of the Dichotomous System. 201 



himself seen if he had not mistaken Lamarck's " rapports entre 

 des parties semblables ou analogues" for relations of analogy. 

 Lamarck says in the very passage, " Voici l'ordre d'importance 

 qu'il faut attribuer aux organes particuliers que la nature a 

 employe dans l'organization interieure des animaux: 



" 1. Les organes de la digestion. 



" 2. Ceux de la respiration. 



" 3. Ceux du mouvement. 



" 4. Ceux de la generation. 



" 5. Ceux de sentiment. 



" 6. Ceux de la circulation." 



Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans Vert., vol. i. p. 360. 



Now I say, admitting that the organs of circulation in An- 

 nulosa may be, or are, inferior to those of Mollusca, still in the 

 above five other systems of superior importance the former 

 animals are infinitely more perfect in their organization than 

 the latter. So much for Dr. Fleming's judgement of logic; 

 a judgement which enables him also to decide that by thus 

 placing the Mollusca below the Annulosa, I have arbitrarily 

 arranged the animal kingdom into the following five groups: 

 Acrita. 

 Mollusca. 

 Vertebrata. 

 Annulosa. 

 Radiata. 



I must persist however in asserting that neither the arrange- 

 ment of these groups, nor the groups themselves, are arbitrary. 

 Both I may say are almost mathematically proved to be na- 

 tural, since the five groups are distinguished, as I have shown 

 (Hor. Entom. p. 200,) by their five respective nervous sy- 

 stems ; and because, as to their arrangement, it certainly re- 

 quires the possession of remarkable powers of thought to entitle 

 us to suspect that a bee is an inferior animal in nature's scale 

 to an oyster. 



The only objections that the critic dares to adduce against 

 the above arrangement of the animal kingdom are two, viz. 

 the relation of affinity between cuttle-fish and chelonial reptiles 

 on the one hand, and between fishes and red-blooded worms 

 on the other. This is indeed scarcely the place for entering 

 upon so vast and pleasing a field of anatomical demonstration ; 

 my letter is already too long, but I trust notwithstanding that 

 you, my dear friend, will excuse my trespassing still further 

 on your time by a few remarks on this part of the subject. 



There is a certain rule in nature so evident that I never 

 knew it doubted, except by Mr. Bicheno, who tells us that no 



N. S. Vol. 8. No. 45. Sept. 1 830. 2D groups 



