44 MAMMALIA. 
consisting of animals with pouches, the different genera of 
which are connected by a general similarity of organization; 
some of them, however, in the teeth and nature of their diet 
corresponding to the Carnaria, others to the Rodentia, and a 
third to the Edentata. 
The hoofed animals are less numerous, and have likewise 
fewer irregularities. 
The RUMINANTIA, by their etovel foot, the absence of true 
incisors in their upper jaw, and their four stomachs, form an 
order that is very distinct. 
The remaining hoofed animals may all be united in a single 
order, which I shall call PACHYDERMATA or JUMENTA, the H/e- 
phant excepted, which might constitute a separate one, and 
which is remotely connected with that of the Rodentia. 
In the last place, we find those of the Mammalia which 
have no posterior extremities, whose piscatory form and aqua- 
tic mode of life would induce us to form them into a particu- 
lar class, were it not that in every thing else their economy is 
similar to that im which we leave them. ‘These are the hot- 
blooded fishes of the ancients, or the ceTacna, which, uniting 
to the vigour of the other mammalia the advantage of being 
sustained by the watery element, present to our wondering 
sight the most gigantic of animals. 
ORDER I. 
BIMANA. 
" : - 
Man forms but one genus, and that genus the only one of its 
order. As his history is the more dir ectly interesting to our- 
selves, and forms the point of comparison to which we refer 
that of other animals, we will speak of it more in detail. 
We will rapidly sketch every thing that is peculiar in each 
of his organic systems, amidst all that he shares in common 
with other mammalia; we will examine the advantages he 
Sa 
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