432 Mr. W. S. MacLeay on the Dying Struggle 



knowledge, 1 knew him also by a subsequent compilation, 

 called with much modesty *'The Philosophy of Zoology;" the 

 first volume of which contains nothing new but some niisei- 

 able plates, and the second, little original except a genus termed 

 Homea, and some names which have been framed in a proper 

 independent spirit, and with a noble contempt of Priscian*. 

 These works indeed have been somehow or other praised in 

 certain journals; but as, I repeat, I thought our Reverend 

 Doctor to be an industrious man whose love of natural history 

 was struggling with various obstacles, I left the development 

 of his true merits to time. As his works were seldom or never 

 quoted by naturalists, it mattered little to me how they were 

 lauded ; and a learned Oxford Professor having stript him 

 of some of his borrowed plumes, I thought that small credit 

 was to be acquired by plucking him of his last feather, while 

 at all events there was charity in the forbearance. Since I left 

 England, however, I have been informed that he has written 

 some book on British Animals, in which he has distributed 

 them, as proposed in his former work, in double Indian file ; 

 that is, by two and two; or in short, in some way that he fancies 

 will render him immortal. Now two or three years before 

 the publication of "The Philosophy of Zoology," and before my 

 having any idea of Dr. Fleming's splitting on this rock, I had 

 exposed the absurdity of a system which I termed " Dichoto- 

 mous." I pointed out its deficiencies in the Horcc Ento^no- 

 logicce, p. 188, and afterwards in a paper read before the 

 Linnaean Society in 1826, and since printed in their Transac- 

 tions. Ignorant apparently of these hints of mine, that might 

 have saved him from much disgrace, and chuckling over his 

 discovery of a mare's nest, Dr. Fleming unadvisedly staked 

 his reputation on the Dichotomous System. Hitic ilia: la- 

 chrymcel Some good-natured friend seems lately to have shown 

 him that his system was annihilated by anticipation ; when 

 what does this worthy clergyman do, but in the most orthodox 

 spirit of theological hate vent his rage, through the medium of 

 the Quarterly Review, on me, who never so much as thought 

 of him! How he got his article inserted there I know not; 



* Thus we have Trockusida:, GordiusideB, and PHitusid€B ; Gi/rinedce, Cicin- 

 deladcB, and SciitesidcB, cum niultis aliis in d<B of similar calibre. Having 

 two Ds tacked to the end of his own name, the worthy minister doubtless 

 thinks that he has a right to clap one to the tail of any thing. On the other 

 hand, there is no end to old friends disguised under such appellations as 

 Thaphozus, Ornilhorinchus, ov Ophistkocomus,hc.; which might pass for 

 slovenly printing, were they not accompanied by such new words as Aluco, 

 Clstuda, Coriudo, and some hundred of equally classical value. Luckily, 

 hovvever.no great harm is done ; for few naturalists place the Doctor's names 

 even in their list of synonyms. 



but 



