166 Analysis of Scientific Books and Memoirs. 



hoilies ; the first including Animals and Plants — the second Minerals. 

 These are further arranged inta tliree principal divisions, appropriately 

 enough called Kingdoms. Animals have been defined, as organized bodies 

 possessing life, sensation, and voluntary motion : — Vegetables organized 

 bodies endowed with a vital principle, but destitute of sensation and the 

 power of locomotion : — and Minerals as unorganized bodies destitute of 

 life, and of course of sensation. Animal life is distinguished from vege- 

 table life by many considerations, of which we only mention two — Life in- 

 the first is active — in the second passive. The nourishment of plants is deri- 

 ved through the medium of their roots ; that of animals through a central 

 organ of digestion destined to receive the food. All living bodies, how- 

 ever, possess some characters in common, as absorption, assimilation, de- 

 velopement, and reproduction : all have a limited and determinate term 

 of life according to the species ; and while nature as a whole exhibits the 

 picture of perennial youth and interminable existence, each individual 

 leaves the scene to make room for others at an allotted term. 



After detailing the forms and structure of these three great divisions of 

 natural bo^lies in a general introduction, Mr S., under the head " Animal 

 Kingdom," gives, as the basis of the arrangement which he has followed, 

 an outline of the method proposed by Cuvier, founded upon the compa- 

 rative organization of the animal races. Animals are thus divided into 

 1. Those possessed of a skull and vertebral column, in which the nervous 

 matter is inclosed, or Vertebrata ; and 2. Those destitute of a vertebral 

 column and internal bony skeleton, or Invertebrata. These last are 

 divided into 1. Molluscous Animals, including those in which the muscles 

 are simply attached to the skin, and which are either without other cover- 

 ing, or have the soft body protected by a shell. 2. Articulated Animals, 

 in which the covering of the body is divided by transverse folds into rings 

 or segments, to the interior of which the muscles are attached : and 3. 

 Radiated Animals, or those in which the organs of movement and sensa- 

 tion have a circular or radiated form round a common centre. This divi- 

 sion includes the Polypi or Zoophytes. 



The first class of Vertebrated animals is the Mammalia. To this class 

 is prefixed an introduction, giving a short history of the principal writers 

 on this branch of natural history, — a description of the general forms and 

 structure of the animals of the class, — the methods which have been propos- 

 ed for classifying them by various authors, — and their uses in the economy 

 of nature. Tiiis is followed by the detailed characters of the orders, fami- 

 lies, genera, and species. The Mammalia are arranged by Cuvier into 

 eight orders — by Mr Stark into ten — Cuvier having placed the Cheiroptera 

 and Marsupialia as two families of his order Carnassiers. These orders 

 are, 1. Bimana ; 2. Quadrumana ; 3. Cheiroptera ; 4. Feras ; 6. Marsu- 

 pialia ; 6. Glires ; 7. Edentata ; 8. Pachydermata ; 9. Ruminantia 

 10. Cetaceii. At the head of the class stands man, the isolated species of 

 the order Bimana, so different even in physical conformation from all the 

 other tribes of animals. " Man stands alone in the order and genus to 

 which naturalists have referred his species. Distinguished by reason and 

 the power of speech, this wonderfully constructed being seems the bond 



