SIMPLIFICATION OF ORGANIZATION. 8/ 



sion according to their resemblances of structure, so that 

 tlic species of each genus are alike, and more like to each 

 other than to those of any other genus ; and when the same 

 remark is true concerning the genera of each order, the 

 orders of eacli class, and the classes of each department ; it 

 is an abridged expression of the vvliole science, the embo- 

 died result of all our knowledge concerning the structure 

 and habits of animals. The place which any animal occu- 

 pies denotes all the leading circumstances of its organization 

 and economy, and expresses them in a few words. We say, 

 for example, that the dromedary belongs to the genus ca- 

 MALus, order ruminantta, class mammalia, and depart- 

 ment VERTEBRALIA. To a pcrson conversant with the 

 principles of the arrangement, these four words convey a 

 general notion of the animal, which would otherwise require 

 a lengthened description. 



The great utility of this scientific short-hand writing, in 

 abbreviating descriptions, is too obvious to need illustra- 

 tion : it is absolutely indispensable when we come to deli- 

 neate the structure and modifications of organs throughout 

 the whole animal kingdom. The recent work of Cuvier, 

 entitled the " Animal Kingdom distributed according to its 

 organization," contains the most complete and accurate 

 view of the subject. 



If we contemplate living beings arranged in one line, be- 

 ginning with the most perfect, and continued downwards, 

 we find a tolerably regular gradation from complicated to 

 simple, through the whole series. At one end is man ; at 

 the other,^an animated microscopic point, of which thousands 

 are found in a single drop of fluid. Numberless gradations 

 are placed between these ; so that, though the two ends of 

 the chain are immeasurably remote, there is close approxi- 

 mation between any two links. 



This simplification or degradation of the organization is 

 immediately perceptible on comparing together the four 

 great departments * of the animal kingdom ; and it is 



* The primary division of the animal kingdom into the four departments 

 mentioned in the text, was proposed by Cuviiiu, in the Jnnalcs du Musmm 



