FOSSIL MAMMALIA. Oi 



in a word, in such formations as have taken place since the last 

 general inundation of the globe, that the bones of man and of 

 existing animals have ever been discovered. To these are re- 

 ferrible the human skeletons, found incrusted in travertino, in 

 the island of Guadaloupe. They are accompanied with shells 

 and madrepores of the existing and surrounding seas. The 

 remains of oxen, deer, &c., common in the peat-formations, 

 are in the same predicament ; as are likewise the bones of man 

 and domestic animals embedded in alluvion, in ancient burying- 

 grounds and fields of battle. To the era of the last general 

 catastrophe, or to those of any preceding ages, none of these 

 remains are attributable. 



The mode in which the fossil bones have been determined, 

 depends upon a principle in comparative anatomy, which re- 

 gulates the co-existence of organic forms. Every animal may 

 be considered as a whole, all the parts of which are in strict 

 keeping and correspondence with each other. If the animal be 

 carnivorous, it is characterised by a certain system of dentition^ 

 The teeth are trenchant, the jaws are powerful, and their con- 

 dyles peculiarly formed. But such teeth and jaws would be 

 of little service, unless the animal were also provided with 

 claws adapted for seizing and tearing the prey. Claws of this 

 kind necessitate a peculiar construction of the phalanges, a faci- 

 lity of rotation in the fore-arm, and corresponding changes in 

 the humerus. Every animal whose stomach is constituted to 

 digest nothing but flesh, must have every other part of his 

 frame in consonance with this restriction. On the other hand, 

 it is obvious that hoofed animals must be herbivorous, as they 

 possess no means of seizing prey. Accordingly we find that 

 their masticating and digestive organs correspond with this 

 peculiarity. Their teeth are supplied with flat and unequal 

 coronals, to bruise the herbage, &c., on which they feed ; and 

 as their system of dentition is generally less complete, so their 

 stomachs are more complicated. This is not the place to enlarge 



