182 INTRODUCTION. 



Sub-division 3. PINNIPEDA. 



(WITH FEET LIKE FINS, FOR SWIMMING.) 



VII. CETE. Characters : Spiracles, on the top of the head, pectoral fins, and a caudal 

 fin, which is horizontal, and destitute of nails. Genera : Monodon, Balsena, 

 Physeter, Delphinus. (Monodon, Whale, Cachalot, Dolphin.) 



In 1811, Illiger published his Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et 

 Avium ; but, previously, G. Cuvier had given his views to the world of 

 science, and had called in the aid of anatomy to co-operate with zoology, 

 in the development and elucidation of a Regne Animal distribue d'apres 

 son Organization. Cuvier's work, however, thus entitled, did not 

 appear, in its present form, till 1816-7 ; but his Tableau Elementaire 

 des Animaux was printed in 1798.* 



The Prodromus of Illiger, though confessedly a work of great 

 research, nevertheless, has many imperfections. It is admitted, for 

 instance, as the talented writer of the Natural History of Monkeys, 

 Lemurs, and Opossums, has observed, that " the five families, into which 

 Illiger divides his second order, Pollicata,^ are neither co-ordinate 

 with one another, nor definitely characterized." The order, indeed, is 

 not natural ; it includes the Monkeys, the Lemurs, the Tarsiers, the 

 Cheiromys, and the Marsupials, excluding the Kangaroos. Now, the 

 dissociation of the Kangaroos from the marsupial group, on the one 

 hand, and the collocation of the rest of the marsupials, on the other, with 

 the Simise and Lemurs, if, indeed, anatomy be a guide in arrangements, 

 are sufficiently startling. However, even on the principles assumed, viz., 

 the pedimanous structure of the hind feet, it is not very clear why the 

 Wombat (Phascolomys) has a station among the Pollicata. Surely, if it be 

 a violation of systematic arrangement to constitute the marsupials a group 

 per se, the Wombat should be rather referred to the rodents (Prensicu- 

 lantia, 111.), than to -an order of which the Monkey forms a part.J 



Again, no good reason appears, why the order Salientia (Kangaroos, 



* " Je dus faire marcher de front 1'anatomie et la zoologie, les dissections et le classement ; chercher 

 dans mes premieres remarques sur 1'organization, des distributions meilleures ; m'en servir pour arriver 

 & des remarques nouvelles; employer encore ces remarques a perfectionner les distributions; faire 

 sortir, enfin, de cette fecondation mutuelle des deux sciences, 1'une par 1'autre, un systeme propre a servir 

 d'introducteur et de guide dans le champ de 1'anatomie, et un corps de doctrine anatomique propre a 

 servir de developpement et d'explication au systeme zoologique. Les premiers resultats de ce 

 double travail parurent en 1795, dans un memoire special sur une nouvelle division des animaux a sang 

 blanc. Une ebauche de leur application aux genres et a leur division en sous-genres fit 1'objet de mon 

 Tableau Elementaire des Animaux, imprime en 1798, et j'ameliorai ce travail, avec le concours de M. 

 Dumeril, dans les tables^annexees au premier volume de mes Lemons d' Anatomic Comparee, en 1800." 

 Cuvier, Pref. de la prem. edit, du Regne Anim. 



t The first order, Erecta, answering to the Bimana of Cuvier, contains Man ; but this order is 

 merged, by some naturalists, into a mere section of an order, embracing the Apes, or Monkeys, of both 

 worlds, and the pedimanous marsupials. 



J Illiger terms the Koala, Wombat (gen. Amblotis). Of course, we allude to the Phascolomys (Wom- 

 bat) P6ron, or, Phascolomys fusca (Geoffr.), which is the animal we understand by Wombat. The Tar- 

 siers and the Cheromys (Aye-aye) are not families of [the same value as the Quadrumana (111.), or the 

 Marsupialia (111.) j nor can they be removed, in this sense, from the lemurine group. 



