OEDEE OF CAENIVOEA. 



In the Carnivora are included tlie strongest and most formidable 

 of all terrestrial Mammals. Being endowed with proclivities of a 

 most yiolent nature, and organised for slaughter and carnage, 

 they all feed more or less on flesh and blood, spreading terror 

 around them. They are marked out by Providence to play a 

 special part — that of limitiag the multiplication of the herbivo- 

 rous species ; and, strange as it may appear at first sight, their 

 disappearance from the surface of the earth might lead to serious 

 inconvenience. 



Although animal matter in all cases forms some part of their 

 sustenance, all the individuals of this Order do not Kve upon 

 it exclusiveljr, as there are some which add to it vegetable 

 diet in different proportions. Some, indeed, are more herbi- 

 vorous than carnivorous. Hence arise variations of greater or 

 less extent in the organs of the nutritive apparatus, especially 

 in the digestive canal and the dental sj'stem, and very important 

 characteristics which are derived from this class of modification. 



The Carnivora possess, as a rule, three kinds of teeth — incisors, 

 dog-teeth or fangs, and molars. The incisors, placed in front, 

 are six in number in each jaw, excepting in the Sea-otter, which 

 has only four in the lower jaw. The dog-teeth are long, strong, 

 sharp, and well adapted to tear the flesh of a victim ; they con- 

 stitute terrible weapons. There are two of them in each jaw, 

 placed on each side of the incisors. Lastly come the molars, 

 which vary very much both in number and form, according to 

 the kind of food eaten; they are divided into front-molars, flesh- 

 teeth, and tuhercular or hach-molars. The front-molars are usually 

 pointed, and increase in size from the first to the last ; their 

 nimiber is one at least, and four- at most. These are followed by 

 a tooth with a sharp-edged crown, the largest in the whole system, 

 Icnown under the name of the flesh-tooth. The last, or tubercular 



