OOMPAKATOT ANATOMY 





very early date. The name of that desoendsn- 



race, and < I > I 'lato, Aristotle (born 384 B.C.), 



most in tin- riuik of zoologists M the author of a 



MO much of animal* M of the organ* 



mills. Thin may be accounted for by the tale which 



I'liny t.fiN us, ' that Alexander the Great being mitten with 



f knowing the natures of animal*, ordered several 



ud persona over the whole of Ania and Greece, who lived 



bird-catching, and fishing, or who had the care of 



i, rivers, stews, and aviaries, to furnish Aristotle 



uiitoriala for a work on animals." Many ancient writer* 



1 in the wake of Aristotle; but it is only within the 



iroo hundred years more especially the hist hundred 



1 advance ban been made towards that dosir- 



alil.- i-iid. an accurate classification of this very important 



>.">! Conrad Gesnor, an eminent naturalist, adopted, in 

 y of Quadrupeds," the simple method of classifying 

 illy. 



Th iir r stop towards a scientific classification was made by 

 ur own countrymen, John Bay, justly called the precursor 

 of Limueus. He divided the Mammalia into two great classes : 

 tlu ungulatod, or hoofed animals ; and the ungniculated, or 

 with nails or claws. Both Linnaeus and Bnffon bor- 

 rowed largely from tho works of Ray. The former adopted the 

 same divisions as Ray, each of which he further divided into 

 five families, and at a later period added several new genera. 

 In 1780 Storr published his " Prodromns," in which ho divided 

 this class into throe phalanxes : the first consisting of those 

 mammals which have feet proper for walking ; the second, of 

 those whoso feet ore fin-shaped, but with distinct toes ; and the 

 third, of those which have true fins, without any apparent toes. 

 Five years later Boddaert divided them into two great groups : 

 the terrestrial and the aquatic mammals. In 1798 Cuvier pub- 

 lished tho " Elementary Table of Animals," which afterwards 

 he developed into his " Comparative Anatomy and Animal King- 

 dom." He separates mammals into fourteen orders, and those 

 again into families. 



Desmarest, taking Cnvier and Storr for his guides, makes 

 throe sections : the unguiculated, the hoofed, and tho finned 

 Mammalia. Tho most recent classification is that by Professor 

 Huxley, founded upon the ingenious one of the celebrated 

 French anatomist, M. Blainville, who divided them into three 

 primary groups, according to the characters of their repro- 

 ductive organs, especially the reproductive organs of tho 

 female; viz., the Ornithodelphia, Didelphia, and the Mono- 

 delphia. 



1. Tho Ornitltadclphia (upvts, a bird; 8fA<f>u9, a viorrib) com- 

 prises those two remarkable genera of mammals, the Ornitho- 

 rhynchua and Echidna, which constitute tho order Monotro- 

 mata.* 



2. Tho Didelphia (81, two; 8eA<J>vs, ioomJ>) contains only a 

 single order, tho Marsupials. 



3. Tho Monodelphia (juui'os, single ; 3*>.<pvy, toomb) comprses 

 all the orders of Mammalia with a single uterus, or womb, in 

 which tho young are developed and nourished by moans of a 

 placenta, which, closely attached to tho uterine walls, enables 

 the maternal blood to pass to the offspring; and the waste pro- 

 ducts, which result from the rapidly developing tissues, to be 

 removed away from it. Certain orders have a discoidal deci- 



placenta. Those are : 



1. The Primates, containing three eub-orders. (a) Anthro- 

 poidae, man. (6) Kimiada?, apes and monkeys. (c) Le- 



ilcB. 



2. Tho Insectivora. The so-called flying lemurs (galeo- 

 pithecus). Tho hedgehogs, shrews, and the moles belong to this 

 order. 



3. Clwiroptera. Bats. 



4. i;<x!i ntia. Rats, hares, squirrels, etc. 



Three orders possess a zonary dcciduato placenta : 



1. Tho Carnivora. This order contains all the cats, hysonaa, 

 civets, dogs, bears, weasels, racoons, and seals. 



2. The Probosridea. The elephants, mastodons, and dino- 

 theria constitute this order. 



