28 CLASS I. MAMMALIA. ORDER I. BIMANA. 



which give to his thumb and fingers a wonderful delicacy of 

 touch. 



2. The Quadrumana, or four-handed animals, comprising 

 apes, monkeys, and baboons. They have hands upon all four 

 of their extremities, but less perfect than those of man. 



3. The Carnivora, or carnivorous animals. These have no 

 hands, but their feet are furnished with claws. This is a very 

 extensive order, and embraces a great variety of animals. 



These three orders have all the three kinds of teeth, which 

 differ, however, in shape and strength, according to the habits 

 and food of the different species. 



4. The Rodentia, or gnawers ; so called from the structure 

 of their fore teeth, which are particularly adapted for gnaw- 

 ing. They have no canine teeth ; and their claws are similar 

 to those of the carnivora. This order contains rats, squirrels, 

 rabbits, &,c. 



5. The Edentata, or toothless animals ; so called because 

 they are deficient always in the incisive teeth, and sometimes 

 have no teeth at all. Their toes are terminated by large and 

 crooked nails, which obstruct both their sensations and mo- 

 tions. The sloth and armadillo are in this order. 



6. The Ruminantia, or ruminating animals, are those which 

 chew the cud. They are cloven-footed, and have, moreover, 

 no incisive teeth in the upper jaw. Among these are the ox, 

 camel, lama, stag, and antelope. 



7. The Pachydcrmata, or thick-skinned animals. This 

 order includes a considerable variety of other animals with 

 hoofs, but which do not ruminate ; as the horse, the wild boar, 

 the hog, the tapir, and the elephant. 



8. The Cetacea, or animals of the whale kind, distinguished 

 by having no posterior extremities, and their anterior so con- 

 structed as to answer the purpose of fins. In this order are 

 whales, porpoises, and dolphins. 



9. To these may be added the Marsupial animals, which 

 do not come strictly under either of these orders, and are dis- 

 tinguished from all others, by the possession, in the female, of 

 a bag or pouch (marsupium) on the outside of the abdomen, 

 for the purpose of holding their young after birth. Such are 

 the kangaroo and opossum. 



We proceed to give some further account of these different 

 orders of the Mammalia. 



I. JBimana. Some writers have affected to believe that 

 man was originally intended to be a quadruped ; and that he 

 has learned only from long experience the mode of walking 



