THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 65 



plying analogical skill and close comparison, determine all these things 

 as certainly as if we had the whole animal. I have often in this way 

 experimented on portions of known animals, before I entirely applied 

 the test to fossils ; but it has always had such infallible success, that 

 I have no longer any doubt on the certainty of the results which it 

 afforded. 



It is true, that I have been in possession of every assistance which 

 I required ; and my situation and assiduous search of nearly thirty 

 years* have procured me skeletons of every genus and kind of quad- 

 rupeds, and even of many species in certain genera, and many indivi- 

 duals in certain species. With such means, I have had much ease in 

 multiplying my comparisons, and verifying, in all their details, the 

 applications that I made of my laws. 



We cannot now dwell longer on this method, and are compelled to 

 refer to the larger comparative anatomy, which we shall soon produce, 

 and which will contain all these rules. However, an intelligent reader 

 will be still able to derive a vast many from the work on fossil bones, 

 if he will take the trouble to follow all the applications there laid 

 down. He will see, that it is by this method alone that we have 

 been guided, and have always found it sufficient to classify each bone 

 with its species, when it was a living species ; to its genera, when it 

 was of an unknown species ; to its order, when it was of a new genus ; 

 and finally, to its class, when it belonged to an order not yet esta- 

 blished; and also to assign it, in these last three cases, the proper 

 characteristics, to distinguish it from the orders, genera, or species 

 most resembling it. . Naturalists before us did no more for entire ani- 

 mals. Thus we have determined and classed the remains of more 

 than one hundred and fifty mammiferous and oviparous quadrupeds. 



The general Results of these Researches. 



Considered relatively to the species, more than ninety of these ani- 

 mals are certainly unknown to present naturalists ; eleven or twelve 

 have so exact a resemblance to known species, that there can scarcely 

 be a doubt of their identity ; others present, with the known species, 

 many points of similarity ; but the comparison has not been made 

 with sufficient accuracy to remove all scruples. 



Considered with regard to genera, amongst the ninety unknown 

 species, there are nearly sixty which belong to new genera ; the other 

 species belong to known genera. 



It is not unprofitable to consider these animals with relation to the 

 class and orders to which they belong. 



* 1825. 