3. Hii,-nrni'li'n. Containing tho single genus hyrax. 



'' MoKot, single; rp'nua from TiTptuW, to pieref having only 

 opening for the urinary, genital, and intestinal carat*. 



one 



The following order* have a 



I Tho U*9ulat* : Tbu order U divisible into two 

 orders, which puw into one another. () The Peiias odaeijia 

 (hones, rhinoceros**, tapir*, palsaotherk, macraneheniss). with 

 the third digit of each foot ymmethoal in it*elf . t-- 

 The Artiodactyla (hippopotamuses, pigs* anoplothm, rnmi- 

 nante). 



toot*. In this older the whalebone whales, the dol- 

 phin*, and the extinct leoglodonU, are comprised. 



Two order* of monodelpbotu Mammalia remain the Sireoir. 

 and the Edentata. The pl*oenttsoti of the first U unknown, 

 and of the saooad, variable. 



The existing Sirenia are the entuarin*. or littoral, dngonge 

 and manatee*. Tho loth*, the extinct megatherium, and it* 

 allies tho ant-oaters, tho pangolin*, and the armsdilloe* bekwf 

 to the order Edentata (Hnxloy). 



If we deny Divine agency, there i* something otteriy incom- 

 prehensible in the whole of Nature'* work*. Through a pro- 

 gressive series of year* we find plant and animal alike faithful 

 to their individual kind, propagating being* limilar to them- 

 selves with undeviating regularity ; and, except under ceitsJa 

 abnormal or artificial condition*, never departing from their 

 peculiar type. Each species, and the individual familie* which 

 it comprise*, a* well a* animal*, have their history traceable 

 back to the time of the light-giving gene*i* mentioned in the 

 first page of sacred history. Through the long period of time 

 which lias elapsed since then while nation* hare ri*en from a 

 barbaric to a powerful and wealthy condition ; while eitiee have . 

 been raised up in all the lofty grandeur and magnificence which 

 characterise wealth and power ; and while nation* and eitiee 

 alike have passed away, either suddenly by the disasters of 

 war, or by tho gradual process of decline and decay, till they 

 have become mere historic affairs the world of plant* and 

 animals have preserved, in all tho pristine excellence of their 

 original conditions, every essential feature of their primitive 

 type. 



Every living being can, in a greater or less degree, contribute 

 towards the reproduction of beings like itself. 



This power of reproduction of kind, possessed alike by plant* 

 and animals, constitute* one of the most important and interact* 

 ing subjects which the naturalist ha* to deal with. From the 

 simple method of subdivision, or that of budding, in the lowest 

 forms of living being*, to that more complex process by which 

 reproduction is effected in the higher forma of animal life, we 

 can trace a similar agency. As Dr. Watt* ha* beautifully 

 remarked, " Ever since tho week of creative wonder* God 

 has ordered all these creatures to fill the world with inhabit- 

 ants of their own kind. And they have obeyed him in a 

 long succession of almost six thousand year*. He ha* 

 granted a divine patent to each creature for the aole pro- 

 duction of its own likeness, with an utter prohibition to all 

 the rest." 



In the lowest scale of animal life the law "increase and 

 multiply" is more energetically and abundantly carried out 

 than in the higher forms. With complexity of times, increased 

 number of independent organs, and increased intelligence, a 

 longer time is required for the maturation of tho embryonic 

 young. To this end, the higher animals are provided with a 

 distinct set of organs, devoted exclusively to reproduction. 

 There are two distinct modes of development in plant* and 

 animals the non-sexual and the sexual. Tho non-sexual mode 

 of reproduction occurs only in the lower forma of animal life, 

 and consists of fission, or simple cleavage ; or of gemmation, 

 or budding. By fission is meant a constriction occurring in 

 the soft body of an animal, ultimately cutting off a part, which 

 is a complete and independent individual in every respect, as 

 the parent from which it ha* been severed (Marshall). The con- 

 striction may occur at one or several parts. Infusorial animal- 

 cultB, and the segments of some of the intestinal Termiform 

 ontozoa, are developed after this manner. Some of the 

 annelida (worms) when cut across develop a new head to the 

 lower half and a new tail to the upper portion of the divided 

 body. . 



By gemmation offshoots or buds spring from the body of 

 the parent animal, in some instances adhering to the parent 

 stem, and in others, becoming detached, more away and develop 

 .Ivee as independent organisms. 



In the sexual or oviparous mode of reproduction, an ovum 



