142 Thomas Henry Huxley 



group of Dasyuridas, and Oldfield Thomas has described 

 a new mammal from South America which is unlike 

 the opossums of America and like the diprotodonts of 

 Australia. So that, while the general opinion has been 

 against Huxle3''s division, Notogoea, in the strict mean- 

 ing which he gave to it, there has recently been an 

 opinion growing in its favour. 



Huxley also made minor alterations in Mr. Sclater's 

 scheme by forming an additional circumpolar region 

 for the Northern Hemisphere, and by elevating New 

 Zealand into a separate region, distinct from Australia. 

 On these points there is a balance of opinion against 

 his views. 



Before leaving the subject of Huxley's contributions 

 to vertebrate anatomy, the actual details of which 

 would occupy far too much space, it is necessary to 

 mention the great importance to zoology of the new 

 terms and new ideas he introduced into classification. 

 His mind was, above all things, orderly and comprehen- 

 sive, and while, in innumerable minute points, from the 

 structure of the palate of birds to the structure of the 

 roots of human hair (actually the subject of Huxley's 

 first published contribution to scientific knowledge), he 

 added to the number of known facts, he did even more 

 important work in co-ordinating and grouping together 

 the known body of facts. To him are due not only the 

 names, but the idea, that the mammalian animals fall 

 into three grades of ascending complexitj' of organisa- 

 tion : the reptile-like Prototheria, which lay large eggs, 

 and which have many other reptilian characters ; the 

 Metatheria, or marsupial animals ; the Eutheria, or 

 higher animals, which include all the common animals 

 from the mole or rabbit up to man. In a similar 

 fashion, he grouped the vertebrates into three divisions, 



