ORDER CARNASSIER. 247 



the insensible and gradual changes through which the same 

 organ will pass, by which its nature will, in some measure, 

 be transformed, and results produced entirely different 

 from those which constituted the object of its original des- 

 tination. The organs of sense and motion offer frequent 

 examples of this phenomenon, and the teeth of certain ani- 

 mals present a remarkable instance of the same. The true 

 carnivora, the Cats for instance, have, in each jaw, teeth 

 evidently destined, by their form and relative position, to 

 cut, like the two blades of a scissors, the fibres of the mus- 

 cles of their prey. But in proportion as the destination of 

 an animal is less decidedly carnivorous, these teeth lose 

 their trenchant character, and grow thicker ; and thus we, 

 at last, arrive at a limit where they can no longer be dis- 

 tinguished from the tuberculous teeth, whose office simply 

 consists in triturating the food. These teeth, when sharp 

 and slender, are opposed face to face, but when thick, they 

 are opposed crown to crown, so that they become truly 

 transformed into molar teeth, and nature, in operating so 

 considerable a transformation, has no need of making any 

 essential change in those organs. It is sufficient for the 

 purpose, that a very small tubercle, which is already found 

 on the internal face of the slenderest teeth, should simply 

 receive a more augmented development. 



The Racoons are the last of the carnassiers, in which 

 these changes of the teeth can be traced, without uncer- 

 tainty. They are frugivorous as well as carnivorous. They 

 seem, in this respect, to form the link between the quadru- 

 mana and the mammalia, which subsist on small animals, 

 and even insects, such as the Bats, the Moles, the marsu- 

 pial carnassiers, fyc. They bear a near relation to the 

 Coatis, of whom we shall presently speak. Their molar 

 teeth are altogether similar, and the only difference be- 

 tween the two is found in the organs of sense, which has 



