168 CLASS REPTILIA. 



the torpid beings of the same class in our more northern 

 countries. 



It is not necessary here to enter into any details respecting 

 the forms, the connections, and relations of the organs of 

 locomotion in the saurians. This seems to have been done 

 sufficiently already for a work of the nature of ours. But 

 some further remarks on the variety of modes in which 

 these organs are applied to their destined purposes, may not 

 be devoid of interest. 



We may first observe, that the progressive movements of 

 reptiles in general present more difficulties in the explication 

 than those of the two higher classes of vertebrated animals. 

 These difficulties do not arise so much from the want of 

 proper attention having been given to the subject, as from 

 the enormous difference existing between the locomotive 

 system jn man and in these animals. The greatness of this 

 difference renders it almost impossible to establish such an 

 approximation or comparison as can tend to a proper eluci- 

 dation of the subject. 



In the reptile class, the majority of the saurians are true 

 quadrupeds, but oviparous quadrupeds, and in the mode of 

 station very different from the viviparous quadrupeds of the 

 mammiferous class. Their thighs are directed outwards, 

 and the inflexions of the feet are made in a direction per- 

 pendicular to the rachis, so that the weight of the body acts 

 as a very long lever, and thus hinders the straightening of 

 the knee, whose articulation remains constantly bent, which 

 causes the belly to drag on the ground between the legs ; 

 and this is equally the case with the thoracic and abdominal 

 members. • 



In the mammiferous quadrupeds, the case is quite differ- 

 ent. The legs bend both in front, and behind in planes 

 pretty nearly parallel with the spine, and but little remote 



