248 class mammalia. 



led some naturalists to form of these different animals but 

 two divisions of a single genus. 



In the upper jaw, on one side as well as the other, they 

 have two tuberculous molars, one carnivorous tooth, three 

 false molars, one canine, and six incisors; and in the 

 lower jaw, one tuberculous, one carnivorous, four false 

 molars, one canine, and six incisives. The eyes have a 

 round pupil, and they offer nothing particular in the eye- 

 lids, nor in the other accessory parts. The nose extends 

 considerably beyond the jaws, without being, at the same 

 time, so much advanced as that of the Coatis, and it is 

 terminated by a glandulous apparatus, at the end of which 

 the nostrils are opened, and prolonged over the sides, re- 

 ascending in a curve line. The tongue is soft, and the 

 lips extensible. The ears are elliptical, and of a very 

 simple structure. The sole of the feet may be an organ 

 of touch. Its skin is extremely delicate, and it seems 

 not improbable that these animals make use of it for 

 feeling. Of the teats we have already spoken. The 

 fore-feet have five toes, furnished underneath with thick 

 tubercles, the shortest of all is that which answers to the 

 thumb. The little toe comes next in length ; then that 

 which is next the thumb, and the two remaining ones, 

 which are the largest, are of equal length. They have all 

 digging nails, long and strong ; and on the palm, five very 

 elastic tubercles are distinctly visible ; one strong one to- 

 wards the wrist, another at the base of the little finger ; 

 a third, at the origin of the thumb ; a fourth, near the se- 

 cond toe; and a fifth, at the base of the two larger toes. 

 The hind-feet are conformed precisely like the fore, as to 

 the toes, the claws, and the tubercles. But the tarsus is 

 longer than the carpus, and the first tubercle is farther 

 from the heel than its corresponding one from the wrist. 



These animals are plantigrade, but, as we observed in the 



