SECOND GREAT DIVISION 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



OF THE OVIPAROUS VERTEBRATA IN GENERAL. 



Although the three classes of the Oviparous Vertebrata differ greatly 

 from each other in their quantum of respiration, and in all that relates to 

 it, that is to say, the power of motion and the energy of the senses, they 

 present several common characters when opposed to the Mammalia, or 

 Viviparous Vertebrata. 



The hemispheres of their brain are very slender, and are not united by 

 a corpus callosum ; the crura of the cerebellum do not form that protube- 

 rance called the pons Varolii; the tubercles, called nates — at least in two of 

 these classes — become greatly developed, contain a ventricle, and are not 

 covered by the hemispheres, but are visible below, or on the sides of the cere- 

 brum; their nostrils are less complex; the ear has not so many small bones, 

 and in several these bones are totally wanting ; the cochlea, when it exists, 

 which is only the case in birds, is much more simple, &c. Their lower 

 jaw, always composed of numerous species, is attached by a concave facet 

 to a salient process, which belongs to the temporal bone, but separated 

 from its petrous portion ; the bones of their cranium are more subdivided, 

 although they occupy the same relative places, and fulfil similar functions ; 

 thus the OS frontis is composed of five or six pieces, &c. The orbits are 

 merely separated by an osseous lamina of the sphenoidal bone, or by a 

 membrane. When these animals have anterior extremities, besides the 

 clavicle, which is frequently united to its fellow on the opposite side, and 

 is then called fourchette, the scapula also rests upon the sternum, by a 

 very broad and long coracoid apophysis. The larynx is more simple, and 

 has no epiglottis ; the lungs are not separated from the abdomen by a per- 

 fect diaphragm, &c. To render all these affinities sensible, however, it 

 would be necessary to enter into anatomical details, which would be quite 

 inconvenient in this first part of our work. It will suffice, that we have 

 here pointed out the mutual analogy of the Ovipera, which, as regards the 



