58 INTRODUCTION. 



others, may be mentioned Storr, lUiger, F. Cuvier, 

 Bennettj* Swainson, and Ogillby. 



The reasons which Mr. Swainson adduces in fa- 

 vour of his views, I will give in his own Avords. '^It 

 may be expedient," says Mr. Swainson,t "to advert to 

 those considerations, which have induced us to sepa- 

 rate the Carnivorous Marsupials, from those which 

 are herbivorous, and thereby to break up the order 

 Marsujjiata of the Regne animal. Nearly all our 

 leading naturalists have acknowledged the artificial 

 nature of this assemblage, uniting as it does animals 

 of the most opposite natures, and of the most dissi- 

 milar organization, merely from the circumstance of 

 their possessing a marsupial pouch. Upon what 

 reasons M. Cuvier, by instituting this order, was in- 

 duced to violate the very first principles of his own 

 arrangement — which every one sees is mainly found- 

 ed upon the structure of the teeth — we know not : 

 but this single circumstance is sufficient to excite the 

 strongest suspicion that his arrangement is not natu- 

 ral. This, at least, was the conclusion at which we 

 arrived after the most careful investigation we could 

 give the subject, and after endeavouring in vain to 

 discover a circular series among the Marsupial Ani- 



* Many very important discoveries have been made in the 

 internal organization of the Marsupiata, since the views of the 

 three first mentioned authors were published. I think it pro- 

 bable, therefore, that had they been acquainted with these 

 additional facts, they would have arrived at different conclu- 

 sions. 



j- Classification of Quadrupeds, in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, 

 p. lO'e. London, 1835. 



