50 SUPPLEMENT 



The small number of animals composing this division of the 

 annelida (the chetopoda),has not permitted any very great diffe- 

 rences among zoologists in their systematic distribution ; for, 

 after all, vrhether we give the name of family or even of order to 

 the genera of Linnaeus, pretty nearly the same distribution of 

 species will always result. But such is not the case respect- 

 ing the place which should be assigned to this class in the 

 animal series. 



Before the time of Linnaeus, the proper situation of any 

 group of animals was a question that but little disturbed the 

 repose of naturalists. Linnaeus himself, though his acute 

 mind could have hardly failed to lead him to select the most 

 suitable, yet in the present instance gave himself no trouble of 

 the kind, since he has thrown the chetopoda into three or four 

 different classes. But when natural methods were introduced 

 into zoology, such anomalous distributions could no longer be 

 admitted. M. Cuvier determined by the colour of the blood 

 of these animals, which, without being of the same nature, has 

 the relation Avith the blood of the vertebrata of being equally 

 red, places them at the head of the articulated animals, and 

 consequently before the Crustacea, the arachnida, and the in- 

 sects. Some objections have been made to this allocation, 

 and with an appearance of reason. It has been said that 

 animals in which the organs of sense are reduced to an obtuse 

 touch, which move with difficulty, without complete limbs, 

 which are hermaphrodite and cannot abandon the habitat of 

 the w^aters, are placed before insects which enjoy all the 

 organs of sense ; which can execute all kinds of locomotion, 

 even that of flight; whose nutriment is so various, or so 

 select ; who employ such a multitude of ingenious means to 

 procure it, in which the sexes are constantly separated; and 

 whose modes of assuring the development of their progeny 

 excite our admiration the more highly in proportion as we be- 



