14 The Science of Life. 



Following on the steps of Ray, Linnaeus (1707-1778) 

 established the binomial system of nomenclature, and 

 the grades of classification (class, order, genus, species, 

 variety). His great work, the Systema Natures, which 

 forms the starting-point of modern taxonomy, passed 

 through twelve editions in the course of his lifetime. 

 (i2th ed. 1768). 



The rapid progress of anatomy, now rendered more 

 precise by the example of Linnaeus, led to a multiplica- 

 tion in the number of classes. Linnaeus had 



Lamarck. - ,.. * _>. , A . . 



recognized six Mammals, Birds, Amphi- 

 bians (including Reptiles), Fishes, Insecta, and Vermes; 

 it was one of Lamarck's achievements to do something 

 towards the setting the great lumber-room of "Vermes" 

 in order. He established sixteen classes instead of six, 

 and his list of genera was ten times longer than that of 

 Linnaeus. His classification (1801-1812) represents the 

 climax of the attempt to arrange the groups of animals 

 in linear order from lower to higher, in what was called 

 a sea la naturce. 



We may trace to Cuvier four distinct contributions 

 to classification : 



(1) More than the best of his predecessors he placed classifi- 

 _ . cation on an anatomical basis. This is a sure 



foundation in proportion as the anatomy is accurate 

 and thorough, which could not always be said even of Cuvier's. 

 Thus in his R^gne Animal (Paris, 1829) the barnacles are still 

 among Molluscs, and the Batrachians among Reptiles. 



(2) He opposed the erroneous conception of a scala natures, 

 and sought to establish the idea of diverging branches or " em- 

 branchements" , the beginning of what we would now call a 

 genealogical tree. The branches he recognized Vertebrata, 

 Mollusca, Articulata, and Radiata were indeed too few, and 

 only the first remains now in the minds of zoologists very much 

 as Cuvier saw it, but his leading idea of divergent lines represents 

 a great step in classification. It must be remembered, however, 

 that these lines did not mean to Cuvier, as they might have 

 meant to his contemporary Lamarck, lines of evolution. The 

 idea in Cuvier's mind was quite static. 



(3) In founding palaeontology, Cuvier did a twofold service to 

 classification. He showed that the extinct forms were just as 

 much subjects of scientific inquiry as the living forms ; he also 

 showed that just as the anatomy of recent animals aided in a 



