400 HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY. 



reptiles, under the title of Amphibia nantes ; and 

 his rejecting the distinction of acanthopterygian and 

 malacopterygian, which, as we have seen, had pre- 

 vailed from the time of Willoughby, and introduc- 

 ing in its stead a distribution founded on the 

 presence or absence of the ventral fins, and on 

 their situation with regard to the pectoral fins. 

 " Nothing," says Cuvier, " more breaks the true con- 

 nexions of genera than these orders of apodes, 

 jugulares, thoratiti, and abdominales" 



Thus Linnaeus, though acknowledging the value 

 and importance of natural orders, was not happy in 

 his attempts to construct a system which should lead 

 to them. In his detection of good characters for an 

 artificial system he was more fortunate. He was 

 always attentive to number, as a character ; and he 

 had the very great merit 10 of introducing into the 

 classification the number of rays of the fins of each 

 species. This mark is one of great importance and use. 

 And this, as well as other branches of natural his- 

 tory, derived incalculable advantages from the more 

 general merits of the illustrious Swede 11 ; the pre- 

 cision of the characters, the convenience of a well- 

 settled terminology, the facility afforded by the 

 binary nomenclature. These recommendations gave 

 him a pre-eminence which was acknowledged by 

 almost all the naturalists of his time, and displayed 

 by the almost universal adoption of his nomen- 

 clature, in zoology, as well as in botany; and by 

 10 Cuvier, p. 74. n p. 85. 



