ORDER CARNASSIER. 89 



of the quadrumana, both in number and position. The 

 organs of generation are similar ; but it is the teeth in par- 

 ticular which leads us to the belief of identity of type in the 

 quadrumana and cheiroptera. If it were otherwise, how 

 could we account for the exact repetition of form in parts 

 so complicated and so little essential to life as the incisive 

 teeth ? The roussettes have precisely the same sort of in- 

 cisors as the monkeys, and the vespertiliones as the lemurs. 

 The molars stand in similar relations, being formed in the 

 latter by a crown, bristling with conic points, and in the 

 former by a simple edge. The cheek pouches likewise, 

 which most of the monkeys of the ancient continent possess, 

 and which are so perfectly in conformity with their gluttony 

 and restless character, are found also in the bats. They fill 

 them with insects when they hunt, and reserve them as a 

 banquet to gormandize upon in their retreats. 



Such numerous relations between the quadrumana and 

 bats prove that when Linnaeus placed the genus Vespertilio 

 after the Lemurs, he presented those animals in the natural 

 order of affinity : but he certainly went too far in placing 

 man, monkeys, lemurs, and bats, in one family, under the 

 title of Primates. It might have been sufficient to observe 

 that these families were derived from each other ; but when 

 one organ, like the hand, becomes from its disproportionate 

 extension the predominant organ in the bats and the most 

 actively influential on the entire mode of their existence, it 

 is certainly incumbent on the naturalist to distinguish them 

 by a more general term of classification. The arm of the 

 bat not only prescribes the destiny of its life among created 

 beings, but also demands a correlative adaptation of all the 

 other parts of its organization. 



One of the points of their organization most worthy of 

 remark is the disposition of the cutaneous system to extend 

 beyond the outline of the animal itself, and to communicate 

 to the organs of sense more compass and activity. Sufficient 

 attention has not perhaps been bestowed on the manner in 



