388 Imperial List'ilute of France. 



atnic' the multitude of arrangements proposed by naturalists, 

 they are alternately (according to (he last edition of Linnaeus 

 and Brisson) allied to the qiiadrinnani, and (according to 

 the plan and the former edition of Lir.naeus) they are 

 placed among the lesser carnivori or insecio cariiivori, like 

 the mole and hedge-hog. Some naturalists, among whotir 

 are Messrs. Storr and Cuvier, place them at the head of 

 the carnivori, and before those insecto-carnivor! just men- 

 tioned, and immediately after the qvadrinnani; with this 

 difference, however, that M. Cuvier distinguishes them more 

 particularly, and as a subdivision. ' Others also, such as 

 Ray and Blumenbach, Lacepede and iliger made a separate 

 order of them, and ihis order is placed by Ray and Lacepede 

 in some measure out of its proper place: by M. Blumen- 

 bach between the quadruinani and tlie other animals with 

 long nails, at the head of which ihis naturalist places the 

 gnawioii animals : lastly, by M. Illiger after ihtedenles and 

 before the carnivori, at the head of which stand, as in the 

 arrangement of M. Cuvier, the insecto-carnivori. 



It may be easily conceived that all combinations must 

 necessarily depend ufion the organs to which each na- 

 turalist may have paid most attention. Those who have 

 paid most attention to the skeleton, to the intestines, to 

 the organization of the feci, to the form of the nails, and 

 to the grinders, have allied the bat to the carnivori, and this 

 appears to be the most generally received opinion : those 

 who have particularly noticed the incisores, the position of 

 the mammas, and the pendulous penis, have allied this ani- 

 mal to the quadrumani. 



M. Geoftrov, in thewoik above alluded to, insists most 

 upcHi these last resemblances, which he thinks have not 

 been sufficiently attended to ; but he shows particularly 

 that the singiihir prolongaiion of the anterior extremities, 

 the general tendency of the skin to stretch excessively, and 

 the peculiar properties which bats thence enjoy both with 

 respect to their sensations and their motions, require that 

 a separate order should be formed of these mammiferae, at 

 the same time that their various resemblances with the 

 quadrumani and the carnivori show that they ought to be 

 placed between then). VVe may look with much anxiety 

 for the subdivision of this order, as well as the detailed his- 

 tory of ihe species which M Geoffroy has promised us. 



M. de Lamarck, who is intrusted with teaching at the 

 Museum of Natural History every thing connected with 

 animals without vertebrte, published some years ago the 

 work which serves as llie basis of his lectures, in which he 



explain? 



