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



The animal kingdom is divided into nine classes. The classes include: 

 the Quadrupeds, with hairy body and four feet; the Cetacea, with naked 

 elongate body, fleshy fins and a tail flattened horizontally; the Birds, 

 Reptiles, Cartilaginous Fishes, true Fishes, Crustaceans, Insects and Worms. 

 The Cetacea are thus definitely removed far from the fishes and follow the 

 Quadrupeds which are placed at the head of the list. This step was an 

 important one (even although Ray in 1693 had already gone beyond it) and 

 shows that Brisson understood the essentially mammiferous affinities of the 

 Cetacea. 



The quadrupeds are divided dichotomously into 18 orders, based pri- 

 marily upon the number of the teeth. Bi'isson selects the kinds of the teeth 

 as criteria of classification, giving them higher rank than the feet and thus 

 reversing Ray's procedure.^ In lajdng so much stress upon the number and 

 position of certain parts he may have been influenced by systematic botany. 



By dividing the quadrupeds into so many coordinate divisions he escapes 

 some of the most unnatural groupings of Linnaeus, but nevertheless makes 

 some new ones that are not much better {c. g., Elephas with Odobcemts, 

 Prosimia with Vespertilio, Simia with Pier opus). Biisson did not however, 

 recognize any group of amphibious or web-footed mammals. He places 

 Phoca in his fifteenth Order next to Hija;na, Canis, Mustela, etc. 



In short, Brisson's classification of the hairy quadrupeds was largely 

 artificial and contained no strikingly original suggestions, and his limitation 

 of the Linnsean genera was the most enduring part of his work. His classi- 

 fication, however, influenced those of certain later French writers, especially 

 Lacepede. 



Brisson's Classification of 1762. 



Classis I. Quadrupeda. 

 Horum character est 



Corpus pilosum, saltern in aliqua sui parte 

 Et pedes quatuor. 



Classis II. Cetacea. 

 Horum character est 



Corpus nudum, elongatum. 



Pinnae carnosse: 



Cauda horizontaliter plana. 



1 Brisson seems to have been one of the first to emphasize and magnify the importance 

 of the teeth in ordinal classification. F. Cuvier (c/. p. 75) developed this idea to the point of 

 almost disregarding all other characters (c/. pp. 107, 352). 



