30 



to speak with confidence on this point, yet this conckision corresponds 

 precisely with the result of Lacaze-Duthiers's examination of the genital 

 organs. These contradictions are so well balanced that the preponderance is 

 not sufficiently marked to form the basis of a system of classification ; and 

 hence we find the families arranged by different authors in almost every 

 possible combination. 



Before presenting some of these arrangements as examples of the forego- 

 ing statements, it is, perhaps, proper that I should state, that while I do not 

 hold the Darwinian doctrine of development by natural selection, yet I am 

 rather disposed to accept the idea of "acceleration and retardation" in 

 a somewhat modified form, and as limited within the range of the different 

 " branches." Yet this theory has for its basis, and is really but a slight mod- 

 ification of the opinion, long held by many naturalists, that the highest form 

 of a given type (one of the grand divisions of the animal kingdom), in its 

 passage from the germ to the adult state, assumes for a time the lower and 

 intermediate forms of that type. 



This theory, properly limited and modified, I am disposed to accept, 

 even witli the additional ideas of acceleration and retardation ; yet this I 

 believe to be wholly distinct from and incompatible with the theory of abso- 

 lute development of higher from lower forms, as generally understood. I 

 would not have alluded to this subject in this work, except for the fact that 

 at the present day all attempts at classification appear to be more or less 

 influenced by the opinion entertained in regard thereto. 



In a natural arrangement the various groups stand exactly in the same 

 relation to each other that they would if developed from the lower to the 

 higher forms ; and this must necessarily be the case, whether the doctrine of 

 development be true or false. 



The position of the Acridiclce in the division Articulata will be found by 

 tracing the various subdivisions as follows, the order given being descending : 



C Class Insecta. 



Gra'fid division Articulata \ Class Crustacea. 



(^ Class . - Annelides. 



The highest of these three classes is Insecta, which is again divided into 

 three subordinate divisions, as follows : 



[ Sub-class. . Insecta. 



1 



Class Insecta \ Sub-class Arachnida. 



I 



[ Sub-class - - Myriapoda. 



