MAM 



[ 156] 



MAM 



skinned animals. Animals of unshapely 

 form and thick tough hide. They have 

 more than two toes on each foot, some 

 having three, four, or five ; some of them 

 have large tusks, and a proboscis. The 

 elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, &c., 

 are placed in this order. 



10. Cetacea. These are mammiferous 

 animals, destitute of hind feet ; their 

 trunk terminates in a thick horizontal tail 

 with a cartilaginous fin. They live in the 

 sea, and their external form is that of 

 fishes, the fin of the tail excepted, which 

 in cetacea is horizontal, while in fishes it 

 is always vertical. Their respiring by 

 lungs, instead of gills ; their possessing 

 warm blood ; their viviparous production ; 

 and their having mammae with which they 

 suckle their young, all entitle them to be 

 placed in the class to which they belong. 

 The arrangement of mammalia by Cuvier 

 somewhat differs from the above, and is 

 as follows : 1 . Bimana ; 2. Quadrumana ; 

 3. Carnaria; 4. Marsupialia ; 5. Roden- 

 tia; G.Edentata; 7. Pachydermata ; 8. 

 Ruminantia; 9. Cetacea. 



As regards the fossil remains of mam- 

 malia, the only terrestrial mammalia yet 

 discovered in any secondary stratum, are 

 the small marsupial quadrupeds allied to 

 the opossum, which occur in the oolite 

 formation, at Stonesfieid, near Oxford. 

 Prof. Buckland observes, in reference to 

 the secondary series, " With respect to 

 the state of animal life, during the depo- 

 sition of the secondary strata, although 

 the petrified remains of zoophytes, crus- 

 tacea, testacea, and fishes, show that the 

 seas in which these strata were formed 

 abounded with creatures referrible to the 

 four existing divisions of the animal king- 

 dom ; still the condition of the globe 

 seems not yet to have been sufficiently 

 advanced in tranquillity, to admit of ge- 

 neral occupation by warm-blooded terres- 

 trial mammalia." The opinion formerly 

 entertained was, that during the whole of 

 the primary and secondary periods, at 

 least, the class of Mammalia had no ex- 

 istence, and only came into being during 

 the tertiary period. But this conclusion, 

 founded upon the mere want of such re- 

 mains, was easily seen to be insecure, 

 and at length proved to be erroneous by 

 the decision of Cuvier, that certain small 

 jaw-bones, with teeth, found in the oolitic 

 system, belonged to viviparous quadru- 

 peds. 



MAMMA'LIAN. Belonging to the class 

 Mammalia. 



MAMMA'LOGIST. (from mamma, Lat. and 

 Xoyoe, Gr.) One skilled in the study of 

 mammiferous animals. 



MAMM ALI'FEROUS. (from mammalia and 

 fero, to produce, Lat.) A term applied 



to strata containing mammiferous remains. 

 As the mammaliferous crag of Norfolk, 

 &c. 



MA'MMARY. Pertaining to the mammse, as 

 the mammary glands, the mammary ar- 

 teries, &c. 



MA'MMIFER. (from mamma, a breast, and 

 fero, to bear.) All animals having breasts 

 and suckling their young are included 

 amongst the mammifers. To these Lin- 

 naeus assigned the name Mammalia. Cu- 

 vier, however, called them Mammifera ; 

 but, as has been observed, there appears 

 no good reason for altering the original 

 term. 



MAMMI'FEROUS. Having breasts where- 

 with to suckle their young ; belonging to 

 the order Mammalia. 



MA'MMILLARY. Having small rounded 

 prominences, or projections something 

 resembling teats or nipples ; studded with 

 rounded projections. 



MA'MMILLATED. A term, like the one im- 

 mediately preceding it, applied to certain 

 appearances observed in minerals, which 

 have the appearance of small bubbles, or 

 rounded protuberances. Flint contain- 

 ing calcedony, is generally mammillated. 

 In conchology, the apex of a shell 

 when rounded like a teat, is termed mam- 

 millated. 



MA'MMOTH. (The etymology of this word 

 does not appear quite agreed on ; some 

 state it to be from a Russian word, ma- 

 mant ; some, that it is of Tartar origin ; 

 others, that it is derived from Behemoth, 

 an Arabic word, signifying elephant. 

 Mammut, Germ.) The mammoth ap- 

 pears to be quite extinct ; from the fossil 

 remains of it which have been disco- 

 vered, it appears to have had the feet, 

 tusks, trunk, and many other particulars 

 of conformation in common with the 

 elephant ; but it differed from the elephant 

 in its grinders. Two species have been 

 distinguished. The bones of the mam- 

 moth are found in great abundance in 

 Siberia, and not only the bones, but por- 

 tions of the flesh and the skin, and even 

 whole animals have been found in ice- 

 bergs and in frozen gravel. Towards the 

 close of the last century, the entire car- 

 case of a mammoth was exposed, and at 

 length fell to the ground from a cliff of 

 ice and gravel, on the banks of the river 

 Lena. This animal was nine feet high, 

 and about sixteen feet in length ; the 

 tusks were nine feet long. The skin was 

 covered with hair, and it had a mane 

 upon the neck. 



The mammoth appears to have sur- 

 vived in England when the temperature 

 of our latitudes could not have been very 

 different from what it now is ; for re- 

 mains of this animal have been found in a 



