1 ■ . ' ,-. p^$fc i^ 2 £ o i • « /. >• Gil .ill. -r 1 - H J \/ /' - r 1 -A 1 r' - \ -Y -\ I7&1- 1 Y v 11C THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, 5lrrnngrb: nftrr its (Drgnni)ntinn ; FORMING A NATURAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS, AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. BY TIIE LATE BARON CUVIER, COUNCILLOR OF FRANCE, AND MINISTER OF PU3LIC INSTRUCTION. TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF SCIENCE. THE MAMMALIA, BIRDS, AND REPTILES, BY EDWARD BLTTn. TIIE FISHES AND RADIATA, BY ROBERT MUDIE. TIIE MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS, BY GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D. TIIE ARTICULATED ANIMALS, BY J. O. WESTWOOD, F. L.S. A NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS BY W. B. CARPENTER, M.D., F.R.S., AND J. 0. WESTWOOD, F.L.S Eltustrntrt 6y CTIjrcc IgnnVKD "Engtmbfugs on ZCioots ant CT;irtn=four on Steel. LONDON: WM. S. ORR AND CO., AMEN COR N E R. PATERNOSTER ROW ML 2 6 19 9: ' PREFACE Perhaps no book was ever so soon, so generally, and with so little envy, admitted to take its place at the head of that department of knowledge to which it belongs, as the Regne Animal of the illustrious Baron Cuvier. This is a high, but a just tribute, both to the work and the author ; for it at once showed that the former is what had long been required, and that the latter was as much beloved for the kindness and urbanity of his manners, as he was admired for the comprehensive range and unprecedented accuracy of his views. It must, indeed, be admitted, that, until Cuvier's great work made its appearance, we had no modern systematic arrangement of animals which applied equally to all the Classes, Orders, and Families ;— which brought the extinct species into their proper situations in the living catalogue, and enabled everv discoverer of a new animal, or part of an animal, instantly to connect it with its proper tribe or family. Important, however, as are the labours of this great naturalist, they could not possibly extend beyond the limits of what was known ; and as Cuvier was no speculative theorist, but a rigid adherent to nature and fact, he kept his system considerably within the limits of those who were more speculative, and consequently less accurate. For students, no work is equal to that of Cuvier, for it is at once compre- hensive and concise ; and though the student may choose a particular de- partment, and require books more in detail with reference to that department, he must still have the Regne Animal to point out to him the general analo- gies of the living creation. The present work is a complete Cuvier, as re gards the essential part of the arrangement; and it is not a mere translation, but in some respects a new book, embodying the original one. Throughout the whole of it, there will be found original remarks ; but these are alwaj S distinguished from that which belongs to Cuvier, by being inclosed within brackets. This mode of arrangement was thought to be much hotter than PREFACE. the appending of notes, which always divide the attention of the reader, and weaken the interest of the subject. Many of the classes and orders have been reinvestigated, and many new species added. This is most extensively done in the departments which were intrusted to Mr. Blyth and Mr. "West- wood ; but it runs more or less throughout the whole ; and the publishers flatter themselves that this will be of great service to all students of this highly interesting branch of knowledge. The different sizes of type, which bear some proportion to the comparative importance of the subject, will enable the reader to glean an outline of the system ; — to obtain something more than a bare outline, he must read the entire work. To these remarks which were appended in 18^6 to the first edition, the publishers may be permitted to add a few words respecting the present re- print. It was not considered desirable to disturb the illustrious author's arrangement by the introduction of a more modern system, nor was it thought proper to overlook altogether, in a work professing to give a com- plete view of Animated Nature, the results of modern investigation. The publishers have, therefore, added supplementary articles to such branches as seemed to require it; Dr. Carpenter kindly supplying what was wanting to the Mollusca and Fishes, and Mr. Westwood performing the same to his own department of the work. In addition to these improvements, the work is now illustrated by thirty plates of Animals, etched by Mr. Thomas Landseer, and four plates re- presenting the different races of Mankind ; and the publishers present it in its present form in the belief that it will merit public approbation. Amen Corner, Paternoster Row. