INTRODUCTION-. 77 



in the necessity of attempting the classification of 

 organised nature upon the plan of natural affinities, 

 such as had already heen introduced in Botany. 

 The first attempts were only approximations, until 

 Baron Cuvier, the ablest observer, and the pro- 

 foundest physiologist, since the days of Aristotle, 

 " after," according to his own words, " forming 

 several systems himself, which, however, he did not 

 make known, because he ascertained that they were 

 false, like all those that had been published to the 

 period when he wrote," concluded, " that in the pre- 

 sent state of science, it was impossible to discover 

 any, and that that was the reason why he continued 

 his researches, and why he openly proclaimed his 

 observations." 



But although Cuvier renounced making a system, 

 he did not decline to form a great classified arrange- 

 ment of the Animal Kingdom, wherein the whole is 

 distributed according to its organisation. This mighty 

 work, as happened to LinnaBus, likewise at first met 

 with opponents and dissentients ; but, with the ex- 

 ception of gradual advances in separate branches, in 

 orders, in new families, genera, and species, which 

 the progress of science naturally calls for, and the 

 author was always happy to adopt, when fully exa- 

 mined, there is not, at present, a general work more 

 universally worthy to serve as a guide, than the 

 second and last edition of his " Regne Animal 

 d'apres son Organisation." It forms an abstract of 

 all the important observations, from Aristotle down 

 to Daubenton, Camper, Pennant, Pallas, Hunter, 



