CHAPTEll Xlll. 



CONCLUSION. 



In the preceding pages some attention lias been 

 paid to the general principles of classification, but 

 it may facilitate the consideration of the rank to 

 be assigned to the various objects that have passed 

 under notice, if we remember that the animal king- 

 dom is divided by naturalists into four sub-king- 

 doms, containing respectively the Yertebrata, the 

 Mollusca, the Articulata, and the Eadiata. Nothing 

 need be said in this place about the vertebrata, 

 except that, notwithstanding the advantages of 

 other modes of classification, that proposed by Pro- 

 fessor Owen is the most suggestive of important 

 results, and also the most philosophical in char- 

 acter, as the cerebral system is the highest position 

 of animal organization, and, when developed, dom- 

 inates over the rest. 



According to this method man stands at the 

 head of the oi'ganic world, as the creature pos- 