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION . INTRODUCTION . Of Natural History, and of Systems gene- rally ..... Of living Beings, and of Organization in general ..... Division of Organized Beings into Animal and Vegetable .... Of the Forms peculiar to the Organic Ele- ments of the Animal Body, and of the principal Combinations of its Chemical Elements .... Of the Forces which act in the Animal Body Summary idea of the Functions and Organs of the Bodies of Animals, and of their various degrees of complication Of the Intellectual Functions of Animals . Of Method, as applied to the Animal King- dom ..... General Distribution of the Animal King- dom into four great Divisions — Vertebrate Animals, Molluscous Animals, Articulate Animals, Radiate Animals VERTEBRATE ANIMALS Subdivision into four Classes MAMMALIA Division into Orders Himana, or Man Peculiar Conformation of Man Physical and Moral Developement of Man Varieties of the Human Species QC MHU'MANA Monkey-like Animals Monkeys of America Carnahia Cheiroptera Insectivura Carnivora Mahsufiata B ENTIA EDENTATA i Irdinai y Bdentata M Hremata Paohydskmata Proboecidea < Ordinary Pachydermata Solidongola 1 I RUMINANTIA Without horns 10 ■ With horns 13 Cetacka Herbivora 13 Ordinaria Analogies of the Teeth of Mam 10 MALIA OVIPAROUS VERTEBRATES IN GENE- 19 RAL AVES Division into Orders Accipitres 21 Diurnal Birds of Prey 22 Nocturnal Birds of Prey Passerine Dentirostres 25 Fissirostres 28 Conirostres Tenuirostres 31 Syndactyli scansores Affinities of the three trecedin Orders 32 GALLINiS 35 Gralljb 37 Brevipennea 38 Pressirostres 41 Cultrirostres 44 Lonjirostres 45 Macrodactyli Palmipedes 47 Brachypteres 4u Longipennea 54 Totipalmati 54 l.amrllirostres 60 REPTILIA C6 ClIELONIA 07 Bauria 77 'I'll'' Crocodiles 82 The t.i/ards 100 The Iguanas 107 The Geckotiana 122 The Chameleona ijt The Scindoidiena 196 Orii 1 1 > i v. 1 28 The Orvets 138 l'hi- True Serpents 130 The Naked Serpenta 133 Bai-kachia Tace 134 135 .30 144 145 145 150 153 154 102 103 1G3 172 177 178 194 196 206 211 220 893 231 232 934 937 242 247 251 951 •_>:>:> 259 961 267 960 979 979 '-'71 275 977 978 978 •J Ml 280 •Jso VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. PISCES ACANTHOPTERYGII Percidae Fishes with hard cheeks Sci'enidae Sparidae Menidae . . Squamipennes Scomberidae Taenidae . Theutyes Labyrinthiform Pharyngeals Mugilidae Gobiodae Pectorales pedunculati Labridae Fistularidae Malacopterygii Abdominales Cyprinidae Esocidae Siluridae Salmonidae Clupeidae Malacotterygii Subbrachiat Gadidse Pleuronectidae Discoboli . malacopterygii apoda lophobranchii . Plectoqnathi Gymnodontes Sclerodermi Chondropterygii Branchiis Liberis Chondropterygii Branchiis Finis Selachii Cyclostomata MOLLUSCA Division into Classes CEPHALOPODES 1TEROPODE8 GASTEROPODES Pulmonea Nudibranchiata Inferobranch iata Tectibranchiata Heteropoda pectini branch iata Trochoides Capuloides Buccinoides tueuli branch 1 ata scutibranchiata Cyclobranchiata ACEPHALES Acephala Testacea The Oysters Mytilaceae , Camacea . Cardiacea Inclusa Acephala Nuda Segregata Aggregata BRACHIOPODES . CIRRHOPODES ARTICULATED ANIMALS Division into Classes ANNELIDES Division into Orders Tubicoi.^e Pai;e P» K e 289 Dorsibranchiata iy3 292 Abranchia 597 293 Setigera 397 294 Asetigera 398 295 ARTICULATED ANIMALS WITH AS /ricu- 296 LATED FEET 401 296 Introduction, by Latreille 401 296 Divided into Classes . 405 298 CRUSTACEA MALACOSTRACA . 410 302 A. Eyes placed on a footstalk 410 303 Decapoda 410 303 Brachyura 412 304 Macrura 416 305 Stomapoda 423 308 Unipeltata 424 309 Bipeltata 425 311 B. Eyes sessile and immoveable 425 312 Amphipoda 426 313 L^EMODIPODA 429 314 ISOPODA .... 430 316 CRUSTACEA ENTOMOSTRACA 434 318 Branchiopoda 436 320 Lophyropa 436 321 Phyllopa .... 441 322 Poecilopoda 444 323 Xyphosura 444 324 Siphonostoma . 445 825 TRILOBITES 449 326 ARACHNTDA 450 327 Pulmonaria . . . u 453 327 The Spiders 454 328 The Pedipalpi 465 330 Tracheari^e 466 331 The Pseudo-Scorpiones 407 331 The Pycnogonides . . 407 333 The Holetra . 468 335 INSECTA .... 471 337 Myriapoda . 482 337 Chilognatha 483 343 Chilopoda . 485 344 Thysanoura . 486 347 Lepismenae . . 487 351 Podurellae . 487 353 Parasita . 488 353 SUCTORIA . 489 356 COLEOPTERA . 491 357 Pentamera . 492 358 Camivora . . . . 492 361 Brachelytra . 506 362 Serricornes . . . . 508 367 Clavicornes . 515 368 Palpicornes . . . . 520 369 Lainellicornes 521 369 Heteromera . 530 370 Melasoma . 530 371 Taxicornes . 533 375 Stenelytra . . . 533 376 Trachelides . 536 377 Tetramera . . 