HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY. 



of the head and nock of animals ; in the second, of the parts analogous 

 to arms and hands ; in the third, of the breast and paps, and so on ; 

 and thus he comes, in the seventh chapter, to the legs, feet, and toes : 

 and in the eleventh, to the teeth, and so to other parts. 



The construction of a classification consists in the selection of cer- 

 tain parts, as those which shall eminently and peculiarly determine the 

 place of each species in our arrangement. It is clear, therefore, that 

 such an enumeration of differences as we have described, supposing it 

 complete, contains the materials of all possible classifications. But we 

 can with no more propriety say that the author of such an enumera- 

 tion of differences is the author of any classification which can be 

 made by means of them, than we can say that a man who writes down 

 the whole alphabet writes down the solution of a given riddle or tho 

 answer to a particular question. 



Yet it is on no other ground than this enumeration, so far as I can 

 discover, that Aristotle's " System" has been so decidedly spoken of, 4 

 and exhibited in the most formal tabular shape. The authors of this 

 Systema Aristotelicum, have selected, I presume, the following pas- 

 sages from the work On Animals, as they might have selected any 

 other ; and by arranging them according to a subordination unknown 

 to Aristotle himself, have made for him a scheme which undoubtedly 

 bears a great resemblance to the most complete systems of modern 

 times. 



Book L, chap. v. " Some animals are viviparous, some oviparous, 

 some venniparons. The viviparous are such as man, and the horse, 

 and all those animals which have hair ; and of aquatic animals, the 

 whale kind, as the dolphin and cartilaginous fishes." 



Book II., chap. vii. " Of quadrupeds which have blood and are 

 viviparous, some are (as to their extremities,) many-cloven, as the hands 

 and feet of man. For some are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, the 

 panther ; some are bifid, and have hoofs instead of nails, as the sheep, 

 the goat, the elephant, the hippopotamus ; and some have undivided 

 feet, as the solid-hoofed animals, the horse and ass. The swine kind 

 share both characters." 



Chap. ii. " Animals have also great differences in the teeth, both 

 when compared with each other and with man. For all quadrupeds 

 which have blood and are viviparous, have teeth. And in the first 

 place, some are ambidental,' (having teeth in both jaws ;) and some 



4 Llnntean Transactions, vol. xvi. p. 24. 



