REVIEWS. 
259 
which it is composed being but the subordinate part, of that compound but 
indissoluble unity — the living animal.’ The twelfth chapter, entitled the 
Different Kinds of Cats, describes in brief zoological fashion, fifty species of 
the Cat kindred, with the aid of illustrations. Then succeeds some account 
of fossil cats, or Felidae, in which are represented a number of new genera 
defined by Professor Cope. Here, again, we miss the analytical conclusion 
which ought to have followed, pointing out the relations of cats to each 
other, and the differences which distinguish the animals mentioned from 
each other. The thirteenth chapter is an article on the Cat’s Place in 
Nature. This is really a statement of Prof. Mivart’s views on classification ; 
and after the lower animals have been disposed of, the Cat is ingeniously 
compared with the lower Vertebrates merely to exemplify their structure ; 
and then the distinction of Carnivora from the other groups of mammals 
is given. Some detail is gone into concerning points in the base of the skull 
which distinguish bears, dogs, civets, paradoxures, hyaenas, and other 
animals, and the distinction of the Felidae from each of the allied families 
is formulated in a series of characters drawn partly from external structure 
and partly from anatomy. 
The Cat is considered to be the typical genus of its family ; the cheetah 
is a generalized normal form ; the lion a specialized normal form ; the Canidae 
are said to be the most generalized aberrant form ; bears depart from the 
normal standard of the order in their own way. But the author’s views 
incline him to state that ‘ something may be said in favour of cats being the 
highest of mammals, the very flower and culmination of the mammalian 
tree.’ This really looks like a sop in the pan for the Cat, after it has been 
anatomized. 
The last chapter but one is the Cat’s Hexicologv, which is explained to 
be its environment, or relations to space, time, physical forces, and condi- 
tions of life. First it is observed that no cat dwells with the polar bear, 
and that for some species no region is too hot. Some species are diurnal ; 
none are aquatic ; and they drink but little water. An interesting but 
brief account is given of the geographical distribution of the Felidae ; but 
there could be no good reason for introducing an account of the recognized 
natural history regions of the earth with their characteristic animals. Then 
follows a short account of the palaeontological history of cats. The oldest 
are found in India and Greece, in beds of older Pliocene or newer Miocene 
age ; and the chapter concludes with some account of the various internal 
and external parasites with which cats are troubled. We are sure that 
most readers will be comforted to learn that Hexicology is a science ; but 
how parasites, extinct allies of the tribe, geographical distribution, and the 
influence of phenomena of nature, can hang together in scientific relation, is 
not much clearer after Prof. Mivart’s exposition than it was before. 
The volume closes with an account of the pedigree and origin of the Cat. 
It is contended that the cats were derived from the Insectivora, which the 
author would take as the parent stock of all Mammalia, instead of deriving the 
higher forms from the Marsupials; and he argues that Hyce.nodon and other 
tertiary mammals supposed to have marsupial affinities, are just as likely to be 
related to the Insectivora. The views adopted would lead to the belief that 
the old mammals of the Stonesfield slate are also insectivorous, against which 
