CLASSIFICATION OF MEDUS#. 79 
of the Steganopthalmata are included in the Polystomous section, and the association as a 
natural assemblage indistinctly recognised. 
The arrangement of Lamarck was no better than that of Peron and Lesueur, and, in some 
of the details, inferior, as for instance, in the comprising of the species of Pelagia in his genus 
Dianea, associated with numerous forms of Geryonide. All the Pulmograda were grouped 
under two great sections, the one characterised by a single mouth, the other by the presence 
of several mouths; Lamarck, like Peron, having mistaken the ovarian orifices in certain 
Steganopthalmatous species for so many digestive openings. 
Eschscholtz, whilst he greatly improved, through his personal experience of the Medusve, 
the generic and specific arrangements, went astray as widely as his predecessors when he 
attempted their classification. For, as we have already seen, he mistook the ovaries in many 
genera for appendages of the digestive system, and regarded such forms as constituting a 
great cryptogamic section. Hence he divides all his Discophore—a happily chosen term by 
which he designates the Pudmograda—under Discophore phanerocarpe and Discophore 
eryptocarpe. But though this was a classification based on false notions of structure, so 
true was Eschscholtz’s perception of the natural affinities of the genera, that the covered-eyed 
forms are all assembled under his first division, and the naked-eyed under the second. His 
minor groups are generally very excellent, though throughout all their characters the great 
mistake just mentioned prevails, and consequently nullifies them. 
Cuvier assembled all the Pulmograda in the section of Acalephe, which he termed 
“ Méduses Propres,” dividing it into five groups, of which the first, “les Equorées,” is 
characterised by the presence of a simple short mouth, without tentacula; the second, “les 
Pélagies,” by the mouth being prolonged into a peduncle, which becomes divided into arms : 
the third, “les Cyanées,” in which the mouth is central, and there are four lateral ovaries ; 
the fourth, “les Rhizostomes,” in which there is no conspicuous mouth, nourishment being 
derived through the ramifications of the peduncle, the ovaries four or more; and the fifth, 
“les Astomes,” without central mouth, or ramified peduncle, or distinct cavities for the 
ovaries. His first and last tribes included the naked-eyed species. The whole arrangement 
is a mistake, founded on misapprehension of the value of characters in the order. The groups 
are neither natural nor of equal systematic value. The classifications of Peron and of 
Eschscholtz, though founded on mistakes as great, if not greater, are much superior to those 
of Cuvier and Lamarck, doubtless owing to the superior practical acquaintance of the former 
naturalists with the objects under arrangement. Cuvier’s personal knowledge of the 
Discophoree seems to have been limited to two or three of the higher species ; Lamarck had 
probably no experience in this tribe. Peron, Lesueur, and Eschscholtz had observed and 
studied numerous forms in the living state, and consequently, though of inferior order of mind 
to the former great naturalists, came nearer the truth in their systems, because their know- 
ledge was sound and practical, and not gained at second-hand. 
The arrangement of the Pulmograda proposed by De Blainville, is likewise the result of 
book-study, and not of sea-research, and is consequently objectionable. He divides them 
