CARNIVORA. 
269 
whether we shall best promote useful purposes by 
calling the desman- and the scalope specific excep- 
tions to the shrew genus ; the chrysochlore or Cape 
mole an exception to the mole ; and the tenrec an 
exception to the hedgehog; or whether they will 
be more readily and methodically committed to the 
memory as distinct genera.’ In adopting the first of 
these alternatives a farther difficulty is incurred : 
for Linnaeus calls the desman a castor ; Gmelin 
and Pallas, a shrew; Johnston and Aldrovandus, a 
mouse ; and Hill and Brisson, a rat. Granting it to 
be allied to all these, to which, in particular, shall 
we call it an exception ? In defiance, therefore, of 
hard *words and Greek compounds (which, however, 
explain themselves, and are an assistance to the 
learned), the latter alternative may, perhaps, appear 
to be the least exceptionable. 
The incisive teeth of most of these animals ap- 
proach nearly to those of the glires; but, as they 
principally distinguish the genera into which the 
animals are now arranged, they will be described in 
succession. 
Their canine teeth are called by Illiger ambigui; 
because, although they have the shape of canine 
teeth in general, they are so situate in the mouth as 
to make it doubtful whether they do not belong in 
some to, the incisors, and in others to the cheek- 
teeth. They are also very short, and do not cross 
each other in the manner of those already men- 
tioned. 
The cheek-teeth of this division of the order are 
