LECTURE L m 



high degree of merit, and perhaps may be allowed 

 to be the most truly philosophic that has yet been 

 seen. 



^Monsieur Cuvier divides the whole animal world 

 into what he calls Vertebrated and Invertebrated 

 animals ; that is, such as are furnished with a back- 

 bone, divided into the joints called vertebrae, and 

 forming a case or guard for the spinal marrow, 

 and into such as are destitute of this series of 

 bones, and are therefore Invertebrated animals. 

 His first class, viz. the Vertebrated animals, are 

 subdivided into such as have warm blood and a 

 heart with two cavities or ventricles, and into such 

 as have comparatively cold blood, and a heart with 

 one ventricle. In the first division then of Verte- 

 brated animals rank Quadrupeds and Birds, and in 

 the second, or such as have cold blood and a 

 single ventricle, rank the Linnaean Amphibia and 

 Fishes. 



The second great class, consisting of the Irwer- 

 tebrated animals, or such as are destitute of the 

 spine or back-bone, is divided into such as have a 

 system of blood-vessels for the purpose of circu- 

 lation, and such as have none. 



The first of these divisions, or that consisting of 



