8 Mr. W.S. Macteay on the Comparative Anatomy 
some day disputed with me; for when the question was asked, 
** [s there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new ?" 
—the answer was, “ It hath been already of old time which was 
before us." And certain it is, that the doctrines of quinary dis- 
tribution, of the circular progression of a series of affinity, and 
of analogies, as distinct from aflinities, have all been in some 
measure advanced by authors prior to the publication of the 
Hore Entomologice. Indeed it would add little to our convic- 
tion of these being great natural truths, to find that only one 
writer had observed them, and that others had taken them for 
granted upon his assertion. Accordingly we learn, that the 
number five has had an importance in the construction of the 
for the difference in point of information) would have been similar to that of the ** Règne 
Animal distribué après son Organization;" that is, a description of animals according 
to a set of groups founded on a difference of structure ; or whether it would have been an 
arrangement of animals according to their gradual change of structure. The Historia 
Animalium is conducted on the first plan, not on the last. 
4. Fourthly, Organs may be arranged according to their situation (xara TY» Seciy) ; as, 
for instance, animals having pectoral mamme, in opposition to those which have them 
. abdominal. Here again his axiom, that the relation which the whole bears to the 
whole the part must bear to the part, would fail him, if indeed he intended to apply it ; 
for two tribes of animals widely asunder from each other, may yet have a similar situa- 
tion of parts. Yet the variation of position of similar parts is one of the most important 
considerations in zoology, as may be imagined from its being the very princip > upi 
which the Philosophie Anatomique of M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire is grounded. 
Apt as we are to adopt methods of arrangement, without investigating the principles 
by which we are guided, we must always reap advantage from examining the mode of 
reasoning pursued by one who, although among the earliest of naturalists, was so much 
in the habit of scrutinizing his ideas. He was aware that animals may also be divided 
according to their scenes of action, their economy, &c.; and he has, in fact, given us 
sketches of such classifications: but he had entered too deeply into zoology not.to per- 
ceive that these considerations depend on the structure of their organs. He therefore 
thought, that the best arrangement of animals must depend on that of their organs ;—and 
so far he was right. I only go a little further than he did, in saying, that this arrange- 
ment ought to depend not on that of the organs, but on their variation of structure. 
universe 
