CHAPTER 14 



EVOLUTION AS SEEN IN THE 



CLASSIFICATION OF 



ANIMALS 



Man is characteristically the collecting and classifying 

 member of the animal kingdom. Whether it be stamps, antique automo- 

 biles, buttons, Chinese porcelain, coins, books, tapestries, or works of art, 

 there seems to be an innate tendency in human nature leading to the 

 acquisition of objects of interest. For some the acquisition is in itself 

 sufficient satisfaction, but for most people, possessed of more tidy minds, 

 accumulation must be accompanied by classification and cataloguing — the 

 putting of everything "in its place." We are so constituted that we feel ill 

 at ease when surrounded by chaos. We are not satisfied until we can intro- 

 duce organization into the unorganized, "put things to rights," and arrange 

 things so that they "make sense." Much the same urge which leads one 

 person to collect stamps leads another to collect animals. And for both, 

 satisfaction is only complete when the items collected are properly filed and 

 classified. Without this underlying human urge the great biological collec- 

 tions which are the pride of our museums and universities would never 

 have come into existence. 



Basis of Classification 



Biological classification doubtless had its inception in the desire of the 

 human mind to put things "in their places," as suggested above. A funda- 



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