230 Prof. K. F. H. Marx's Memoir of the Life and 



selection, and by their accuracy. He was peculiarly zealous 

 in drawing from ancient monuments* and poets \ explana- 

 tions of doubtful questions, and the elucidation of different 

 problems in natural history. The migration of animals, and 

 their partial occurrence in prodigious quantity, and over a 

 great extent, appeared to him a subject by no means cleared 

 up. He did not hesitate to publish his contribution to the 

 future solution of this important question^ 



Blumenbach has been occasionally somewhat blamed for 

 following, with but slight exceptions, the artificial Linnamn 

 arrangement ; but this adherence arose neither from motives 

 of convenience nor from want of knowledge, but from the 

 conviction that the period for a natural system had not arrived. 

 It is evident that he felt the want of such a system, from his 

 having, in 1775, sketched the attempt to form a natural ar- 

 rangement of the mammalia,§ which was not confined to 

 individual or a few characters, but included the whole habitus 

 of the animals. 



His papers on the sexual inclinations of animals, and on the 

 natural history of serpents, || display not only talent but criti- 

 cal observation. There is much interesting matter in his ac- 

 count of a kangaroo^ which he kept alive in his house for 

 some time, and in his observations on the pipa** and on tape- 

 worms, tt 



Blumenbach was deeply impressed with the truth, that we 

 are only properly qualified to judge rightly of the phenomena 

 of the present, when we have rendered as clear as possible their 

 course from the earliest period. He regarded archaeology 



* Specimen historian naturalis, antiquce artis operibus illustratae eaquo vi- 

 cissim illustrantis, 1803. In Comment, vol. xvi. p. 169-198. 



t Sp. bist. nat. ex auctoribus classicis proesertiru poetis illustrate eosque 

 vicissim illustrantis, 1815. In Comment, recent, vol. iii. p. 62-78. Com- 

 pare Gott. gelebrte Anzeigen, 1815. No. 205, p. 2033-2040. 



% De animantium coloniis sive sponte migratis, sive casu aut studio ab 

 bominibus aliorum translates. In Comment, recent, vol. v. p. 101-100. 

 Gott. gel. An. 1820. No. 57, p. 561-568. 



§ Gott. gel. Anz. 1775. No. 147, p. 1257-1259. 



|| Magaz. fur das Neueste aus der Pbysik, vol. v. No. 1, 1788, p. 1-13. 



\\ Ibid. 1792. Vol. vii. No. 4, p. 19-24. 



** Gott. gel. Anzeigen, 1784. No. 156, p. 1553-1555. 



tt Ibid. 1774. No. 154, p. 1313-1316. 



