550 M'Murtrie's Translation of the Regne Animal. 



temporary, whilst the errors and omissions of his work — leaving 

 out of sight the injustice he has done to naturalists who have 

 not deserved it at his hands — would be permanently injurious to 

 the progress of knowledge, if they were permitted to pass un- 

 observed. It would be superfluous in me to enter into an expla- 

 nation of the motives which have induced me to expose the de- 

 fects I have found in the work. If it had been worthy of the 

 original, I should have commended it with all sincerity to many 

 who are desirous of acquiring instructive books on natural his- 

 tory : to know how far I might commend it, I purchased it, and 

 having given it a faithful examination, I proceed to give a true 

 account of it, not after the illiberal manner of some reviewers, 

 who for the sake of showing how much they can wound the 

 feelings of others, insinuate imperfections they are not prepared 

 to prove, but by laying the facts before my readers that they may 

 judge for themselves. I have been the less scrupulous at doing 

 this, having had many occasions to perceive that the translator 

 has not hesitated to be unjust to others, even to his author ; and 

 if any motive to whet me on to the task was wanted, I should 

 have found it in the unblushing and egregious puffing the work 

 has got in Silliman's Journal. I dare say it is a pleasant thing 

 to be paid for praising works you are not required to read, and 

 which it is waste time to read when you do not understand them. 

 I am not one of those who make a traffic of commendations of 

 this kind. I have read the original of this work, have studied 

 it, and have compared this translation with it, and having some 

 feeling for those students in natural history, into whose hands it 

 was likely to fall, I communicate that information to them, which 

 I know would be invaluable to myself under similar circumstances. 

 As long as you are disposed to give my remarks a place in your 

 independent journal, I shall from time to time communicate them 

 to you, leaving to the public to give their intrinsic value to my 

 criticisms, from the facts contained in them, and from the appa- 

 rent spirit with which Ihey are brought forward. 



The remarks I am now about to make have been suggested 

 by the second volume. 



Cuvier, at page IG, [8vo. Paris 1829,] states that the Saurians 

 "ont le coRur compose, commc celui des Cheloniens, de deux 

 oreillettcs, et d*un ventricule quelquefois divise par de scloisons 

 imparfailes." Farther on, at page 21, he refers, in a note to a 



