I ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG 19 



tions of the characters of the teeth and of the 

 lower jaw, which happened to be exposed, Cuvier 

 assured himself that they presented such a very 

 close resemblance to the corresponding parts in the 

 living opossums that he at once assigned the fossil 

 to that genus. 



Now the opossums are unlike most mammals in 

 that they possess two bones attached to the fore 

 part of the pelvis, which are commonly called 

 " marsupial bones." The name is a misnomer, 

 originally conferred because it was thought that 

 these bones have something to do with the support 

 of the pouch, or marsupium, with which some, but 

 not all, of the opossums are provided. As a 

 matter of fact, they have nothing to do with the 

 support of the pouch, and they exist as much in 

 those opossums which have no pouches as in those 

 which possess them. In truth, no one knows what 

 the use of these bones may be, nor has any valid 

 theory of their physiological import yet been 

 suggested. And if we have no knowledge of the 

 physiological importance of the bones themselves, 

 it is obviously absurd to pretend that we are able 

 to give physiological reasons why the presence of 

 these bones is associated with certain peculiarities 

 of the teeth and of the jaws. If any one knows 

 why four molar teeth and an inflected angle of the 

 jaw are very generally found along with marsupial 

 bones, he has not yet communicated that know- 

 ledge to the world. 



c 2 



