52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
ogists must further remember that his classification was: 
fashioned in the first place to satisfy a long felt need 
in his particular field, botany. Later it was extended also 
to the zoological field and finally it was taken up and 
perfected by specialists in their various branches of the 
animal kingdom. 
This rigid and artificial classification failed in some 
very notable cases to find the cordial support in France 
one would naturally expect. Buffon was his first serious 
opponent on this question, and he put forth the most 
weighty and incontrovertible arguments against theSwed- 
ish naturalist. To paraphrase one, as an example, he 
said in effect: ‘“‘Why adopt so unnatural a system where 
one puts the tabby, our household pet, in the same group 
with the ferocious lion and tiger? No, no, it were far 
more natural and generally understandable if we make 
up a system of classification wherein both the dog and 
the cat were put in the same group with the horse, the 
rabbit, and the pigeon, our domestic friends.” 
Buffon’s official position, a political plum, was really 
very efficiently filled by him. As director of the Jardin 
du Roi he spent his salary and considerable additional 
sums in improvements. His correspondence bore fruit 
in constant contributions of specimens from foreign lands. 
His fiuent, elegant writing was perhaps the greatest 
single aid in the popularization of biological science in 
his time. His entomological work, in conclusion, was 
done by those in his employ. He had scarcely any first- 
hand information concerning insects. 
Another, who with greater reason, sought a natural 
system of classification was Cuvier. He was of a differ- 
ent type to Buffon and one whose work, while not 
directly in the field of entomology, still influenced the 
systematists in the latter field. The ideas embodied in 
the study of comparative morphology were, in entomology 
at least, finding expression in the changes in methods 
of taxonomy. 
The system of entomological classification given by 
Linne was founded upon the organs of flight. De Geer 
now added the organs of manducation to those of flight, 
but the resulting classification was perhaps less satis- 
factory than the former. A little later Fabricius, a pupil 
