PREFACE. V 



think that the last of the mammiferous tribes 

 are superior to the foremost of the feathered 

 race, or that the last of the mollusca are more 

 perfect than the first of the anelides or zoo- 

 phytes. I do not believe this to be, even if we 

 understand this vague term of perfect, in the 

 sense of most completely organized. I have 

 only considered my divisions as a scale of re- 

 semblance between the individuals classed 

 under them. It is impossible to deny that a 

 kind of step downwards from one species to 

 another, may be occasionally observed. But 

 this is far from being general, and the pretended 

 scale of life, founded on the erroneous applica- 

 tion of some partial remarks, to the immensity 

 of organized nature, has proved essentially de- 

 trimental to the progress of natural history in 

 modern times, 



" In conformity with these views I have esta- 

 blished my four divisions of the animal king- 

 dom, which I believe more exactly to express 

 the mutual relations of animal conformation 

 than the old arrangement of vertebrated and 

 invertebrated tribes. For it is obvious that a 

 much greater mutual resemblance exists be- 

 tween the individuals of the former, than of 

 the latter classes. 



" In the mammiferous class I have reduced the 

 solipedes to the pachydermata, and have divided 



