ORDER CARNASSIER. 25 



below, we shall call, with M. Frederic Cuvier, car- 

 nivorous teeth (carnassieres), the anterior pointed 

 teeth we shall call false molars, and the posterior 

 blunt ones, tuberculous teeth, 



It is easily to be conceived, that the genera which 

 have the fewer molars, and whose jaws are the 

 shortest can bite with the greatest force. 



It is on these differences that the genera may be 

 most securely established. 



We must however unite to them a consideration 

 of the hind foot. 



Many genera, like all those of the two preceding 

 families, rest the entire sole of the foot on the ground 

 in walking or standing upright ; and this peculiarity 

 is easily perceived from the absence of hairs under 

 this whole part. 



Others, much more numerous, never walk except 

 on the end of their toes, elevating the tarsus altoge. 

 ther. Their course is more rapid, and to this first 

 difference they unite many others in their habits, 

 and even in their internal conformation. Both have 

 no clavicle except a bony rudiment suspended in 

 the flesh. 



The Plantigrades 



Form the first tribe of the carnivora and walk on the en- 

 tire foot, by which means they obtain a greater facility 

 of raising themselves on their hinder legs. They par- 

 ticipate in the slowness of motion and the nocturnal 

 life of the insectivora, and, like them, are destitute of 

 a caecum. Most of the plantigrades which inhabit 



