VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
42 
is carried to its highest perfection in Man, in whom the whole anterior extremity is 
free, and capable of prehension. 
These various combinations, which rigidly determine the nature of the dilferent 
mammalians, have given rise to the following orders : — : 
Among the unguiculates the first is Man, who, besides being privileged in all other 
respects, has hands to the anterior extremities only ; his hinder limbs support him in 
an erect position. 
In the order next to Man, — that of the Quadrumana, there are hands to the four 
extremities. 
Another order, that of the Carnaria, has not the thumb free and opposable to the 
other fingers. 
These three orders have each the three sorts of teeth, namely, grinders, canines, and 
incisors. 
A fourth, that of the Rodentia, in which the toes differ little from those of the 
Carnaria, is without the canines, and the incisors are placed in front of the mouth, and “ 
adapted to a very peculiar sort of manducation. H 
Then come those animals whose toes are much cramped, and deeply sunk in large 
nails, which are generally curved ; and which have further the imperfection of want- " 
ing the incisors. Some of them are also without canines, and there are others which II 
have no teeth at all. We comprehend them all under the name Edentata. 
This distribution of the unguiculated animals would be perfect, and form a very 
regular series, were it not that New Holland has lately furnished us with a small || 
collateral series, composed of pouclied animals [Marsupiata], the different genera 
of which are connected together by the aggregate of their organization, although in 
their teeth, and in the nature of their regimen, some correspond to the Carnaria, others 
to the Rodentia, and others, again, to the Edentata. 
The hoofed animals are less numerous, and have likewise fewer irregularities. 
The Ruminantia compose an order very distinct, which is characterized by its cloven 
feet, by the absence of the incisors to the upper jaw, and by having four stomachs. 
All the other hoofed animals may be left together in a single order, which I shall 
call Pachydermata or Jumenta, the Elephant excepted, which might constitute a 
separate one, having some distant relation to that of Rodentia. 
Lastly, those mammalians remain which have no posterior extremities, and whose 
fish-like form and aquatic mode of life would induce us to form them into a particular 
class, if it were not that all the rest of their economy is precisely the same as in that i 
wherein we leave them. These are the warm-blooded fishes of the ancients, or the 
Cetacea, which, uniting to the vigour of the other mammalians the advantage of being 
sustained in the watery element, include among them the most gigantic of all animals. - 
[Linnjeus reduced all mammalians to three great groups, Unguiculata, Ungulata, 
and Mutica ; terms which are at least convenient for their expressiveness, although 
the groups they represent intergrade, and in some instances invade each other, if too 
rigorously accepted. 
His order Primates, as extended to the Bimana, Quadrumana, and Cheiroptera of 
Cuvier, receives the approbation of most naturalists ; few regard the last as subordinate 
to the Carnaria, which is equivalent to Primates. 
Viewing Man zoologically, opinion is divided respecting the propriety of assigning 
