ANALOGIES OP THE ORDEHS. 



113 



and thusj by the paucity of her analogical characters, 



relative to one 

 group only, she 

 is enabled, as it 

 were, to disperse 

 the rest over a 

 number of others, 

 but of which, each 

 — as the inevi- 

 table consequence 

 of this rule — 

 can possess only one or two. 



(100.) The two comparisons which we shall now 

 institute, illustrate, and will tend to confirm, the above 

 remarks : the first will be between the primary types, 

 or orders of fishes, and those of the entire circle of the 

 Annulosa; the second will be between the fishes and 

 the primary groups of the reptiles. 



Primary Divisions 

 of Fishes. 



Analogies. 



Primary Divisions 

 of Vertebrata. 



AcANTHOPTERYGES. 7 The most highly organised groups f Quadrupeds. 



Malacopteryges. J in their respective circles. \ Birds. 



Cartilagines. Mostly viviparous. Reptiles. 



■n ,„ f Semi-aquatic. No true teeth, or7 . 



Plectognathes, \ scales j Amphibians. 



Apodes. Poiterior limbsor fins small ornone. Fishes. 



Whether the two first groups in each of these 

 columns present any absolute points of resemblance in 

 their structure, we know not; but certain it is, that the 

 osseous fishes, as no less an authority than Cuvier main- 

 tains, are the most perfect in their own class, just as 

 the warm-blooded Vertebrata are in the opposite column. 

 We have already endeavoured to account for the rever- 

 sion, as it seems, of the analogies in the two typical 

 divisions of this class ; for, were it not so, it might 

 almost be thought that, as the organs of locomotion are 

 most developed in birds, and pelagic or acanthopterous 

 fishes, they would be analogous, as in this respect they 

 certainly are : while the ground fishes, or Malacop- 



VOL, I. 1 



