MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 107 



for the purpose of distinctive description calling 

 those animals which have red blood IMU/U*, and those 

 which have it not red avouy,* ; and thus he esta- 

 hlishes a fundamental natural division, answering to 

 the red-blooded and white-blooded animals of mo- 

 dern zoology. Another distribution of the several 

 classes is into those which have blood, and those 

 which have not; among the former are man, vivi- 

 parous and oviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes, ceta- 

 ceous animals, and serpents ; while the latter com- 

 prise those naturally divisible into segments, as in- 

 sects, those of a soft substance throughout, as cuttle- 

 fish, &c. those having a comparatively soft shell, as 

 lobsters, &c. and those which have a hard shell, as 

 oysters, &c. 



In examining the component members of animals 

 in general, it has been already observed, that Aris- 

 totle selected man as a standard of comparison, al- 

 leging as a reason, that we are more familiar with 

 I the human form than with any other : hence it fol- 

 lows, as a necessary consequence, that viviparous 

 animals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, would respec- 

 tively come next in succession ; and this order he 

 actually observes in making his classification. Some 

 have found fault with this arrangement, on the 

 ground of .its commencing with animals of a more 

 complicated instead of those of a more simple struc- 

 ture, but there seems no good cause for the objec- 

 tion ; and it is no mean encomium on the Stagirite 

 to observe, that the same principle of arrangement 



