212 Miscellaneous. 



The two latter animals were presented to the Museum collection 

 by Andrew Charlton, Esq., of Liskard, Cheshire, with a series of spe- 

 cimens of Felts marmoratus from Malacca. 



White-thighed Jacchus, Jacchus leucomerus. Pale brown ; hair 

 pale, with a broad dark terminal band ; hinder part of body and legs 

 darker ; face and tail black ; throat and beneath paler ; front edge of 

 thighs and sides of loins white ; ears not tufted. 



Hab. Bolivia. 



Brought to England by Mr. Bridges, and in the collection of the 

 British Museum. This may be /. melanura, Geoff. 



General Views on the Classification of Animals. By J. D. Dana*. 



In Cuvier's classification of animals, the division Radiata includes 

 all invertebrated animals not comprised in either of the subkingdoms 

 Articulata and Mollusca. Consisting thus only of refuse species, and 

 not limited by positive characters, as Owen states, we should not 

 expect that the group could be a natural assemblage. No line of 

 subdivision, however, has yet been made out which has met with 

 general favour ; yet greater precision has been given to our views 

 of the affinities that run through the animal kingdom, by appealing 

 to the nerves, the seat of sensibility and sentiment, as a basis in clas- 

 sification ; and in this manner the subdivisions have been character- 

 ized as follows by Dr. Grant : — 



I. The Vertebrata, having a brain and a spinal cord, constitute the 

 Spini-Vertebrata. 



II. The Mollusca, having the nerves forming generally a trans- 

 verse series of ganglia disposed around the oesophagus, the Cyclo- 



GANGLIATA. 



III. The Articulata, having no proper brain, and the main cord 

 which runs the length of the body, double, the Diplo-neura. 



IV. The Radiata, having a radiate structure in the body and the 

 nervous ganglia arranged in a circle, Cyclo-neura. 



An objection might be made to this system, on the ground of the 

 apparent absence of nerves in some of the lower orders. But a real 

 absence can hardly be concluded from our inability to distinguish 

 them. Many of these animals show by their voluntary motions and 

 sensibility that nervous influences traverse the body : moreover, ner- 

 vous matter is secreted in lines. We can therefore only infer the 

 indistinctness, and not the absence of nerves, from our ineffectual 

 efforts to trace them out ; and we must consequently be guided by 

 general structure, in determining the relations of groups, when the 

 nerves fail of giving aid. 



The above arrangement fails, in some respects, of presenting a clear 

 idea of the system in nature, although highly philosophical in its 

 general features. A study of the animal kingdom, as has been lately 

 shown, brings to light lines or general systems of development 



* Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. ii. p. 281, Oct. 1845. 



