64 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



animals, is obvious ; it cannot be denied that Linnaeus's class of worms 

 is a sort of chaos in which the most disparate objects are included. 

 Yet the authority of that savant carried so much weight among 

 naturahsts, that no one dared to change this monstrous class of worms. 

 With a view to bringing about some useful reform in this respect, 

 I suggested in my first course the following arrangement for inverte- 

 brate animals, which I divided not into two classes, but into five in 

 the following order. 



Aerangement of Invertebrate Animals set forth 

 IN MY First Course. 



L Molluscs ; 



2. Insects ; 



3. Worms ; 



4. Echinoderms ; 



5. Polyps. 



These classes were then identical with some of the orders which 

 Bruguière had suggested in his arrangement of worms (which I did not 

 adopt), and with the class of insects as defined by Linnaeus. 



The arrival of M. Cuvier in Paris however, towards the middle of 

 the year III. (1795), drew the attention of zoologists to the organisa- 

 tion of animals. I then saw with much satisfaction the conclusive 

 evidence which he produced in favour of the priority of rank accorded 

 to molluscs over insects in the general series. This I had already 

 impressed in my lessons ; but it had not been favourably received by 

 the naturalists of this capital. 



The change which I had thus instituted, from a consciousness of the 

 inadequacy of the prevaihng arrangement of Linnaeus, was thoroughly 

 consolidated by M. Cuvier by the most definite facts, several of which, it 

 is true, were already known but had not attracted ourattention in Paris. 



I took advantage of the light shed since his arrival by this savant 

 over every section of zoology, and particularly over invertebrate 

 animals which he called white-blooded animals. I then added in 

 turn new classes to my arrangement ; I was the first to establish 

 them ; but, as we shall see, such of those classes as were adopted were 

 only adopted reluctantly. 



The personal interests of authors are doubtless a matter of complete 

 indifference to science, and also apparently to those who study it. 

 Nevertheless, a knowledge of the history of the changes imdergone 

 during the last fifteen years by the classification of animals is not 

 without its uses : the following are those which I have instituted. 



First, I changed the name of my class of echinoderms to radiarians, 

 in order to unite with them the jelly-fishes and neighbouring genera. 



