NATURAL SYSTEMS. LAMARCK. 199 



resemblances. His work, unfortunately, is so rare in 

 this country, that, having in vain endeavoured to procure 

 a copy, we can only form our opinion of it from Mr. 

 MacLeay's paper in the Linn. Trans. From these 

 notices, it certainly appears that our author laid the first 

 foundation of a natural system — rude, indeed, as 

 may be expected, but replete with comparisons hitherto 

 scarcely noticed. Hermann's system may, therefore, be 

 said to have been long superseded; "for his table, as given 

 at the end of his work, is any thing but a diagram : 

 it is more confused than the Mappa Geographica of 

 Linmcus, both of which have expressed analogies as if 

 they had been affinities.' * 



(255.) The system of Lamarck, in regard to the soft or 

 invertebrated animals, deserves particular attention, since 

 he was unquestionably the first who, by his unrivalled 

 perception of natural affinities, " obtained an indistinct 

 view of that circular arrangement," which was more 

 clearly and fully developed by his successors in this intri- 

 cate field of enquiry. This has been most fully and most 

 honourably admitted by Mr. IMacLeay in the following 

 passage: — " In the first volume of his (Lamarck's) cele- 

 brated work, he acknowledges that the idea of a simple 

 series constituting the whole of the animal 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 subramose series, one commencing with 

 the Infn.torin, and leading by means of the mollusca to 

 the cuttlefish {^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 experience of its being 

 an incontrovertible truth." After enumerating the series 

 thus indicated by Lam.arck t, our author adds, " Now, 



• Linn. Trans, vol. xvi, p. 11. note. 



t Nat. HisL des Anim. sans Vert. vol. i. p. 456. 



o 4 



