342 ON THE ORDERS 



turalists deserve to be condemned severely for this mode 

 of reasoning, since we have seen in modern times, not- 

 withstanding the complete refutation of such notions by 

 the influence of comparative anatomy, that, besides Crus- 

 taceous animals, others, such as the Cirripeda and An- 

 nelides, have been confounded with the Mollusca for no 

 other reason than because they are all protected by an 

 external shell. Whatever good Linnaeus may have done 

 to zoological science so far as it relates to the Vertebrated 

 animals, whatever benefits he may even have conferred 

 on Entomology so far as relates to the subdivision of 

 Hexapod insects, it ought not to be concealed that until 

 the works of Lefrancq de Berkley, Bruguieres, Cuvier 

 and Lamarck appeared, our general knowledge of the 

 Un vertebrated animals remained exactly in the same state 

 in which Aristotle had left it, excepting indeed that in 

 the Sy sterna Naturcc, Crustaceous animals were placed 

 with the other Annulosa. Perhaps, also, Redi's discovery of 

 the mode in which insects are generated may form an ex- 

 ception to the perfect justice of this remark, notwithstand- 

 ing that it is very far from being true that even with this the 

 ancients were altogether unacquainted. It is no stigma on 

 the reputation of Linnaeus that he should have left so much 

 undone; but rather wonderful that he should have done so 

 much. In allowing, therefore, that the Aristotelian groups 

 into which, after the example of an Englishman, he di- 

 vided the winged insects, however badly arranged, are 

 masterly and even natural*, — and in granting that, the 

 entomologist ought never to be considered as the natu- 

 ralist who owes him the least portion of gratitude, — we 



* It is singular that the only order of Hexapod Insects which is of Lin- 

 naean invention, namely, the Hemiptera, should have been constructed on 

 erroneous principles, as Degeer first perceived. 



