MAMMALIA. 



41 



the foetus of mammalians, at an early period, has a vessel analogous to that which 

 contains the yolk in the oviparous classes, receiving, in like manner, vessels from the 

 mesentery. It has also another external bladder named the allantoid, which communi- 

 cates with the urinary one by a canal termed the urachus. 



Conception always requires an efFectu.d coitus, in which the fecundating fluid of the 

 male is thrown into the uterus of the female. 



The young are nourished for some time after birth by a fluid peculiar to this class 

 (the milk), which is produced by the mammae, at the time of parturition, and for as 

 long a period as the young require it. It is from the mammae tliat this class derives 

 its name, and, being a character peculiar to it, they distinguish it better than any 

 other that is external.* 



DIVISION OF THE CLASS OF MAMMALIA INTO ORDERS. 



Tlie variable characters which establish essential diiFerences among the mammalia 

 are taken from the organs of touch, on which depends their degree of ability or 

 address, and from the organs of manducation, which determine the nature of their 

 food, and are connected together, not only with all that relates to tlie digestive func- 

 tion, but also with a multitude of other diff'erences extending even to their intelligence. 



The degree of perfection of the organs of touch is estimated by the number and the 

 mobility of the fingers, and from the greater or less extent to which their extremities 

 are enveloped by the nail or the hoof. 



A hoof which envelopes all that portion of the toe which touches the ground, blunts 

 its sensibility, and renders the foot incapable of seizing. 



The opposite extreme is where a nail, formed of a single lamina, covers only one 

 of the faces of the extremity of the finger, and leaves the other possessed of all its 

 delicacy. 



The nature of the food is known by the grinders, to the form of which the articula- 

 tion of the jaws universally corresponds. 



For cutting flesh, grinders are required as trenchant as a saw, and jaws fitted like 

 sc'ssors, which have no other motion than a vertical one. 



For bruising grain or roots, flat-crowned grinders are necessary, and jaws that 

 have a lateral motion : in order that the crowns of these teeth should always be 

 irregular, as in a mill, it is further requisite that their substance should be formed of 

 parts of unequal hardness, so that some may wear away faster than others. 



Hoofed animals are all necessarily herbivorous, and have flat-crowned grinders, in- 

 asmuch as their feet preclude the possibility of their seizing a living prey. 



Animals with unguiculated fingers are susceptible of more variety ; their food is of 

 all kinds : and, independently of the form of their grinders, they difl^er greatly from 

 each other in the mobility and delicacy of their fingers. There is one character with 

 respect to this, which has immense influence on their dexterity, and greatly multiplies 

 its powers ; it is the faculty of opposing the thumb to the other fingers for the purpose 

 of seizing small objects, constituting what is properly termed a hand; a faculty which 



• \Vc shall find, however, in the sequel some doubts on this sub- 

 ject, as regards the family of Munutremiita. [Thc-e doubts have 

 since been removed, inasmuch as the lacteal (;l»"'ls have been de 

 teeted, with their accretion ; though, as in the cetaceans, there appear 



to be no nipples, simple pressure alone causing the fluid to exude. 

 In the class of birds, a lacteal fluid is secreted by the crops M the 

 parrots and pigeons, which is disgorged into the throats of the younif 

 when newly hatched. — Ed.] 



