DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF ANIMALS. 193 



and divided into three orders, or principal sections, as distinguished by claws 

 01 nails, by hoofs, or by fin-like feet; while the whole of these orders are far- 

 ther subdivided into eleven distinct families, of which the first six belong to 

 the first order ; the next three to the second ; and the last two to the third. 



The six families belonging to the first order, the nail or claw-footed, are 

 these : — 



I. Bimanum : two-handed. Thumbs separate on the superior extremities 

 only. Designed to include man alone. 



II. Quadrumana : four-handed. Thumbs or great toes separate on each 

 of the four feet. Monkies and maucaucoes. 



III. Sarcophaga : flesh-feeders. No separate thumbs or great toes on the 

 anterior extremities. Bats, flying lemurs, hedgehogs, shrews, moles, bears, 

 weasels, civets, cats, including the lion and tiger-tribes ; dogs, including the 

 fox and wolf-tribes, and the opossums. 



IV. Rodentia: gnawers. W^ant the canine teeth only. Cavies, beavers, 

 squirrels, rats of all kinds. 



V. Edentata ; edentulate. Want both the incisive and canine teeth. Ant- 

 eaters, pangolins, and armadilloes. 



VI. Tardigrada: slow-footed. Want only the incisive teeth. Sloth tribes. 

 The three families belonging to the second or hoof-footed order, are the 



following : — 



VII. Pachydermata : thick-skinned. More than two toes ; more than two 

 hoofs. Elephants, tapirs, hogs, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and hyrax or 

 damon. 



VIII. Ruminantia: ruminants. Two toes; two hoofs. Camels, musks, 

 deer, giraffes, goats, sheep, oxen. 



IX. Solipeda ; single-hoofed. One toe, one hoof. Horse alone, including 

 the ass-tribe. 



The two families belonging to the third, or fin-footed order, are the fol- 

 lowing : — 



X. Amphibia : amphibials. Four feet. Seals and morses. This family- 

 name should be changed, since the same term is also employed by M. Cuvier, 

 after other naturalists, as the name of a distinct class of other animals. 



XI. Cetacea : cetaceous. Feet fin-like. Manates or laraantins, dolphins, 

 cachalots, whales, and narwahls. 



We have thus run rapidly over a map of the different classes and kinds 

 of animals as they are found extant in our own day. But those traced in a 

 living state in our own day are by no means the whole that have existed for- 

 merly. In the lecture on Geology, in the preceding series,* we had occasion 

 to observe that the various formations of rock, and especially the transition 

 formations, open to us very numerous examples of whole families now no 

 longer in existence ; many of which have probably ceased to exist for several 

 thousands of years ; some of which, indeed, are so far removed from the races 

 of the present day, as to require the invention of new genera, if not of new 

 orders in a zoological arrangement for their reception. 



Stukeley, Lister, and other paleologists and naturalists of the last century, 

 paid no small attention to this subject, and dragged forth the unrecognised 

 relics of various animals from their fossil abodes : but it has since been pur- 

 sued with extraordinary spirit and activity by the concurrent labours of Karg, 

 Schlottheim, Fischer, Espen, CoUini, Blumenbach, Humboldt, Werner, Buck- 

 land, and, above all others, Cuvier; insomuch that the ascertained lost kinds 

 bid fair in process of time to be almost as numerous as those that are living. 



The last physiologist is well known to have formed a most valuable and ex- 

 tensive museum for the reception and arrangement of fossil animal remains ; 

 and so rich and varied is his possession, that he has commenced and made a 

 considerable progress in a classification for systematically distinguishing them. 

 The alluvial soil of our own country has furnished him with numerous 

 examples ; the shell-marl and peat-bogs of Ireland, with one or two of still 

 more striking character, and particularly with specimens, more or less per- 



* Seiies i. Lecture vi. 



N 



