44 Greek Biology 



fish is scale. Such analogies can scarcely, however, serve 

 universally as indications for the formation of groups, for 

 almost all animals present analogies in their corresponding 

 parts.' l 



Aristotle nowhere gives to his term genus a rigid application 

 that can be applied throughout the animal kingdom. He uses 

 the word in fact much as we should use the conveniently 

 flexible term group, now for a larger and less definite, now for 

 a smaller and more definite collection of species. This varying 

 use of a technical word makes it impossible to draw up a 

 classification based on his genera or indeed with any consistent 

 use of the terms which he actually employs. 



The difficulty or impossibility of drawing up a satisfactory 

 classificatory system from the Aristotelian writings has not, 

 however, deterred numerous naturalists and scholars from 

 making the attempt, and the subject has in itself a considerable 

 history and literature 2 extending from the days of Edward 

 Wotton (1492-1555) downward. 3 The more recent efforts at 

 drawing up an Aristotelian classificatory system have been 

 based on the methods of reproduction to which he certainly 

 attached very great importance. 4 Provided that it be remem- 

 bered that Aristotle does not himself detail any such system 

 there can be no harm in constructing one from his works. At 

 worst it will serve as a memoria technica for the extent and 

 character of his knowledge of natural history, and at best it 

 may represent a scheme to which he was tending. 



1 De partibus animalium : i. 4 ; 644 a 16. 



2 The classificatory system of Aristotle and its history are discussed in 

 great detail by J. B.Meyer, Aristoteles' Thierkunde: ein Beitragziir Geschichte 

 der Zoologie, Physiologic und alien Philosophic^ Berlin, 1855. 



3 The work by which Wotton is known is his De differentiis animalium, 

 Paris, 1552. 



4 There is a valuable chapter on the subject of the Aristotelian classifi- 

 catory system as based on the method of reproduction in W. Ogle, Aristotle 

 on the Parts of Animals, London, 1882. 



