1910.] De Blainville's Classification of 1839-64. 85 



DE BLAINViLLE, 1839-1864. 



' Osteograpliie ou description ieonograpliiciiie comparee du squellette et du 

 sjsteme dentaire des mamnii feres . . . .,' 4 vols., 4°, with atlas in 

 folio. Paris. 



This great work, with its scores of accurate lithogra])hic plates, greatly 

 extends and supplements the osteological studies of C'uvier and continues 

 to be of the greatest service at the present time. It reflects the growing 

 interest in the skeleton of recent mammals, both as yielding the most signifi- 

 cant and important characters in ordinal classification and as a means of 

 understanding the remains of })ast mammalian faunse. De Blainville re- 

 garded the skeleton in a thoroughly modern manner. The skeleton of 

 vertebrates, his biographer Xicard tells us, had been regarded ordinarily 

 as merely the passive part of the locomotive apparatus; but in 1817 de 

 Blainville in the 'Bullet in de la Societe Philomathique' considered it as 

 serving simultaneously: (1) to envelop the central nervous system, (2) to 

 protect the principal part of the eccentric nervous system, and (3) to support 

 the muscular tissue in which it is developed (Osteograpliie, p. liii). 



In regard to the classification under discussion the chief innovations are 

 the terms "Primates," "Secundates" (Insectivora, Carnivora), "Tertiates" 

 (Rongeurs), "Quaternates" (Gravigrades, Ongulogrades), and "Mai- 

 den tes" (Edentata). The process of separating the Insectivora from the 

 Carnivora is now almost completed. The Edentates are contrasted with 

 all the remaining Monodelphians (Bienflentes) in a grand division Maiden tes. 



De Blainville's Classification of 1839-1864. 



[Grades of organization]. 

 Monodelphes. 

 Bien dentes. 

 Primates. 



Singes. Les Singes, les Sapajous. 

 Makis. Les Makis, les Indris, Cheiromys. 

 Bradypus [Incertse Sedis]. 

 Secundates. 



Insectivores. 

 Carnassiers [Carnivora]. 

 [Tertiates.^ Rongeurs.] 



Quaternates. 



Gravigrades. Elephas, Dinotherium, Lamantins [Sirenia]. 

 Ongulogrades. 



1 The Tertiates are not described in the text of the ' Ost^ographie,' the plates illustrating 

 the rodents having been published posthumously. 



