2$ CLASS MAMMALIA. 



cepting the Quadrumana, inasmuch as they all sub- 

 sist more or less on animal matter, still there are 

 many of them, and especially the two preceding fa- 

 milies, which are reduced by their weakness and the 

 conic tubercles of their cheek-teeth, to live almost 

 entirely on insects. It is in the family now before 

 us that the sanguinary appetite is united with suffi- 

 cient force to give it due effect. These animals 

 have always four large and long canine teeth sepa- 

 rated, and between them six incisives in each jaw, 

 the second of which in the lower row has always its 

 root more deeply seated than the rest. The molars 

 are always either altogether trenchant or but partly 

 mingled with blunt tubercles, and never bristling 

 with conic points. 



These animals are more exclusively carnivorous in 

 proportion as their teeth are more completely tren- 

 chant, and their regimen may be nearly calculated 

 from a comparison of the extent of the tuberculous 

 surface of their teeth with the part which is tren- 

 chant. The bears which can subsist entirely on 

 a vegetable diet have almost all their teeth tubercu- 

 lous. 



The anterior molars are the most trenchant ; then 

 comes a molar larger than the others, which is gene- 

 rally provided with a tuberculous heel of different 

 degrees of magnitude, and behind it are found one 

 or two small teeth entirely flat. It is with these 

 small teeth at the bottom of the mouth that dogs 

 chew the grass which they occasionally swallow. 

 This large molar above, aiid the corresponding one 



