112 



reported that they had prepared a memorial and for- 

 warded it to Washington. 



Dr. Weinland read a paper on series in the animal 

 kingdom, as follows: — 



ON SERIES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. BY DAVID F. WEIN- 

 LAND. 



The existence of certain Zoological Groups, namely, those of 

 Classes, Orders, Families, and Genera, was first noticed by the 

 father of Zoology, Aristotle. Two thousand years afterwards, 

 these groups were again brought to light and named by Linnaeus. 

 They have since been improved by Cuvier and Baer, and the 

 idea of type has been added. But it was not till lately that the 

 signification, at least of three of them, viz : of CLasses, Orders, 

 and Families, was recognized and circumscribed by Agassiz. 

 These ideas will henceforth stand and be acknowledged as 

 founded in nature. 



But the question arises, whetlier there do not exist still other 

 relations and I'eal afiinities of animals to each other, which are 

 not included in these groupings, which have an equal right to be 

 introduced into our zoological system. 



We think that this is in foct tlie case, and we shall endeavor to 

 show in the following sketch, that there exist throughout the whole 

 animal kingdom afiinities of the animals to each other, which we 

 can comprehend under the name of " Series." About twenty 

 years since, a German Naturalist, Kaup, spoke of series in the 

 animal kingdom, but his ideas proving somewhat arbitrary, the 

 subject received less attention than it deserved. Nevertheless, 

 its truth, if rightly understood, has been since recognized by 

 some distinguished naturalists. Oken, for instance, spoke of a 

 scale among Articulata, in which he placed the worms lowest, 

 next the Crustacea, and last the insects ; and Agassiz has 

 illustrated this gradation fully in the development of the butter- 

 fly, and has added still another amongst insects proper ; starting 

 from the principle that chewing rank below the sucking insects. 



Another order of position has been recognized by Milne Ed- 

 wards and by Dana among Polypi ; another by Leopold von 

 Buch among Cephalopods ; another by Dana for Crustacea. We 



