201 



ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



202 



The writers who succeeded Aristotle, and mostly copied from his 

 ample stores were : ^Eliau, Pliny, Atheuoeus, Albertus Magnus, Belon, 

 Ge.-mer, Aldrovandus, and Johnston. Although some of them recorded 

 new facts they did nothing to supply any further arrangement of the 

 animal kingdom. 



To our countryman Ray we are principally indebted for the first 

 clear zoological method. That great naturalist, for originality and 

 comprehensive philosophical discernment, may, without hesitation, 

 be placed next after Aristotle himself. 



The brilliant style of Buffon fixed the attention of the civilised 

 world upon the subject which his eloquence at once rendered capti- 

 vating. A more severe writer might have done greater things for 

 natural history as a science, but Buffon at once secured a willing 

 audience, and made all Europe his class. To him above all others 

 may be conceded the merit of making the subject decidedly popular 

 at once and for ever. The way was thus prepared for Linnaeus. 



In the last edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' revised by its great 

 author, the Animal Kingdom is thus arranged : 

 Heart bilocular, with two auricles, ("Viviparous Mammalia. 



Blood warm, red. \ Oviparous Birds. 



Heart unilocular, with one auricle. J Arbitrary lungs Amphibia. 



Blood cold, red. \ External gills Fiilies. 



Heart unilocular, with one auricle. J w; Q f 



white jWithtentacula.... Ferae* 



I. Mammalia. 



Heart bilocular, with two auricles. Blood warm, red. Lungs 

 respiring reciprocally. Jaws incumbent, covered : teeth inserted in 

 most. Penis intrans viviparas, l.vctiferas. Senses : Tongue, Nostrils, 

 Eyes, Ears, Papillae. Covering : Hairs, very sparing in the aquatics. 

 Props (Fulcra) : Four feet, except in those which are merely aquatic, 

 in which the posterior feet are conjoined in the fin of the tail. A tail 

 in most. 



II. Birds. 



Heart bilocular, with two auricles. Blood warm, red. Lungs 

 respiring reciprocally. Jaws incumbent, naked, exserted, toothless. 

 Penis subintrans absque scroto oviparas crusta calcarea. Senses : 

 Tongue, Nostrils, Eyes, Ears without auricles. Covering : Incum- 

 bent imbricated feathers. Props : Two feet, two wings. Rump heart- 

 shaped. 



III. Amphibia. 



Heart unilocular, with one auricle. Blood cold, red. Lungs 

 breathing arbitrarily. Jaws incumbent. Penes bini. Eggs generally 

 membranaceous. Senses : Tongue, Nostrils, Eyes, Ears. Covering : 

 Cutaceous, naked. Props : Various, null in some. 



IV. Fishes. 



Heart unilocular, with one auricle. Blood cold, red. Gills external, 

 compressed. Jaws incumbent. Penes nulli. Eggs without albumen. 

 Senses : Tongue, Nostrils ( ! ), Eyes (not ears). Covering : Imbricated 

 scales. Props : Natatorial fins. 



V. Intectt. 



Heart unilocular. Sanies cold. Spiracles, lateral body pores. 

 Jaws lateral Penes intrantes. Senses : Tongue, Eyes, Antennae 

 on a head without a brain (neither ears nor nostrils). Covering : 

 Cataphracta, sustaining an osseous cutis. Pr6ps : Feet, Wings in 

 some. 



VI. Yermet. 



Heart unilocular, with one ventricle. Sanies cold. Spiracles 

 obscure. Jaws multifarious. Penes varii Hermaphroditis Andro- 

 gynis. Senses: Tentacles (no head, hardly eyes, neither ears nor 

 iuwtrils.) Covering : Calcareous, or null except spines. Props : 

 Neither feet nor fins. 



This .table concludes with the following summary, which will be 

 best given in the original form : 



" Vivarium Naturae sic alit vi plicis formae Animalia. 



"Mammalia pilosa, in Terra gradiuntur, loquentia. Avet plumosae, 

 in acre volitant, cantantes. Amphibia tunica ta, in calore, serpunt, 

 nibilantia. Piscts squamati, in aqua natant, popyzantes. Insecta 

 cataphracta, in sicco exsiliunt, tinnitantia. Vermes excoriati, in 

 humtdo panduntur, obmutescentes." 



It is impossible to enter into the details of the arrangement of 

 Linnaeus, without being struck with the comprehensive views of the 

 uuthor, when the imperfect light that existed at the time is considered. 



The subject was now taken up by able hands ; and Pallas, especially 

 in his anatomy of the Glires, made a great advance in Comparative 

 Anatomy. Among the most active and enlightened labourers in this 

 department, our own John Hunter stands pre-eminent in England and 

 Blumenbach in Gurrnany. 



But the time was now come when a new light was to arise ; and 

 George Cuvier, guided by his dissections, became the great leader of 

 his day. The 'Anatiniu Couiparce,' the 'Ossemens Fossiles,' and, 

 finally, the ' Rcgne Animal,' were the results of hia acute and compre- 

 hensive demonstrations. In his hands Comparative Anatomy became 

 a new power among the dynamics of natural history, and by its aid he 

 rebuilt the extinct fossil forms that before his time lay scattered over 

 the face of our earth in wild and apparently inextricable disorder. 



