42 VErxTEBRATE ANIMALS. 



is carried to its highest perfection m Man, in wliom tlie wnole anterior extremitj' is 

 free, and capable of prehension. 



These various combinations, wliich rii^'idly determine the nature of tlie different 

 mammalians, have given rise to the following orders : — 



Among the ungulculates the first is Man, who, besides being privileged in all other 

 respects, has hands to the anterior extremities only ; his hinder limbs support him in 

 an erect position. 



In the order next to Man, — that of the QuADRUMAX.i, there are hands to the four 

 extremities. 



7\notlier order, that of the Carnaria, has not the thumb free and opposable to the 

 other fingers. 



These three orders have each the three sorts of teeth, namely, grinders, canines, and 

 incisors. 



A fourth, that of the Rodentia, in which the toes differ little from those of the 

 Carnaria, is without the canines, and the incisors are phiced in front of the mouth, and 

 adapted to a ver^r peculiar sort of manducation. 



Then come those animals wdiose toes are much cramped, and deeply sunk in large 

 nails, wliich are generally curved ; and which have further the imjierfection of want- 

 ing the incisors. Some of them are also without canines, and there are others wdueh 

 have no teeth at all. AVe comprehend them all under the name Edentata. 



This distribution of the unguiculated animals would be ])erfect, and form a very 

 regular series, were it not that New Holland has lately furnished us with a small 

 collateral series, composed oi the pouched animals [Marsupiata], the different genera 

 of which are connected together by the aggregate of their organization, although in 

 their teeth, and in the nature of their regimen, some corre.opond to the Carnaria, others 

 to the Rodentia, and others, again, to the Edentata. 



The hoofed animals are less numerous, and have likewise fewer irregularities. 

 The Ruminantia compose an order verj^ distinct, which is characterized by its cloven 

 feet, by the absence of the incisors to the upper jaw, and by having four stomachs., 



All the other hoofed animals niav be left together in a single order, which I sliall 

 call Paciiyuermata or Jumenta, the Elcji/iant excepted, which might constitute a 

 separate one, having some distant relation to that of Rodentia. 



Lastly, those mammalians remain which have no posterior extremities, and whose 

 fisli-like form and aquatic mode of life would induce us to form them into a particular 

 class, if it were not that all the rest of tlieir economy is precisely the same as in that 

 wherein we leave them. These are the warm-blooded fishes of the ancients, or the 

 Cetacea, which, unitins; to the vigour of the other mammalians the advantan-e of being' 

 sustained in the watery element, include among them the most gigantic of all animals. 

 [Linnaus reduced all mammalians to three great groups, Unguiculata, Ungulata, 

 and Mutica ; terms wdiich are at least convenient for their expressiveness, although 

 the groups they represent intergrade, and in some instances invade each other, if too 

 rigorously accepted. 



His order Pui. mates, as extended to the Bimana, Qnadruinana, and Cheiroptera of 

 Cuvier, receives the approbation of most naturalists ; few regard the last as subordinate 

 to the Carnaria, which is equivalent to Primates. 



Viewing Man zoologically, opinion is divided respecting the propriety of assigning 



