IN EUROPE FRANCE. 
33 
to attach much yalue to the colours, even more than to the 
form of the remiges and tail, in forming the various groups. 
The chief boast of that Congress, as he is of the chairs and 
city of Lyons, was M, Jourdan, founder of a museum posses^; 
sing double merits. One of these is, that not being complete 
by nature, it is made so by the artifice which M. Jourdan has 
invented, of supplying the absence of the real object by the 
best figure to be obtained, and where this was wanting by the 
name. Thus, at a glance of the eye, one beholds the entire 
state of the Animal Kingdom, and at the same time one per- 
ceives what species are wanting to render the whole complete. 
The other merit of the collection consists in the arrangement 
according to the nervous system, which M. Jourdan considers 
the best for the whole kingdom, and for each of its classes. I 
who follow it in the case of the Mammifers, abstain from re- 
peating the discussions which I held with that eminent profes- 
sor, but confine myself to laying before you, at his request, an 
epitome, not only of this, but of the interesting psychological 
results which he deduces. He considers, that Animals should 
be classed according to their respective degrees of animation 
and sensibility. The circulation of the blood, respiration, 
digestion, generation, do not seem to him to correspond with 
the degrees which may be measured by means of the above 
mentioned faculties. The nervous system, on the other hand, 
is always developed in proportion to the sensibility, and on 
this, therefore, Jourdan takes bis stand. The more abundantly 
animation is exhibited, the more extensive does the nervous 
synthesis appear. The fly, for instance, is more animated than 
the oyster, and thus the advocate of a single series of beings, 
would see assigned to the Articulata that pre-eminence over 
the Mollusca, which was denied to them by Cuvier. Just as 
vegetables and minerals have their sovereign characteristic 
law, so animals have theirs in anhnation, which shows itself by 
means of the sensations producible, in successive degrees, from 
the lowest Insect up to Man, Avho, combining them all, raises 
them to a yet more elevated point, so that Man, to adopt 
Jourdan’s expression, is an animal microcosm,. In the three 
lowest divisions of the Animal Kingdom, the sensations only 
33 0 
