92 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



which are framed with a reference to certain general 

 laws of creation, real or supposed*, we are only ac- 

 quainted with those that have at different periods been 

 proposed by M. Oken, one of the most celebrated among 

 those metaphysical naturalists who have arisen, of late 

 years, in Germany. That we may not be thought to 

 undervalue the labours of those whose aim_, like our 

 own, is to (( establish resemblances and explain ana- 

 logies," we shall here enumerate these systems, which 

 M. Oken, at different periods, has successively drawn up. 

 M. Oken's first system is founded according to an 

 idea he entertained of the predominance which water has 

 on the different parts of the body; he accordingly con- 

 ceives that all fish should be arranged under the follow- 

 ing orders : — 



I. Poissoxs Yextriers. Bony fish, without scales. 

 II. ■ Thoraciers. with scales. 



III. Membriers. The genera Fistularia, Pe- 



gasus, Diodon, &e. 



IV. Tetiers. Petromyzon,Squalus, and Raia, 



Linn. 



In the second, published five years after +, this idea 

 is abandoned for another, by which M. Oken believes 

 he can arrange the whole class so as to represent what 

 he thinks to be the seven primary divisions of the animal 

 kingdom. A general idea of this system will be ob- 

 tained by the following enumeration of its chief divi- 

 sions. He first divides the whole into two great 

 groups — Osseous and Cartilaginous fishes: under the 

 first he brings in six of his orders, leaving only the 

 seventh in the last. These seven orders are thus desig- 

 nated: — 



* See definitions of natural and artificial systems, Classif. of Animals. 

 t Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, torn. i. p. 258. 



