THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED. 539 



Often, indeed, in looking over etymologies, one must be impressed 

 with the insufficiency of philological learning alone for the solution of 

 knotty questions. A living knowledge of the objects named, as well 

 as of their history, is often requisite for a full understanding of the 

 signiticance or aptness of the names. 



It was one of the happiest inspirations of Linnteus to segi'egate all 

 the mammiferous animals — the hairy quadrupeds, the bats,' the sire- 

 nians, and the cetaceans — in a single class. No one before had appre- 

 ciated the closeness of the relations of the several types, and there was 

 no name for the new class (or concept) as there was for all his other 

 classes. A name, therefore, had to be dev'ised. It was another happy 

 inspiration that led Linna?us to name the class "mammalia." Those 

 who are familiar with the works and ratiocination, and especially the 

 nomenclature, of the great Swede may divine his thoughts and share 

 with him in the execution of his ideas, although he did not give 

 etymologies. For those '-animalia" whieh are animals par excellence 

 he would coin a name which would recall that fact. (Animal, be it 

 rememl)ered, is often used in popular converse in the sense of 

 manmial.) 



The name in question was evidently made in analogy with animalia. 

 In animalia the principal component was aniina^ the vital principle, or 

 animal life. (Old Nonius Marcellus well detined and contrasted the 

 word — "animus est ([uo sai)innis. anima qua vivinuis.") The singular 

 of the word was animal. In manunalia the essential component is 

 inanvmK, })reast; the singular should l)e mammal. The terminal 

 clement (-al) was coincident with ratlier than derived directly from 

 the Latin suffix (-alis) which expressed the idea of resemblance or 

 relationship: anyway, it was used in substantive form, and the idea of 

 possession or inclusion was involved, as in the case of animal, capital, 

 feminal, tribunal — all well-known Latin words. In tine, a mannnal is 

 a being especially marked by or n()tal)le for having mannna'. 



The truth embodied in the word was almost immediately appreciated 

 by most naturalists at least, and the class of mammals has been adopted 

 ever since the Linna?an period by zoologists. Naturally the new 

 Latin name was to some extent replaced by names in the veiiiacular 

 tongues of most nations. 



In the acconmiodating English alone the Latin word was adopted 

 with only a change in its ending, and thus the class name "manmials'' 

 was introduced, and the singular form — "mammal" — followed as a 

 matter of course, and by chance (or rather the genius of language) 

 exactly coincided in form with the singular of the Latin word. 



Not only had the name nothing to do with the alleged derivative 

 Latin words — it was not admitted at all into the vernacular speech of 

 France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy. The naturalists and lexicographers 



