8 THF. MAMMALIA. 



Ifl iii .-harp c-ontra-t with the reduced dentition 

 of most of tin.- nnninaiits, which lack the upper 



rsj tin- only point of connection would seem 

 to be the camel, which again lias a much fuller 

 dentition. NY\, rtheless, the horse remains a phe- 

 nomenon so peculiar within itself, that descriptive 

 zoology has always classed the genus Horse which 

 i- limit! (1 to a IVw species in the order of the two- 

 hoofed animals, which contains a number of different 

 genera and several hundred species. 



It is much the same with the perfectly unten- 

 able order of the many-hoofed or thick-skinned 

 animals, for it is made to comprise entirely different 

 members. "What a peculiar form, for instance, we 

 have in the elephant among the thick-skinned 

 animals, or, indeed, among the whole class of 

 Mammalia : a strict vegetarian, and yet in every 

 respect an oddity among the plant-eaters. The 

 caps of horn, somewhat like nails, which cover 



>ints of his toes, can scarcely be called hoofs. 



<>rm of his skull, his teeth and his trunk, in 



like manner, separate him from all the other plant- 



whose society he has figured since the 



<>f hiimaeus. But even among the rest of the 

 so-called niany-liMofed animals there is no unity, 



to the interpretation of a 1; 



