SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
143 
known existing or extinct animal. The tree being thus partly under¬ 
mined and firmly grappled with, the muscles of the trunk, the pelvis and 
hind limbs, animated by the nervous influence of the unusually large 
spinal cord, would combine their forces with those of the anterior mem¬ 
bers in the efforts at prostration. And now let us picture to ourselves 
the massive frame of the Megatherium convulsed with the mighty wrest¬ 
ling, every vibrating fibre reacting upon its bony attachment witb a force 
which the sharp and strong crests and apophyses loudly bespeak : — ex¬ 
traordinary must have been the strength and proportions of that tree, 
which, rocked to and fro, to right and left, in such an embrace, could 
long withstand the efforts of its ponderous assailant.” * 
No. 6. 
Page 37, line 1. — u Whether that remarkable extinct animal , the 
Pterodactylus, was not a marsupial rather than a reptile .” 
It should be observed that the idea of treating the pterodactyles as 
mammalious rather than oviparous animals, is by no means new, since 
a learned professor long ago very strenuously insisted on such a clas¬ 
sification. I believe however I am the first to rank them as marsupials. 
I offer a few additional words on this subject, merely with a view to show 
that the question is still an open one, and not so conclusively settled as 
Cuvier would lead us to believe, when, after his elaborate and most beau¬ 
tiful analysis, he concludes that the pterodactyle, “from its teeth to the 
extremities of its toes, is altogether a lizard.” I am aware how danger¬ 
ous it is to offer even a doubt as to a Cuvierian assertion: but I recollect 
that Peter Collinson, a very humble lover of science, differed from the 
great Linneus on a question where Linneus was as strong as Cuvier is on 
pterodactyles. “Your reputation,” says Peter in addressing the Doctor, 
* Owen, loc. cit. p. 147. 