538 379 The Weevils . 539 382 Xylophagi . 542 3S2 Platysoma . 544 383 Longicornes . . . • 544 384 Eupoda . 549 385 Cyclica . 550 387 Clavipalpi . 554 388 Trimera 554 389 Fungicola? . 554 389 Aphidiphagi . . . . 555 391 Pselaphi . 555 • TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii I'nffe p, K c Orthoptera .... 55G Tabanides . . . 625 Cursoria 557 Notacantha 626 Snltatoria 560 Atbericera 628 Heyiiptera 562 Pupipara C36 Heteroptera 563 RADIATA 638 GeocorisaEs . , 563 ECHINODERMATA 639 Hydrocorisa; 566 Pedicellata 639 HOMOPTERA 567 Asterias 639 Cicadarire 567 Echinus 640 Aphidii 570 Holothuria 041 Gallinsecta 572 Apoda . 642 Neuroptera 573 ENTOZOA 643 Subulicornes 574 Nematoidea 644 Planipennes 577 Parenchymata 646 Plicipennes 580 Acanthocei)liala 646 Hymenoptera 581 Tremadotea 647 Terebrantia 582 Toenioidea 6+8 Securifera 582 Cestoidea 649 Pupivora . 585 ACALEPHA 650 Aculeata 591 SlMPLICIA 650 Heterogryna . , 591 Hydrostatica 652 Fossores 593 POLYPI 653 Diploptera 596 Carxosi 653 Mellifera 598 Gelatixosi , 654 Lepidoptera 603 CORALLIFERI • 655 Diurna . . , 605 Tulmlaria . 655 (Jrepuscularia 608 Cellularia 656 Nocturna . 609 Corticati 657 Rhipiptera 614 INFUSORIA 659 Diptera 615 ROTIFERA GW Nemocera 617 HOMOQENEA 6(50 Tanystoma . , 621 APPENDIX. Page IVe PISCES.— Professors Agassiz and Miiller's Clas- j ARACITXIDA . 674 sification of Fishes . . 661 INSECTA G75 Ganoideans . 661 ' RADIATA 691 Placoideans . • 661 ECHINODEUMATA 691 C'TENOIDEANS . . 661 ACALEPHA . C95 Ctcloideaks . , . 661 Bbyozoa i 698 MOLLDSCA B . 665 Anthozoa . , 700 Cephalopoda » • • 667 Infisioria 705 Tunicata > • • 669 HOMOGENEA 707 CRUSTACEA . 673 > 1 LIST OF PLATES. 10RTRAIT OF CCJVIER— VlgnttU. Plate I. — GIRAFFE . II. — CAUCASIAN RACE III. — MONGOLIAN RACE IV. — AMERICAN RACE V — NEGRO RACE VI — MONKEYS VII. — BABOONS . VIII. — LEMURS IX. — BSARS X. — DOGS . XI. — ICHNEUMONS , XII. — CATS . S.III. — AMPIIIUIOUS ANIMALS XIV. — HIPPOPOTAMUS XV. — RHINOCEROS XVI. — noRSES XVII. — CAMELS XVIII. — DEER . Frontl'piece. rage 49 30 51 hi 57 59 63 83 90 93 95 M 130 131 133 135 13T 1,1 PT OF ri.ATES. Plate. XIX. — ANTELOPES XX. — GOATS XXI. — SHEEP XXII. — BRAHMIN BULL XXIII. — VULTURES XXIV. — EAGLES XXV. — OWLS XXVI. — HUMMING BIRDS XXVII. — PARROTS . XXVIII. — OSTRICH XXIX. — BUCKS XXX. — REPTILES . . XXXI. — BEETLES . XXXII. — ORTIIOPTEROPS INSECTS XXXIII. — BUTTERFLIES Page. 139 141 142 113 164 167 173 207 218 232 263 278 411 557 COS - TI1K ANIMAL KINGDOM. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Having been devoted, from my earliest youth, to the study of comparative anatomy, that is to say of the laws of the organization of animals, and of the modifications which this organization undergoes in the various species, and having, for nearly thiity years past, consecrated to that science every moment of which my duties allowed me to dispose, the constant aim of my labours has been to reduce it to general rules, and to propositions that should contain their most simple expression. My first essays soon led me to perceive that I could only attain this object in proportion as the animals, whose structure I should have to elucidate, were arranged in conformity with that structure, so that under one single name, of class, order, genus, &c, might be embraced all those species which, in their internal as well as exterior conformation, present accordancic s either more general or more particular. Now this is what the greater number of naturalists of that epoch had never sought to effect, and what but few of them could have achieved, even had they been willing to try ; since a parallel arrangement presup- poses a very extensive knowledge of the structures, of which it ought, in some measure, to be the representation. It is true that Daubenton and Camper had supplied facts, — that Pallas had indicated views; but the ideas of these well-informed men had not yet exercised upon their contemporaries the influence which they merited. The only general catalogue of animals then in existence, and the only one we possess even now, — the system of Linnaeus, — had just been disfigured by an unfortunate editor, who did not so much as take the trouble to comprehend the principles of that ingenious classifier, and who, wherever he found any disorder, seems to have tried to render it more inextricable. It is also true that there were very extensive works upon particular classes, which had made known a vast number of new species ; but their authors barely con- sidered the external relations of those species, and no one had employed himself in co-arranging the classes and orders according to their entire structure : the cha- racters of several classes remained false or incomplete, even in justlj celebrated anatomical works; some of the orders were arbitrarv ; and in scarcely any of these divisions were the genera approximated conformably to nature. 