of the Dichotomous System. 437 



and therefore, I suppose, the oldest of all modes of arrange- 

 ment : and, as Aristotle expressly says, so easy that any one 

 may adopt it. I have said a few words on its merits in the 

 Hora: Entomologiccc ; but the truth is, that, proceeding entirely 

 on the notion of division, and not of affinity, it is a method 

 which is applicable to all sciences whatsoever as much as to 

 zoology. It has nothing to do with the Natural System, which 

 must of course depend upon affinities." In fact, it is the prin- 

 ciple of distinction carried to the extreme ; and Aristotle there- 

 fore was perfectly aware that it must completely fail when our 

 object is to connect animals by their affinities. 



Dr. Fleming boldly adds : " More recendy, in the writings 

 of Lister, Willoughby, and Ray, the dichotomous system 

 occupied the situation which it merited." Now Willoughby 

 have I not got with me in the Havana to refer to ; but his 

 arrangement ought to be that of Ray; and both Ray and 

 Lister have given the binary method the situation it merited, 

 that is, they have disregarded it; and nothing but the most 

 consummate courage could ever have induced Dr. Fleming to 

 bolster up the child of his adoption by such equivocal assertions. 

 Oh ! but Aristotle has t« ^mu and ret cfura, &c., and Ray his 

 Metamorphota and Ametamorphota, &c. No doubt they have. 

 Every naturalist has thought it proper to divide some group 

 or other into two parts ; but it is quite another thing to have 

 no other method of dividing groups, and this it is which our 

 D.D. is driving at. 



Immediately on the publication of my work, a respectable 

 naturalist, Mr. Haworth, took up this method in the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine, and even gave afterwards, in the same 

 periodical, a division of Crustacea founded upon it; so that the 

 minister of Flisk has not even the credit of reviving dichotomy. 

 Indeed I may myself lay claim to its revival, although I raised 

 it from the dead only for the purpose of pointing out its de- 

 fects. Mr. Haworth, I believe, like every naturalist of sense, 

 soon abandoned it; and Dr. Fleming, as has been said, remains 

 its sole admirer. 



This dichotomizing Doctor takes the " Divisio Naturalis 

 Animalium" of Linnasus ; and exclaiming no doubt with his 

 brother Dominie, ^' Frodigious !.'.'" he transforms it into the 

 following table of classes, containing every animal created. 



,. , , f Mammalia. 

 1 . Cor biloculare, biauritum 5 sanguine calido rubro : i j^^^^ 



{. , . ., I fAmpliibia. 

 uniauntum; sanguine fngido rubro: < l>■^^|.^^^ 

 inauritum; sanie frigida albida : ) '"''tcia. 

 \ Vermes. 



Prodigiously clever, indeed ! Now to curry on the dichotomous 



method, 



