in the "Primates" is the only distinctly osteological character used by 

 Linnaeus in any ordinal definition. The manner of progression is mentioned 

 in connection with limb-structure in this and in most of the remaining orders. 



Order Bruta} Definition: "Front teeth none either above or below. 

 Gait more or less awkward ('incessus ineptior')." 



Linne's reasons for including the Elephant and Manatee with the 

 Anteater, Sloth and Scaly Anteater are scarcely apparent at first glance. 

 The Manatee and the Elephant it is true are both bulky, thick skinned, 

 dark-colored mammals, with a single pair of mamnipe, which are pectoral in 

 position; both exhibit tender care of the young, both are peaceful herbivores, 

 browsing upon succulent herbage by means of fleshy prolongations of the 

 snout; both are ponderous and clumsy in their gait, the elephant on land, 

 the manatee in the rivers ; both lack front teeth and the lower jaw in the two 

 genera presents some striking ])eculiarities in common. Such "physiolog- 

 ical" resemblances were often interpreted as tokens of natural affinity by 

 Linnfieus and in this case perhaps led him to anticipate de Blainville in re- 

 garding the Manatee as an acjuatic and " mutilate " relative of the Elephant; 

 just as the Whales are aquatic and mutilate relatives of other terrestrial 

 quadrupeds. But what special characters, if any, hold together the Mana- 

 tee and the Sloth, except the lack of front teeth, an awkward gait and brows- 

 ing habits ? Again the Great Anteater resembles the Elephant chiefly in 

 possessing an elongate snout, stiff and post-like legs, a clumsy gait and 

 "no front teeth," while following the same sort of superficial criteria, the 

 smaller Anteaters (Tamandna) approximate the Sloths chiefly in their 

 arboreal habits, long claws, awkward gait and "no front teeth." 



Such reasoning appears to us very naive, and even Linne's contempo- 

 raries, Klein, Brisson, Scopoli, Blumenbach and Storr, as we shall see, 

 rejected his more unnatural groupings, although adopting almost equally 

 bad ones themselves. Nevertheless, even in the grotesque assemblage 



1 Lat. brutus, heavy unwieldly, stupid. (Century Diet.) 



