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LETTER IV. 



CLASS IF1CAT10N....NOMENCLATU RE.. ..TUBIPORITE.... APPROACH ING 



TO TUBIPORA MUSIC A TUBIPORA STRUES IMBEDDED IN 



MARBLE MR. HATCHETl's EXPERIMENTS ANIMAL MEM- 

 BRANE DETECTED IN THE MARBLE FORMED BY THIS CORAL. 



1 HE classification of zoophytes by the illustrious Linnaeus, is that 

 which will be adopted in the following pages. Mons. Cuvier, whose 

 indefatigable exertions for promoting the advancement of comparative 

 anatomy and oryctology, demand the gratitude of every lover of 

 science, has proposed a different arrangement of animal bodies ; 

 which does not, however, seem necessary to be here adopted in pre- 

 ference to that of Linnaeus. Indeed, without dwelling on the admis- 

 sion of holothuria and siphunculus among the zoophytes, the disposal 

 of echinus and asteria among those animals which derive their names 

 from their resembling plants in their figure, appears to render the 

 classification of Cuvier objectionable. By the adoption of the arrange- 

 ment of Linnaeus, that confusion also will be avoided, which might arise 

 from any deviation from that general language of natural historians, 

 which has been derived from that particular mode of classification. 



It is also necessary to make a few remarks respecting the vocabulary 

 of oryctology. This science, it must be acknowledged, is too little 

 advanced in this country, to have obtained a full and correct nomen- 

 clature. The restricted knowledge we possess, respecting many fossils, 

 is one considerable cause of the little progress which has been made 

 in this respect: added to which, is the circumstance of the English 

 writers on these subjects having generally employed, unchanged, the 

 several terms which have served to designate these substances in the 

 Latin tongue. 



