114 AMERICAN JOURNAL 



" Filum ariadneum Lotanices est Systema, sine quo Chaos est res herbarice." — Linn. 

 Phil. Bot., ^. 156. 



ON THE VARIOUS PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGICAL CLASSI- 

 FICATION. 



BY DR. OTTO A. L. MoRCH, OF COPENHAGEN, DENMARK. 



In my last papers on classification of Mollusca, in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History and in Journal de Conchyli- 

 ologie,* the term Class is used for divisions, which, according to 

 the general opinion, may seem too high a rank. As the term 

 class is used in the most diiferent senses in various parts of the 

 animal kingdom, it may be necessary to give a more extensive 

 explanation of my views in this respect. 



The old authors, as Belon, Rondelet, Gesner, Aldrovand, 

 Lister, Rumph, signified the various systematical divisions by 

 Liber, Cap., §, titulus, corresponding to Olassis, Ordo, Genus, Spe- 

 cies of Linnet ^'^d nearly all succeeding naturalists. 



Lamarck, Cuvier and Blainville introduced the FamiliseJ cor- 

 responding to the Fragmenta of Linne (Phil. Bot. § 77), — a di- 

 vision which he did not use himself in the Systema, considering 

 it only necessary for the future natural system. 



The most important addition to the Linnean terms for system- 

 atic divisions, is no doubt the Supraclassis of Rafinesque,§ who 

 first perceived the necessity of giving particular systematic 



* Journal de Conchyliologie, 1865. 



t Tournefortio debet Botanice hos familiarum limiter. — Linn. Phil. 

 Bot., I loT). 



X First used by d'Argenville, La Conchyliologie, 1742. 



§ Rafioesque, Specchio della Scienze o Gioniale enciclopedlco de 

 Sicilia, 1817, p. 210- Principes fundamentaux de Somiologie ou loix de 

 la nomenclature et de la classificalion de I'erapire organique. Palerme. 

 1814. 



