£ ot FISHES IN GENERAL. 
view, vindicate their arrangement among quadrupeds. 
Their internal ftmfture agrees, in every refpedt, with 
that of the mammalia quadrupedia of Ltntuus ; and their 
external conformation alfo is, in fotne parts, fimilar. 
The cetaceous fifties are deflitute of gills : They breathe 
by means of lungs, and, on that account, are obliged to 
rife frequently to the furface of the water for refpira- 
tion *. They referable land animals too in having warm 
blood ; in being provided with external organs of ge- 
neration ; and in their manner of copulating and bring- 
ing forth their young, which they fuckle, and proteft 
with parental attachment. They have the power of 
uttering founds f, fuch as of bellowing and making 
other noifes ; a faculty denied to the other inhabitants of 
the deep. 
But notwith Handing this ftriking fimilarity between 
the cetaceous filhes, and the land animals, there are many 
other properties belonging to the former, which mud de- 
termine us to rank them among fillies, where the ge- 
neral voice and language of men have always placed 
them. The feeds, manati and whales, are evidently the 
fteps, by which Nature proceeds from the one of thele 
her great families to the other : Here they approximate, 
and appear kindred tribes. In the laft of thefe fpecies of 
animals however, the great outlines and form of a fiflt 
predominate : It is entirely naked, or covered with a 
fmooth ikin ; it lives wholly in the water, and has all the 
aftions and habits of its aquatic neighbours $. 
It is with much greater confidence and facility, that 
we reftore to their original ftation, the cartilaginous 
filhes 
* Vide Britijh Zoology. 
J Vide Rail Synop, Pifc, 
•}• Blajftcs Anat. Animal. a38. 
