374? SYSTEM OF INSECTS. 



Who again, that observes that in proportion as pe- 

 date animals approach to the human type, their motions 

 are accomplished by fewer organs, that man walks ore 

 sublimi upon two legs ; the majority of quadrupeds upon 

 four ; insects upon six ,- the Arachnida apparently upon 

 eight ; most Crustacea upon ten ; and the Myriapods and 

 others upon many, but will thence conclude that insects 

 must precede the Arachnida and Crustacea ? 



Who, once more, that reflects that if any of the supe- 

 rior animals are deprived of a limb it can never be re- 

 produced, and that in insects the same circumstance oc- 

 curs ; while spiders and Crustacea if they lose a leg have 

 the power of reproducing it, and the Mollusca if they are 

 decapitated can gain a new head, will consent to their 

 being placed after any of these animals a ? 



Lastly, who that recollects that the Mollusca are her- 

 maphrodites, like most plants, bearing both male and 

 female organs in the same body, but will allow that in- 

 sects, in which the sexes are separate as in the Verte- 

 brates, must be more perfect, and of a higher grade b ? 

 ii. We now come to the Classes into which the Annulosa 

 are divided. This term appears first to have been em- 

 ployed by Tournefort, and was adopted by Linne c . As 

 the nervous system of animals furnishes the most promi- 

 merit distinction of a subkingdom, so the circulation of 

 their fluids, and their respiration necessarily connected 

 with it, seems best to point out the classes into which it 

 may next be resolved. But having fully explained my 



a In this respect insects excel many reptiles, which can reproduce 

 some of their parts. 



b See MacLeay If or. Entomolog. 203, 20G-. 298. 

 c Linn. Philos. Sotan. n. 155, 160. 



