36 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXVII, 



(14) In his capacity as the "lawgiver of natural history" Linn<¥us 

 anticipated Cuvier. In the exactitude and range of his contributions to 

 mammalogy he is not, it is true, to be compared with that copious author, 

 whose ideas withal were essentially of the "matter of fact," type. In his 

 suggestive principles of classification Linnteus is rather the protot\^3e of 

 Cuvier's great contemporary de Blainville. These principles were some- 

 times wrong in themselves and more often wrongly applied, so as to produce 

 even grotesque results; nevertheless a close study of Linnseus reveals, so to 

 speak, the poet and seer: uttering profound principles, e. g., that the "genus 

 makes the character and not vice versa"; proclaiming that natural affinities 

 may exist even beneath the most striking external differences; thereby 

 bringing into clearer view the riddle of natural relationships. 



SCOPOLI, 1777. 



'Introductio ad Historium Xaturalem sistens Genera Lapidum, Plan- 

 tarum et Animalium.' Prague, 8vo. 



The conservative features of this classification are as follows : 



(1) In segregating the amphibious mammals in a division "Aquatilia" 

 Scopoli adheres to the ancient error, which had been so well exposed by Ray 

 (cf. p. 20), of using the locus as a prime criterion of classification. 



(2) His classification is essentially dichotomous with the exception of 

 the last division of the Unguiculates which is threefold. 



(3) He designates his groups by adjectives and descriptive phrases 

 rather than by proper names. 



(4) He uses hoofs and claws (cf. "ungulata," "unguiculata") as prime 

 criteria. 



(5) He divides the Unguiculates into two great groups. These, how- 

 ever, are of different character than the similarly named groups of Ray. 



(6) He does not accept any of the more unnatural of Linne's groups 

 such as Bruta and Bestise. 



The progressive features of his classification are as follows : 



(1) He adopts the term "Mammalia" and recognizes the propriety of 

 including the "Cetacei" in the group but sets them apart in it as a grand 

 division, thus following Brisson. 



(2) He places man in the same division with Simia and Lemur, but goes 

 beyond Linnaeus in the taxonomic value assigned to the mammae, since he 

 uses the number of mammse to separate the terrestrial unguiculates into two 

 grand divisions. 



(3) He accepts the new idea implied by Linnaeus that the number of 

 toes is not of fundamental value. 



