572 



LETTER XXVIII. 



RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE 



MOLLUSCA. 



The system of Cuvier prevailed over the naturalist world, 

 and the happy influence was immediately felt in the higher 

 aims of its followers. Conchology was now understood to be 

 the study of a series of beings which occupied a large space 

 in the eye and plan of Him who created all things, and pro- 

 nounced them very good. The structure He had given the 

 Mollusca — the functions with which He had endowed them 

 — the relations in which He had placed them towards each 

 other, and to the animal kingdom in general, — and their use 

 and office in the world's economy, were worthy subjects of 

 study to the only intelligence that walked visible amidst this 

 scene of life ; created in part for the exercise and improve- 

 ment of his intellect; and wherein he might, perhaps, discover 

 something of the wisdom and design that planned and co- 

 ordinated the whole. And so it was seen in the higher 

 talent which occupied the field ; than which no other, in na- 

 tural science, has of late been more cultivated and made more 

 productive of good results to the j)hysiology of life, and to 

 the unveiling of the physical transitions of the globe itself. 



The discoveries in every direction which resulted, proved 

 also the soundness of the principles on which Cuvier had pro- 

 ceeded ; for it has not been found necessary to alter, in any 

 essential manner, the main sections of his system. These 

 were marshalled in a linear series, and in a descending scale, 

 commencing with the most complexly organized species, and 

 ending with those which were least so.* Lamarck, you may 



* As I have previously mentioned, Cuvier was, however, careless of the 

 finical niceties affected by others in their orderly localisation of families 

 well aware of the impossibility of arranging these in a book accordino- to 

 their affinities in nature. M. Emile Blanchard has well said : — " Tout en 

 ayant [['intention de ne pas negliger absolument 1'ordre des rapports naturels 

 dans la description des especes, je dois le dire, j'attache peu d'importance ici 

 a mettre un genre, une famille meme, apres on avant l'autre. Dans le classe- 

 ment des repre'sentants d'un ordre quelconque du regno animal, on ne par- 

 vient jamais a ranger les genres et les especes sur une seule ligne sans rompre 

 les affmites les plus evidentes." — Ann. des Sc. Nat. xi. (1849), 74. 



