On Various Genera of the Ruminants. [July, 



I am fully of Cuvier's opinion that we are now 100 years too soon 

 for the possihlc tracing of the filum areadneum of Nature, and conse- 

 quently that the dry skin and inference system of the closet — which 

 ambitiously seeks to work out an impossible problem by means the 

 most inadequate and unfit, instead of supplying guidance to the only 

 persons who are in a position to complete the necessary preliminary 

 observations of the phoenomena thus prematurely sought to be genera- 

 ted — is a mistake and a grievous one. But, though I hold that all 

 present attempts at a general Systema Naturae are folly, and that the 

 true business of the master of Library and Museum in the present 

 infantine state of the science is, to quicken and guide the observing 

 powers of the field naturalist and to thus multiply infinitely the 

 chances of effective observation of phoenomena which are necessarily 

 as scattered in the place, as uncertain in the time of their occurrence, 

 yet have I no intention to underrate the value of subordinate Zoologi- 

 cal aggregations or classings of animals into minor groups or genera, 

 in the light of helps to memory and guides to observation.* On the 

 contrary, I am most fully aware of the importance of all such classifi- 

 cations in this light, and especially with reference to the material end 

 of quickening and directing ordinary observation ; and what I regret 

 is that no pains are bestowed in the proper quarter to draw up and 

 disseminate any such directions, Let such a ' how to observe' be 

 framed for each country where observation is still needful ; let it exhi- 

 bit side by side the popular and scientific names of the chief groups of 

 animals in such country ; and let each group have appended to it a 

 distinct enumeration of the actual or supposed essential characters of 

 such group, in other words, of the points that ought to be observed in 

 regard to each group, whether for verification or augmentation ; and 

 in ten years Zoology will make more real progress than under the con- 

 tinuance of the present sj^stem it can do in a century ! 



The characters of the several groups of animals proper to any given 



country are now only to be had peicemeal in numerous costly works 



wherein hardly any one has time or means to seek them ; and they 



exist there, moreover, overlaid with a deal of the leather and prunella 



■ I i umbersome useless lore. Let the characters of groups be brought 



Such guide will always tend more and more towards the natural ^ysteni, and the 

 • :ll till be those which least conflict with it. 



