PREFACE. xvu 



with regard to special forms and proportions of teeth indicated by 

 the terms ' canine,' ' carnassial,' ' tusk,' &c. 



The absolute way in which the things or characters so desig- 

 nated are affirmed or denied in zoological definitions is essential to 

 their purpose. 



Amongst the characters by which Cuvier differentiated the 

 hoofed quadrupeds which he had restored from their frag- 

 mentary fossil remains in the building-stone of Paris, the most 

 important in his estimation was ' the presence of canines ' in 

 one {Palozotherhun), their absence in the other {Anoplothcrium)} 

 Nevertheless, Homological Anatomy easily indicates in the series 

 of nine teeth in the ' morceau de conviction,' 2 on which the 

 character was founded, the teeth answerable to those which, 

 because their pointed crowns projected beyond their neighbours 

 in the Palasothere, were called and characterised as ' canines.' 

 Now here was a temptation to an aspirant to scientific notoriety 

 ' to meet ' the great anatomist * by a flat contradiction,' and 

 ' affirm that the Anoplotherium possessed canine teeth.' I allude 

 to such abuse because, of late, a practice has been creeping 

 in, to the opprobrium of some of our English zootomists, of repre- 

 senting a zoological definition of a part which an anatomist may 

 have given in a classificatory work, as the exponent of his homo- 

 logical knowledge and descriptions of such part in its various 

 modifications and grades of development. 



Cuvier, in his characters of the order Bimana, affirms that 

 Man is the only animal possessing ' hands ' and * feet : ' — 

 ' L'homme est le seul animal vraiment bimane et bipede.'' 3 The 

 Quadrumana are distinguished as having ' hands' instead of ' feet,' 

 a ' hand' being defined as having the thumb opposable — ' le pouce 

 libre et opposable aux autres doigts, qui sont longs et flexibles.' 4 



The aim of the author in the zoological work above cited was 

 to impart obvious and easily apprehended differential characters 



1 ' Le plus important fut celui qui m'apprit que eette espece n'a point de dents 

 canines.' — Hechcrckcs sur les Ossemens Fossiles, dto. 1822, torn. iii. p. 14. 



2 Ibid. 3 Regne Animal, torn. i. p. 70. 1829. * Ibid. p. 85. 



vol. I. a 



