RAY. 171 



than those of any of his predecessors^ and applied 

 with more constancy and precision. The divisions 

 which he has introduced into the classes of quadru- 

 peds and birds have been followed by the English 

 naturalists almost to our own day ; and we find 

 very evident traces of his system of birds in Lin- 

 naeus, Brisson, Buflfon, and all the authors who 

 have treated of that class of animals." In the Sy- 

 nopsis of Four-footed animals and Serpents, he com- 

 mences with an interesting discussion respecting the 

 nature and faculties of animals. The definition, 

 however, on which he proceeds is scarcely correct, or 

 at least sufficiently distinctive : — " An animal is an 

 animated body, endowed with sense and spontaneous 

 motion, or rather with the faculty of feeling and mov- 

 ing, although it may not change place." In treating 

 of the generation of the lower species, he discusses 

 the subject of spontaneous or equivocal origin, the 

 idea of which he refutes, and endeavours to prove 

 that all animals were created at one time. The di- 

 vision of them into viviparous and oviparous he 

 rejects, alleging, that all are in one sense or other 

 oviparous. The most suitable primary division, 

 he says, is into blooded and bloodless, or, as we 

 should say, red-blooded and white-blooded. The 

 former may be divided into those which respire by 

 lungs, and those which respire hy gills. The first of 

 these are again divided into such as have two ventri- 

 cles to the heart, and such as have only one. Ani- 

 mals with two ventricles are viviparous, as Quadru- 

 peds and Cetacea, or oviparous, as Birds. Those 

 having a heart furnished with a single ventricle, are 

 the Oviparous Quadrupeds, and serpents. Animals 

 that respire by gills are the true Fishes, not includ- 



