ORGANIC EVOLUTION 41 



Any classification of organisms, however, was an 

 analysis made by man as a means of logical study, and 

 was more or less artificial. The classification of 

 Linnaeus was largely artificial. It was based on super- 

 ficial qualities, and special creation. But he first used 

 the binomial nomenclature, a terse formula for descrip- 

 tion, and fixing attention on species, and in use at the 

 present time. His classification was not based on in- 

 ternal structure, or anatomical and biological or generic 

 features. He extended his lists by description of 

 species only, under the presupposition that they were 

 created. 



Cuvier classified by comparative anatomy, but still 

 based on fixity of species. He believed in special crea- 

 tion. He conceived four types of animals: the 

 vertebrated, the moluscan, the articulated, and the 

 radiated. He first wrote a pamphlet in 1795. He first 

 gave expression to the idea of correlation of parts; 

 viz., that, for instance, a cloven hoof indicated certain 

 forms of other parts. He was the founder of compara- 

 tive anatomy. But he was also the inventor of catas- 

 trophism. He asserted that apparent differences, and 

 likenesses, of fossil forms in the strata of the earth, 

 were caused by the destruction of all life forms in the 

 different epochs, and the special creation of new ones. 



Von Baer founded the science of embryology, which 

 supported Cuvier 's comparative anatomy. When the 

 theory of evolution was born, in 1859, it supplemented 

 Cuvier and Von Baer, by eliminating special creation 

 and substituting close genetic affinities. Embryology, 

 and comparative anatomy, after that, had a new mean- 

 ing for classification. Man was then dethroned from 

 the position of a special artificial order, which Cuvier 

 created for him, and given a family in the order of 



