26 MAMMALIA. 



methodical table of the mammiferae, founded chiefly upon the 

 classification of Storr and Cuvier, and in which he distinguished 

 the natural families, which, like the most part of the families 

 established in zoology, were but the genera of Linnaeus. 



Between this period and 1811 many new species of mammi- 

 ferous animals were discovered, for several of which it was ne- 

 cessary to establish new genera. Besides the many memoirs and 

 monographs which had appeared, M. Cuvier had also pub- 

 lished great part of his researches on fossil quadrupeds ; and 

 it thus became desirable to place in a complete system the 

 result of all the new discoveries. This was attempted by Illi- 

 ger, a Prussian naturalist, who published in 1811 a classifica- 

 tion of Mammalia and Birds, which attracted attention for the 

 precision of the generic characters. The Mammalia by this 

 arrangement were divided into fourteen orders, thirty-nine fa- 

 milies, and 125 genera; but his predilection for changing long- 

 established and familiar names for others was felt to be an un- 

 necessary load on the memory. 



M. Blainville followed Illiger in 1816 by the prodromus of 

 a new systematic distribution of the animal kingdom; and Baron 

 Cuvier, in his important work entitled Le Regne Animal distri- 

 bue suivant son organi%ation, published in 1817, brought for- 

 ward his arrangement, improved by the discoveries which had 

 been made since the interval of its first publication, and by the 

 lights which comparative anatomy threw on the structure of the 

 animal system. 



This work was followed, so far as regards the Mammalia, by 

 the Mammalogie of A. G. Desmarest, written for the French En- 

 cyclopedic, and published in 1820-1822. This excellent work, 

 founded on the classification of Cuvier, and including every 

 species discovered from the period of the publication of the 

 Regne Animal, leaves little to be desired as far as regards this 

 important class. And finally, an English translation of Cuvier's 

 work, including much valuable matter, and describing many 

 new species, by Mr Edward Griffith and others, and accompa- 

 nied by excellent figures, appeared in 1827. 



As the high character of Baron Cuvier as a naturalist and 

 comparative anatomist, has acquired for his writings the suffrages 



