Classification of the Mammalia. 51 



ART. VII. — Professor Owen on the Classification of the Mam- 

 malia. 



None of our living Naturalists displays a greater mastery over 

 vhose general truths that relate to the difficult subject of classifica- 

 tion, than Professor Owen, and we are especially indebted to him 

 for asserting that predominance of the brain and nervous system, 

 in indicating the real affinities of animals, which is one of the 

 leading truths of modern Zoology. The nervous system is the 

 primary material element in the animal, that which marks more 

 than any other its grade of intelligence and consequent rank 

 in nature. It is thus the basis of the animal frame; and though 

 less obvious than the skeleton and other superadded structures, 

 is really that which has moulded their form and proportions. No 

 one ground of arrangement will suffice to express all those grades 

 of relationship impressed on animals by their Maker, and percep- 

 tible by us; but some are more general and impo>tant than others ; 

 and we have long thought that the nervous system bears to the 

 whole the relation of a grand dominant end to which all others 

 have been .bent and made subservient. 



In an elaborate paper communicated to the Linnean Society, 

 Professor Owen has applied this principle of arrangement to the 

 mammals; and we commend the following extracts, giving a 

 sketch of his views, to all of our readers who take an interest in 

 Zoology. 



Primary Divisions of the Mammalia. — The question or pro- 

 blem of the truly natural and equivalent primary groups of the 

 class Mammalia has occupied much of my consideration, and has 

 ever been present to my mind when gathering any new facts in the 

 anatomy of the Mammalia, during dissections of the rarer forms 

 which have died at the Zoological Gardens, or on other opportu- 

 nities. 



The peculiar value of the leading modifications of the mamma- 

 lian brain, in regard to their association with concurrent modifi- 

 cations in other important systems of organs, was illustrated in 

 detail in the Hunterian Course of Lectures on the Comparative 

 Anatomy of the Nervous System, delivered by me at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons in 1842. The ideas which were broached or 

 suggested, during the delivery of that course, I have tested by 

 every subsequent acquisition of anatomical knowledge, and now 

 feel myself justified in submitting to the judgment of the Linnean 

 Society, with a view to publication, the following fourfold primary 



