306 ON TflE 



the probable purposes of their creation, and in 

 what manner and degree they are inimical, or 

 can prove beneficial to our own species. 



Under this impression, I have been induced 

 to communicate the following remarks ; and as 

 the varying classifications of the present day have 

 not been consolidated into one system, however 

 we may admit the improvements suggested by 

 Blumenbach, Cuvier, and other modern natu- 

 ralists, I shall, for the sake of conveniency, 

 follow that of Linnaeus ; and having gone through 

 his several orders, I shall conclude with such 

 general observations, as a contemplation of the 

 whole will naturally suggest. But, as the sub- 

 ject is too comprehensive to admit of a descrip- 

 tion of every animal, 1 propose to mention, in 

 general terms only, the several species which 

 belong to each order; and to enlarge more par- 

 ticularly upon a few of those animals, whose 

 history is likely to prove the most interesting; 

 commencing with the mammiferous quadrupeds, 

 and ending with the whale tribes. 



By mammiferous quadrupeds, we mean all 

 those animals, (whales exepted,) which, with 

 a complete skeleton, are to be distinguished by 

 having a perfect brain and nervous system; a 

 double circulation, performed by a heart with 

 two auricles and two ventricles, possess warm, 

 red blood, and whose females produce living 

 animals like themselves, which they uniformly 



