SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
59 
And here I cannot but regret that Cuvier, that great master 
in Zoology, should have left the reptiles in so confused a 
state, that his arrangement ceases to be a guide, and almost 
becomes a hindrance in the search after truth. I do not 
allude particularly to the erroneous character assigned to 
the Batrachians, but to the general grouping of the other 
divisions : it will be seen by all who possess the most su¬ 
perficial acquaintance with the subject, that his divisions 
of Sauria and Ophidia are by no means natural, each of 
them including species which might, with equal propriety, 
have been placed in the other. Every fact I have been 
able to ascertain concerning the reptiles, has tended to 
confirm my concurrence in the opinions advanced by 
Mr. Bell, as to the great and irreconcileable difference 
between the osteodermatous and scaly divisions. In the 
latter I quite incline to place the naked reptiles usually 
termed Amphibia or Batrachia, because, as shown above, 
I can find no sufficient reason for separating them. It is 
not, however, so easy to decide to which of these groups 
or classes the crocodiles naturally belong, for the resem¬ 
blance between these and the lizards seems confined to 
superficial appearance, although Cuvier makes the former 
merely a subdivision of the latter. In the skin of the 
crocodile are imbedded a quantity of bones which, in some 
measure, assimilate to the osseous covering of the arma¬ 
dillo, but which totally differ from the scaly covering of 
the lizards, or the naked skin of the salamanders : again, 
there is a peculiar rigidity in the cervical vertebrae of the 
crocodiles, caused by small false ribs ; indeed, so much is 
this the case, that w r hen on shore they cannot turn without 
difficulty, a circumstance which often affords the means of 
escape to men or animals which they pursue : in the lizards, 
