To our countryman Ray we are principally indebted for the first clear zoological method. That great naturalist, for originality and comprehensive philosophical discernment, may, without hesitation, be placed next after Aristotle himself.
The brilliant style of Buffon fixed the attention of the civilised world upon the subject which his eloquence at once rendered capti vating. A more severe writer might have done greater things for natural history as a science, but Buffon at once secured a willing audience, and made all Europe his class. To him above all others may be conceded the merit of making the subject decidedly popular at once and for ever. The way was thus prepared for Linnaeus.
In the last edition of the Systema Nature; revised by its great author, the Animal Kingdom is thus arranged : Heart bilocular, with two auricles. f Viviparous Mammalia.
Blood warm, red. 1 Oviparous Birds.
Heart unilocular, with one auricle. f Arbitrary lungs Amphibia.
Blood cold, red. 'External gills Fishes.
Heart unilocular, with one auricle.I With antennm Insects.
Circulating fluid (sanies) cold, With tentacula Vermes.
white.
I. llIammalia.
Heart bilocular, with two auricles. Blood warm, red. Lungs respiring reciprocally. Jaws incumbent, covered : teeth inserted in most. Penis intrans viviparas, lactiferas. Senses: Tongue, Nostrils, Eyes, Ears, Papillm. Covering : Hairs, very sparing in the aquatics. Props (Fulcra): Four feet, except in those which are merely aquatic, in which the posterior feet are conjoined iri the fin of the taiL A tail in most.
Birds.
Heart biloenlar, with two auricles. Blood warm, red. Lungs respiring reciprocally. Jaws incumbent, naked, exserted, toothless. Penis subintrans absque scroto oviparas crusts calcarea. Senses : Tongue, Nostrils, Eyes, Ears without auricles. Covering : Incum bent imbricated feathers. Props : Two feet, two wings. Rump heart shaped.
III. Amphibia.
Heart nnilocular, with one auricle. Blood cold, red. Lungs breathing arbitrarily. Jaws incumbent. Penes bini. Eggs generally ruembranaceous. Senses : Tongue, Nostrils, Eyes, Ears. Covering : Cutaceons, naked. Props : Various, null in some.
IV. Fishes.
Heart unilocular, with one auricle. Blood cold, red. Gills external, compressed. Jaws incumbent. Penes nulli. Eggs without albumen.
Senses : Tongue, Nostrils( I), Eyes (not ears). Covering : Imbricated scales. Props : Natatorial fins.
V. Insects.
Heart unilocular. Sanies „ cold. Spiracles, lateral body pores. Jaws lateral. Penes intrantcs. Senses : Tongue, Eyes, Antennae on a head without a brain (neither ears nor nostrils). Covering : Cataphracta, sustaining an osseous cutis. Pr6ps : Feet, Wings in some.
VI. Times.
Heart with one ventricle. Sauies cold. Spiracles obscure. Jaws multifarious. Penes varii Hermaphroditis Andro gynia. Senses : Tentacles (no head, hardly eyes, neither ears nor nostrils.) Covering : Calcareous, or null except spines. Props : Neither feet nor fins.
This,table concludes with the following summary, which will be beet given in the original form :— • "Vivarium Naturm sic alit vi plicis ferrate Animalia.
"Mammalia pilosa, in Terra gradiuntur, loquentia. Ares plumosm, in acre volitant, cantantes. Amphibia tunicata, in calore, serpunt, sibilantia. Pisces squamati, in aqua natant, popyzantes. Insecta cataphracta, in niece exsiliunt, tinnitautia. Vermes excoriati, in humido panduntur, obmutescentes." It is impossible to enter into the details of the arrangement of Limucus, without being struck with the comprehensive views of the author, when the imperfect light that existed at the time is considered.
The subject was now taken up by able hands ; and Pallas, especially in his anatomy of the Mires, made a great advance in Comparative Anatomy. Among the most active and enlightened labourers in this department, our own John Hunter stands pre-emincut in England and Blumenbach in Germany.
But the time was now come when a new light was to arise ; and George Cuvicr, guided by his dissections, became the great leader of his day. The Anatomie Compar6e," the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' and, finally, the ' ltbgne Animal,' were the results of his acute and compre hensive demonstrations. In his hands Comparative Anatomy became a new power among the dynamics of natural history, and by its aid he rebuilt the extinct fossil forms that before his time lay scattered over the face of our earth in wild and apparently inextricable disorder.