Well does this extraordinary man enunciate the valuable truth, that 



since Natural History has taken Nature for the basis of its distri- 

 butions, its relationship with Anatomy has become more intimate. 

 "One of these sciences," says he, "cannot take a single step without 

 the other profiting by it. The approximations which the first 

 establishes often indicate to the other the researches that ought to be 

 made." And again, with equal truth he declares, that " the natural 

 history of an animal is the knowledge of the whole animal. Its 

 internal structure is to it as much as its external form, and perhaps 

 more." 



That Cuvier practised what he preached is evident from his own 

 record of his mode of proceeding in constructing his system : 



" I examined," says he, " one by one, all the species which I could 

 procure ; I associated those which did not differ from each other, 

 except in size, colour, or the number of some parts of little importance, 

 and on these materials founded what I have called a sub-genus. 



" Whenever I could, I dissected at least one species of each sub- 

 genus; and if those to which the scalpel could not be applied be 

 excepted, there exist in my book very few groups of this degree, of the 

 organs of which I cannot produce at least some considerable portion." 



As in this work the various articles on the Animal Kingdom will 

 be generally given subordinate to the great divisions indicated by 

 Cuvier, we have added in the following page his arrangement in a 

 tabular form. 



The following are the distinguishing characters of the great divisions 

 of this arrangement : 



Vertebrate Animals (Animalia vertebrata.) They have all red blood, 

 a muscular heart, a mouth furnished with two jaws placed one either 

 before or above the other, distinct organs of sight, hearing, smell, and 

 taste, situated in the cavities of the face ; never more than four limbs, 

 the sexes always separated, and a very similar distribution of the 

 medullary masses and of the principal branches of the nervous system. 

 On examining each of the parts of this great series of animals more 

 closely, there may always be detected some analogy even in those 

 species' which are most remote from one another ; and the gradations 

 of one single plan may be traced from man to the last of fishes. 



In the second form there is no skeleton, the muscles are attache I 

 only to the skin, which constitutes a soft contractile envelope, in 

 which in many species are formed stony plates called shells, the pro- 

 duction and position of which are analogous to that of the mucous 

 body ; the nervous system is contained within this general envelope 

 together with the viscera, and is composed of several scattered 

 masses, connected by nervous filaments, and of which the principal 

 placed over the oesophagus bears the name of brain. Of the four 

 senses, the organs of those of taste and vision only can be distinguished, 

 the latter of which are even frequently wanting. A single family 

 alone presents organs of hearing. There is always, however, a complete 

 system of circulation, and particular organs for respiration. Those 

 of digestion and of the secretions are little less complicated than in 

 the vertebrated animals. We will distinguish the animals of this 

 second form by the appellation of 



Molluscous Animali (Animalia Mollusca.) Although the general 

 plan of their organisation is not so uniform, as regards the external 

 configuration of the parts as that of the vertebrates, there is always an 

 equal degree of resemblance between them in the essential structure 

 and the functions. 



The third form is that observed in insects, worms, &c. Their 

 nervous system consists of two long cords running longitudinally 

 through the abdomen, dilated at intervals into knots or ganglions. 

 The first of these knots placed over the oesophagus, and called brain, 

 is scarcely any larger than those which are along the abdomen, with 

 which it communicates by filaments that encircle the oesophagus like 

 a collar. The envelope of their trunk is divided by transverse folds 

 into a certain number of rings, of which the teguments are sometimes 

 hard, sometimes soft, but to the interior of which the muscles are 

 always attached. The trunk often bears on its sides articulated limbs, 

 but is frequently unfurnished with them. We will bestow on these 

 animals the term 



Articulate Animals (Animal.ia Articulata.) It is among these that 

 the passage is observed from the circulation in closed vessels to nutri- 

 tion by imbibition, and the corresponding transition from respiration 

 in circumscribed organs to that effected by tracheae or air-vessels dis- 

 tributed through the body. The organs of taste and vision are the 

 most distinct in them, a single family alone presenting that of hearing. 

 Their jaws, when they have any, are always lateral. 



Lastly, the fourth form, which embraces all those animals known 

 under the name of Zoophytes, may be designated 



Radiate Animals (Animalia Radiata.) In all the preceding, the 

 organs of sense and motion are arranged symmetrically on the two 

 sides of an axis. There is a posterior and an anterior dissimilar face. 

 In this last division, they are disposed as rays round a centre ; and this 

 is the case even when they consist of but two series, for then the two 

 faces are alike. They approximate to the homogeneity of plants, having 

 no very distinct nervous system, nor organs of particular senses : there 

 can scarcely be perceived in some of them the vestiges of a circula- 

 tion ; their respiratory organs are almost always on the surface of the 

 body ; the greater number have only a sac without issue for the whole 

 intestine ; and the lowest families present only a sort of homogeneous 



