82 MEANING OF ORDERS. 



tiles representing especially the muscular system, 

 the Birds the nervous system, while in the Mam- 

 malia the organs of the senses are most highly 

 developed. 



This theory, according to which there are as 

 many great divisions or classes as there are 

 structural systems or combinations of systems in 

 the Animal Kingdom, seemed natural and signifi- 

 cant, and there was something attractive in the 

 idea that man represents, as it were, the syn- 

 thetic combination of all these different systems. 

 Oken also, in his exposition of his mode of 

 classification, showed an insight into the struct- 

 ure and relations of animals that commended it 

 to the interest of all students of Nature, and en- 

 titles him to their everlasting gratitude. Never- 

 theless, his theory fails, when it is compared with 

 facts. For instance, there are many Worms that 

 have no respiration through the skin, while his 

 appreciation of the whole class is founded on that 

 feature ; and in his type representing circulation, 

 the Mollusks, there are those that have no heart 

 at all. 



It would carry me too far into scientific details, 

 were I to explain all the points at which this 

 celebrated classification fails. Suffice it to say, 

 that there is no better proof of the discrepancy 

 between the system and the facts than the con- 

 stant changes in the different editions of Oken's 



