46 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION 



tion of animals exhibit, indeed, too much discrimination to admit 

 for a moment that it could be the result of accident; that is, the re- 

 sult of the accidental migrations of the animals or of the accidental 

 dispersion of the seeds of plants. The greater the uniformity of 

 structure of these widely distributed organized beings, the less prob- 

 able does their accidental distribution appear. I confess that nothing 

 has ever surprised me so much as to see the perfect identity of the 

 most delicate microscopic structures of animals and plants, from the 

 remotest parts of the world. It was this striking identity of structure 

 in the same types, this total independence of the essential character- 

 istics of animals and plants, of their distribution under the most ex- 

 treme climatic differences known upon our globe, which led me to 

 distrust the belief, then almost universal, that organized beings are 

 influenced by physical causes to a degree which may essentially mod- 

 ify their character. 



SECTION XI 



COMMUNITY OF STRUCTURE AMONG ANIMALS LIVING 

 IN THE SAME REGIONS 



The most interesting result of the earliest investigations of the 

 fauna of Australia was the discovery of a type of animals, the Mar- 

 supialia, prevailing upon this continental island, which are unknown 

 in almost every other part of the world. Every student of Natural 

 History knows now that there are no Qiiadrumana in New Holland, 

 neither Monkeys, nor Makis; no Insectivora, neither Shrews, nor 

 Moles, nor Hedgehogs; no true Carnivora,^^ neither Bears, nor Wea- 

 sels, nor Foxes, nor Viverras, nor Hyenas, nor Wild Cats; no Edentata, 

 neither Sloths, nor Tatous, nor Ant-eaters, nor Pangolins; no Pachy- 

 derms, neither Elephants, nor Hippopotamuses, nor Hogs, nor Rhi- 

 noceroses, nor Tapirs, nor Wild Horses; no Ruminantia, neither 

 Camels, nor Llamas, nor Deers, nor Goats, nor Sheep, nor Bulls, etc., 

 and yet the Mammalia of Australia are almost as diversified as those 

 of any other continent. In the words of Waterhouse,^^ who has 



°^ Doubts are entertained respecting the origin of the Dingo, the only beast of prey 

 of New Holland. 



•"George R. Waterhouse, A Natural History of the Mammalia (2 vols., London, 1848), 

 1.4. 



