EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION. 87 



The names given to the groups embranchemens, 

 or branches, Cuvier calls them constructed on these 

 four plans are vertebrates, mollusks, articulates and 

 radiates. It will thus be seen that Cuvier introduces 

 divisions above the classes of Linnaeus. In addition 

 to this he also interpolates families between orders 

 and genera. And then, again, the various divisions 

 of Cuvier admit of numerous secondary divisions, 

 such as sections, tribes, sub-genera and others besides. 



Important as was the " Systema Naturae" in stimu- 

 lating research, its influence was almost insignificant 

 in comparison with Cuvier's masterly " Lemons sur 

 1'Anatomie Compared," and his no less remarkable 

 " Regne Animal," and " Ossemens Fossiles." The 

 publication of these chefs-d'oeuvre not only gave to 

 the study of natural history a stimulus it had never 

 felt before, but it was likewise the occasion of 

 numerous new systems of zoological classification of 

 various degrees of merit. 



Naturalists now vied with one another in estab- 

 lishing new divisions, in introducing new classes, 

 orders, genera and species into their systems, and in 

 claiming, each for his own system, some special value 

 or point of superiority not possessed by the others. 

 First came the system of Lamarck, then those of 



ganisation et a la nature des animaux, et non pas a leur gran- 

 deur, a leur utilite, au plus ou moins de connaissance que nous 

 en avons, ou a toutes les autres circonstances accessoires, on 

 trouvera qu'il existe quatre formes principales, quatre plans 

 ge"neraux, si 1'on peut s'exprimer ainsi, d'apres lesquels tous les 

 animaux semblent avoir e"te modeles et dont les divisions ulteri- 

 eures, de quelque titre que les naturalistes les aient decores, ne 

 sont que des modifications assez legeres, fondees sur le developpe- 

 ment ou 1' addition de quelques parties qui ne changent rien a 

 1'essence du plan." 



