98 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



iconographes of naturalists, that every country possessed in 

 some sort, bats peculiar to itself. Although this, perhaps* 

 at first, was not distinctly asserted, it was certainly the re- 

 sult of the publications of Clusius,Pison,Bontius,Flaccourt, 

 Seba, and Edwards. 



These materials were possessed from the year 1748, r though 

 still it was believed that there were but five species of bats. 

 The catalogue of Linnaeus does not include a greater number. 

 But, at all events, there was no dispute respecting the bats 

 being a distinct family. This was a point indeed which 

 might have been considered as almost instinctively esta- 

 blished previously to the invention of all zoological systems. 



Brisson, in 1756, adopted some new views on this subject. 

 He had ranged winged quadrupeds according to the nume- 

 rical order of the incisive teeth. He perceived that accord- 

 ing to this principle of arrangement, the bats branched out 

 into two series, and therefore considered himself obliged to 

 divide them into two genera, to which he gave the names of 

 Pteropus and Vespertilio. So little regard was paid at that 

 time to the natural affinities of animals that no one was sur- 

 prised to see these two groups separated from each other, 

 and the interval filled by beings that had no relation to the 

 bats whatever. 



While things were in this state, Daubenton began his re- 

 searches upon animals for his comparative anatomy. He 

 soon found in France four of the bat family, which had not 

 been before observed. This discovery occasioned him to re- 

 view the labours of his predecessors on the mammalia, and 

 to put forth a monography on the subject. This work, 

 especially valuable at the epoch of its publication, was 

 printed in the collection of the Academy of Sciences, in 

 1759. The monography of this celebrated naturalist was 

 also enriched by many foreign species found at Paris in the 

 public collections, and by others, then lately brought by 

 Adanson from Senegal. 



