56 MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 



This arrangement is particularly deserving of 

 attention, from its being admitted by the author of 

 the circular system to be the first approach to a 

 perception of that order of affinities which he sup- 

 poses to pervade the whole animal kingdom. " In 

 the first volume of his celebrated work," says Mr. 

 Mac Leay, " Lamarck acknowledges that the idea 

 of a simple series constituting the whole of the ani- 

 mal kingdom does not agree with the evident order 

 of nature, because, to use his own words, this order 

 is far from simple; it is branched, and is at the 

 same time composed of several distinct series. He 

 then presumes, that animals offer two separate sub- 

 ramose series, one commencing with the infusoria, 

 and leading by means of the mollusca to the cuttle- 

 fish (cephalopoda), and the other commencing 

 with the intestinal worms, and leading to insects. 

 Now, this notion could only have gained a place in 

 the mind of Lamarck from a conviction by experi- 

 ence of its being an incontrovertible truth. His 

 table of affinities, however confused it may appear, 

 or suhramose, as it is termed, coincides with the 

 tabular view which I have laid before the public. 

 We have only to join the radiata to the cirripeda. 

 and the annelides to fishes, and Lamarck's table of 

 affinities, with scarcely any alteration, becomes pre- 

 cisely the same as mine*." 



In addition to the various branches of natural 

 history already enumerated as cultivated by this 

 indefatigable and ingenious inquirer, another still 

 * Horas Entomologieas, p. 213. 



