Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/176

 172 presence of characters apparently belonging to each of the three classes to which it was referred. The form of its head, and length of neck, resembling that of birds, its wings approaching to the proportion and form of those of bats, and the body and tail approximating to those of ordinary Mammalia. These characters, connected with a small skull, as is usual among reptiles, and a beak furnished with not less than sixty pointed teeth, presented a combination of apparent anomalies which it was reserved for the genius of Cuvier to reconcile. In his hands, this apparently monstrous production of the ancient world, has been convened into one of the most beautiful examples yet afforded by comparative anatomy, of the harmony that pervades all nature, in the adaptation of the same parts of the animal frame, to infinitely varied conditions of existence.

In the case of the Pterodactyle we have an extinct genus of the Order Saurians, in the class of Reptiles, (a class that now moves only on the land or in the water,) adapted by a peculiarity of structure to fly in the air. It will be interesting to see how the anterior extremity, which in the fore leg of the modern Lizard and Crocodiles is an organ of locomotion on land, became converted into a membraniferous wing; and how far the other parts of the body are modified so as to fit the entire animal machine for the functions of flight. The detail of this inquiry will afford such striking examples of numerical agreement in the component bones of every limb, with those in the corresponding limbs of living Lizards, and are at the same time so illustrative of contrivances for the adjustment of the same organ to effect different ends, that I shall select for examination a few points, from the long and beautiful analysis which Cuvier has given of the structure of this animal.

The Pterodactyles are ranked by Cuvier among the most extraordinary of all the extinct animals that have come under his consideration; and such as, if we saw them restored to life, would appear most strange, and most