350 CLASSIFICATION OF REPTILES, 



A NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE CLASS 



REPTILIA. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



(l69-) I^^ the state of our knowledge of the class 

 Reptilia, there is something so peculiar^ that we must 

 pause to make some observations upon it. Notwith- 

 standing that it is^ without exception, the least inviting 

 of all the diflferent branches of Natural History — having 

 neither popular interest, practical use, or individual 

 beauty to recommend it, — ^Erpetology has nevertheless 

 received more attention, and has been more minutely 

 studied, than any one division of the animal kingdom. 

 In this the naturalists of Germany and of France have 

 taken the lead, and their researches have been so as- 

 siduous and profound in the investigation of structure 

 and of specific diflPerences, that, upon these points, they 

 have left little or nothing to be done by those who may 

 come after them. But it has been truly 'observed by a 

 well-known entomologist of this country, when speaking 

 of the comparative merits of Cuvier and Lamarck, '^'^that 

 the disposition or ability to make use of such materials, 

 to give them the proper form and polish, is not, it 

 seems, a necessary concomitant to skill in extracting 

 them, or to the patience required before they could be 

 collected for use." And hence it is, that with the most 

 ample materials, and the most thorough knowledge of 

 forms and species, which the distinguished writers to 

 whom we aUude obviously possess, it may be safely 

 asserted that the natural arrangement of the reptiles is 

 precisely in the same state as it has ever been, that is, 

 entirely unknown, — and that it is consequently less un- 

 derstood than any other division of the animal kingdom. 



