50 
SUPPLEMENT 
The small number of animals composing ibis division of the 
annelida (the chetopoda),has not permitted any very great diffe- 
rences among zoologists in their systematic distribution ; for, 
after all, whether we give the name of family or even of order to 
the genera of Linnaeus, pretty nearly the same distribution of 
species will always result. But such is not the case respect- 
ing the place which should be assigned to this class in the 
animal series. 
Before the time of Linnaeus, the proper situation of any 
group of animals was a question that but little disturbed the 
repose of naturalists. Linnaeus himself, though his acute 
mind could have hardly failed to lead him to select the most 
suitable, yet in the present instance gave himself no trouble of 
the kind, since he has thrown the clictopoda into three or four 
different classes. But when natural methods were introduced 
into zoology, such anomalous distributions could no longer be 
admitted. M. Cuvier determined by the colour of the blood 
of these animals, which, without being of the same nature, has 
the relation with the blood of the vertebrata of being equally 
red, places them at the head of the articulated animals, and 
consequently before the Crustacea, the arachnida, and the in- 
sects. Some objections have been made to this allocation, 
and with an appearance of reason. It has been said that 
animals in which the organs of sense are reduced to an obtuse 
touch, which move with difficulty, without complete limbs, 
which are hermaphrodite and cannot abandon the habitat of 
the waters, are placed before insects which enjoy all the 
organs of sense ; which can execute all kinds of locomotion, 
even that of flight; whose nutriment is so various, or so 
select ; who employ such a multitude of ingenious means to 
procure it, in which the sexes are constantly separated; and 
whose modes of assuring the development of their progeny 
excite our admiration the more highly in proportion as we be- 
