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



in 1779, is almost exactly intermediate in time between the tenth edition of 

 Linne's 'Systema Naturae' in 1758 and the classification of Geoffroy and 

 Ciivier in 1795. In substance and form also the classification of Blumenbach 

 is likewise intermediate, on the one hand embodying many Linnjean features 

 and on the other distinctly foreshadowing the Cuvierian system. 



The features in which it recalls the Linnjean system are as follows : 



(1) It is not a dichotomous system and therefore avoids the disad- 

 vantages of that method (see pp. 22, 47). 



(2) Only monomial names for the orders are used. 



(3) The Linni«an terms " Glires," " Feree," and " Bellufe" are adopted. 



(4) TJie Cetacea are included among the mammals without being 

 given more than ordinal rank. 



(5) IMan is included in the scheme, which however differs from the 

 Linntean system in treating the group as a separate order ("Inermis," the 

 "Bimana" of later editions). 



(6) In regard to the sequence of the orders the classification is in general 

 harmony with Ivinne's arrangement. 



(7) It docs not rely on one or two sets of characters but adopts different 

 criteria in different orders. 



The classification is even pre-Linnsean in grouping together the am- 

 phibious web-footed mammals of different orders into a single group called 

 "Palmata," an ancient term used in ornithology and suggesting its correlate 

 "Fissipeda" which was used in later editions. 



Another old error which survived in various forms well into the present 

 epoch was the assigning of ordinal rank to characters of the integument, as 

 in Blumenbach's order " Sclerodermata," Cuvier's "Pachydermes," and 

 Klein's "Depilata." 



On the other hand Blumenbach's classification anticipates the Cuvierian 

 system in the following features: 



(1) This is apparently the first classification of the mammals to recog- 

 nize a group of intermediate rank between the genus and the order, and in 

 so far equivalent to the modern family. This group was given the termi- 

 nation "-ina," which thus historically long precedes the patronymic "-idse" 

 of Kirby (cf. p. 102). 



(2) Blumenbach's classification is distinctly progressive and "Cuvier- 

 ian" in freeing the group of Bats from its former association with Simia 

 and Lemur, and in elevating it to ordinal rank under the new term "Chir- 

 optera." This was a decided advance and must have assisted also in the 

 disentanglement of Galeopithecus from the Lemurs. 



(3) The Kangaroo, shortly before named Jaculus giganteus by Erxleben, 

 is here associated with the rodents, as in Cuvier's scheme (see p. 59). 



