MAMMALIA, 



BY 



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PROFESSOR ANDR. WAGNER, OF MUNICH. 



FOR the two classes of Vertebrate animals over which our 

 yearly report extends, J. J. Kaup endeavours to devise a 

 new scheme of arrangement in his ' Classification der Saiig- 

 thiere und Vogel/ Darmstadt, 1844. 



This attempt is a physio-philosophical classification constructed, with sonic 

 alterations, according to the principles of Okeu. " The sacred number 5 is,' 3 

 in the opening words of our author, " the necessary result of his investi- 

 gations, and is based upon the culinary number of the senses, which are to be 

 regarded as the floral organs or blossoms of the five anatomical systems. 

 Of these last there is, as he assures us further on in the work, exactly the 

 same number as of the seusorial organs, observing that " all the rest that 

 were framed by Okeu must be regarded as subordinate. " Now the eye is 

 the blossom of the vital organs or nerves, the ear that of the respiratory 

 organs or lungs, the nose of the organs of support or the boues (!!), the 

 tongue of the digestive organs or muscles (! !), the organs of increase or gene- 

 ration the blossom of the integument or tactile organs." In accordance 

 with this number five and the serial arrangement of the floral organs, the 

 author proceeds to enter into the details of his system, and expresses a 

 hope " that once for all, the time has dawned when science shall be disen- 

 cumbered of unmeaning attempts at systematizing, and the correctness of 

 this his arrangement become acknowledged." In this we would indeed yield 

 our consent to the author, had it pleased him to adduce proofs of his asser- 

 tions. But he has completely kept to himself the key that should unlock 

 his own principles ; and we must, therefore, with regard to their accuracy, 

 rely merely upon the author's word for it, and await the time when, no right 

 being conceded to mere credit, many a naturalist may cease to interpret, as 

 strange or fanciful, the peculiar department of his inquiries. We at once 

 perceive in this systematizing a fruitless game of fantasy, that, apart from its 



