182 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



marking the distinctive characters above assigned to the cro- 

 codile and cayman. But he preferred pronouncing, without an 

 examination, *' that the cayman so nearly approaches the Afri- 

 can species, that some naturalists, and I (adds he) am of the 

 number, regard it only as a simple variety appertaining to 

 climate." 



A strong proof that this gentleman gave no proper considera- 

 tion to this question, is that, in another work of tolerable circu- 

 lation, he has given the figure of a crocodile, which he believed 

 to be taken from an African individual preserved in the Museum 

 of Paris. This, however, turned out to be the figure of a very 

 different species from the East Indies, and of a species of which 

 there was no specimen in the Museum. Another proof is an 

 assertion in his Geological Essays, where he says, that sup- 

 posing caymans to exist in the fossil state, the semi-palmation 

 of the hinder foot must disappear, nor would their second cha- 

 racter be more stable. Now, as this second character consists 

 in the form of the osseous head, it is quite obvious that it would 

 be as stable as any other that could be met with in fossil bones. 



M. Schneider was the first who endeavoured to throw some 

 little light on this confused subject. For this purpose he col- 

 lected carefully all the passages of ancient authors respecting 

 the crocodile, that a clear idea might be formed of the croco- 

 codile of the Nile; and also everything that modern writers 

 have alleged on the same subject. He compared this recom- 

 posed description with that of the crocodile of Siam made by 

 the missionaries, and of an American crocodile from Plumier, 

 whose manuscript is preserved at Berhn. 



But as the differences which M. Schneider deduces from this 

 comparison, result only from the terms, or the peculiar views 

 employed by authors who had no intention of giving distinctive 

 characters, and as the American species dissected by Plumier 

 happened to be that which has an exact analogy with the cro- 

 codile properly so called, the labours of this gentleman have led 



