Vlll 
INTRODUCTION. 
the marine forms are intermingled without the slightest regard to classification. 
This was no doubt occasioned by the periodical form in which the work was 
published; but it is evident that no ultimate arrangement was intended, as the 
whole book is continuously paged. 
The History of Reptilia, by Latreille and Sonnini, consists of little more 
than a modification of Lacepede. Daudin * however, in his work, which formed 
a continuation of Sonnini’s Buffon, took higher ground. By establishing seve¬ 
ral new and natural genera of Serpents, &c., he proved himself capable of cor¬ 
rect and original views; and in his descriptions of the Tortoises, he not only 
discriminated with considerable accuracy, but, by his enlarged and full de¬ 
scriptions, rendered the comparison and elucidation of synonyms a more easy 
task. The first attempt at applying a distinct name to any one of the different 
forms, appears in his application of the term “ Chelones ” to the whole of the 
marine species. 
The appearance of that portion of Shaw’s cc General Zoology f ”, in this coun¬ 
try, in the same year as that in which Daudin published his work in France, 
renders it difficult to assign the right of priority in those cases in which it 
has happened that the two authors described the same new species J. 
It is however to Brongniart that we owe the first marked and important 
improvement in the arrangement of these animals. He first recognised their 
proper rank in the system, considering the whole group as constituting a di¬ 
stinct order, to which he applied the term “ Cheloniens,” which has been adopted 
by most subsequent naturalists, either in its French form, or with a Latin ter¬ 
mination. To him also the merit is due, of giving to many of the minor groups 
distinct generic names, all of which, though with many additions, have been 
since retained. Whatever merit therefore may belong to the subsequent im¬ 
provements of Geoffroy, of Oppel, of Schweigger, and many others, to whose 
labours I shall have occasion again to allude, we cannot refuse to Brongniart 
* Histoire Naturelle generale et particuliere des Reptiles suite au Buffon de Sonnini. An X. XI. 
f General Zoology, by George Shaw, M.D. &c., vol. iii. Part I. 1802. 
J This has occurred in the case of Testudo radiata of Shaw, to which Daudin gives the name of T. Coui. As Shaw derived his know¬ 
ledge of the species from a specimen already described in Grew’s “ Curiosities of the Museum of the Royal Society,” of which work 
Daudin was evidently ignorant, I have thought it right to retain the name given by the English naturalist, especially as it has been 
recognised by every subsequent author. 
