A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



scheme of creation which it was destined to occupy. 

 Once such affinities had been correctly determined and 

 interpreted for all species, the zoological classification 

 would be complete for all time. A survey of the com- 

 pleted schedule of classification would then show at a 

 glance the details of the preconceived system in ac- 

 cordance with which the members of the animal king- 

 dom were created, and zoology would be a "finished" 

 science. 



In the application of this relatively simple scheme, 

 to be sure, no end of diffictilties were encountered 

 Each higher animal is composed of so many members 

 and organs, of such diverse variations, that naturalists 

 could never agree among themselves as to just where a 

 balance of affinities between resemblances and differ- 

 ences should be struck ; whether, for example, a given 

 species varied so much from the type species of a genus 

 say the genus Gothic house as to belong properly 

 to an independent genus say Romanesque house; 

 or whether, on the other hand, its divergencies were 

 still so outweighed by its resemblances as to permit of 

 its retention as an aberrant member of genus number 

 one. Perpetual quibbling over these matters was 

 quite the order of the day, no two authorities ever 

 agreeing as to details of classification. The sole point 

 of agreement was that preconceived types were in 

 question if only the zoologists could ever determine 

 just what these types were. Meantime, the student 

 who supposed classifications to be matters of moment, 

 and who laboriously learned to label the animals and 

 birds of his acquaintance with an authoritative Latin 

 name, was perpetually obliged to unlearn what he had 



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