294 



THE EDENTATA. 



HITHERTO, the succession of orders has shown a 

 gradation of characters, passing without very ahrupt 

 transitions into the descending or ascending scales, 

 notwithstanding that several families, exceedingly 

 homogeneous, or constructed with little deviation 

 upon one general plan, seem to forbid all approxi- 

 mation. Where there is thus an hiatus, fossil re- 

 mains of genera now extinct have occasionally filled 

 up the chasm, and many forms in nature, now 

 missing, may, in the course of time, come to light, 

 and show that the whole circle of combinations, 

 proper for a zoology, adapted to the conditions of 

 existence on the globe, are in being, or may at one 

 time or other have existed, and that such links 

 as are now unknown, may, at a future period, be 

 recovered. In the instance before us, the question 

 arises whether Rodentia or Edentata should follow 

 upon the Ruminantia : the brain and several other 

 organs unquestionably claim precedence for the 

 Rodents, but that in a lineal artificial succession, 

 such as a systematic arrangement ever necessitates ; 

 these display a nearer approach to the Marsupials 

 than the Edentata, who, although they are deficient 