2 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION I was necessitated then, — and the task occupied considerable time, — I was com- pelled to make anatomy and zoology, dissection and classification, proceed beforehand ; to seek, in my first remarks on organization, for better principles of distribution ; to employ these, in order to arrive at new remarks ; and in their turn the latter, to carry the principles of distribution to perfection : in fine, to elicit from the mutual reaction of the two sciences upon each other, a system of zoology adapted to serve as an introduction and a guide in anatomical researches, and a body of anatomical doctrine fitted to develope and explain the zoological system. The first results of this double labour appeared in 1795, in a special memoir upon a new division of the white-blooded animals. A sketch of their application to genera, and to the division of these into sub-genera, formed the object of my Tableau JElementaire des Anhnaux, printed in 1798, and I improved this work, with the assistance of M. Dumeril, in the tables annexed to the first volume of my Lemons d' Anatomie Comparee, in 1800. I should, perhaps, have contented myself with perfecting these tables, and proceeded immediately to the publication of my great work on anatomy, if, in the course of my researches, I had not been frequently struck with another defect of the greater number of the general or partial systems of zoology ; I mean, the confusion in which the want of critical precision had left a vast number of species, and even many genera. Not only were the classes and orders not sufficiently conformed to the intrinsical nature of animals, to serve conveniently as the basis to a treatise on comparative anatomy, but the genera themselves, though ordinarily better constituted, offered but inadequate resources in their nomenclature, on account of the species not having been arranged under each of them, conformably to their characters. Thus, in placing the Manati in the genus Morse, the Siren in that of the Eels, Gmelin had rendered any general proposition relative to the organization of these genera impossible ; just as by approximating in the same class and in the same order, and placing side by side, the Cuttle and the fresh-water Polypus, he had made it impossible to predicate anything generally of the class and order which comprised such incongruous beings. I select the above examples from among the most prominent ; but there existed an infinitude of such mistakes, less obvious at the first glance, which occasioned incon- veniences not less real. It was not sufficient, then, to have imagined a new distribution of the classes and orders, and to have properly placed the genera ; it was also necessary to examine all the species, in order to be assured that they really belonged to the genera in which they had been. placed. Having come to this, I found not only species grouped or dispersed contrary to all rea- son, but I remarked that many had not been established in a positive manner, either by the characters which had been assigned to them, or by their figures and descriptions. Here one of them, by means of synonymes, represents several under a single name, and often so different that they should not rank in the same genus : there a single one is doubled, tripled, and successively reappears in several sub-genera, genera, and sometimes different orders. What can be said, for example, of the Trichechus manatus of Gmelin, which, under a single specific name, comprehends three species and two genera, — two genera differing in almost everything ? By what name shall we speak of the Velella, which figures PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 3 twice among the Medusa: and once among the Holothurice ? How are we to reassemhle the Biphorec, of which some are there called Dayysa, the greater number Salpa, while several are ranged among the Holothurice ? It did not therefore suffice, in order completely to attain the object aimed at, to review the species : it was necessary to examine their synonymes ; or, in other words, to re-model the system of animals. Such an enterprize, from the prodigious developement of the science of late years, could not have been executed completely by any one individual, even granting him the longest life, and no other occupation. Had I been constrained to depend upon myself alone, I should not have been able to prepare even the simple sketch which I now give ; but the resources of my position seemed to me to supply what I wanted both of time and talent. Living in the midst of so many able naturalists, drawing from their works as fast as they appeared, freely enjoying the use of the collections they had made, and having myself formed a very considerable one, ex- pressly appropriated to my object, a great part of my labour consisted merely in the employment of so many rich materials. It was not possible, for instance, that much remained for me to do on shells, studied by M. de Lamarck, nor on quadrupeds, described by M. Geoffroy. The numerous and new affinities described by M. de Lacepede, were so many data for my system of fishes. M. Levaillant, among so many beautiful birds collected from all parts, perceived details of organization which I immediately adapted to my plan. My own researches, employed and fructified by other naturalists, yielded results to me which, in my hands alone, they would not all have produced. So, also, M. de Blainville and M. Oppel, in examining the cabinet which I had formed of anatomical preparations on which I designed to found my divisions of reptiles, anti- cipated — and perhaps better than I should have done — results of which as yet I had but a glimpse, &c, &c. Encouraged by these reflections, I determined to precede my Treatise on Com- parative Anatomy by a kind of abridged system of animals, in which I should present their divisions and subdivisions of all degrees, established in a parallel manner upon their structure, both internal and external ; where I would give the indication of well- authenticated species that belonged, with certainty, to each of the subdivisions ; and where, to create more interest, I would enter into some detads upon such of the species as, from their abundance in our country, the services which they render us, the damage which they occasion to us, the singularity of their manners and economy, their extraordinary forms, their beauty, or their magnitude, are the most remarkable. I hoped by so doing to prove useful to young naturalists, who, for the most part, have but little idea of the confusion and errors of criticism in which the most accredited works abound, and who, particularly in foreign countries, do not sufficiently attend to the study of the true relations of the conformation of beings : I considered myself as rendering a more direct service to those anatomists, who require to know beforehand to which orders they should direct their researches, when they wish to solve by com- parative anatomy some problem of human anatomy or physiology, but whose ordinary occupations do not sufficiently prepare them for fulfilling this condition, which is essen- tial to their success. Nevertheless, I have not professed to extend this twofold vinv equally to all classes of the animal kingdom ; and the vertehrated animals, as in every sense the most in- i)2 4 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. teresting, claimed to have the preference. Among the Invertehrata, I have had more particularly to study the naked mollusks and thcgreat zoophytes ; but the innumerable variations of the external forms of shells and corals, the microscopic animals, and the other families which perform a less obvious office in the economy of nature, or whose organization affords but little room for the exercise of the scalpel, did not require to be treated with the same detail. Independently of which, so far as the shells and corals are concerned, I could depend on a work just published by M. de Lamarck, in which will be found all that the most ardent desire for information can require. With respect to insects, so interesting by their external forms, their organization, habits, and by their influence on all living nature, I have had the good fortune to find as- sistance which, in rendering my work infinitely more perfect than it could have been had it emanated solely from my pen, has, at the same time, greatly accelerated its publica- tion. My colleague and friend, M. Latreille, who has studied these animals more profoundly than any other man in Europe, has kindly consented to give, in a single volume, and nearly in the order adopted for the other parts, a summary of his immense researches, and an abridged description of those innumerable genera which entomolo- gists are continually establishing. As for the rest, if in some instances I have given less extent to the exposition of sub-genera and species, this inequality has not occurred in aught that concerns the superior divisions ^and the indications of affinities, which I have every where founded on equally solid bases, established by equally assiduous researches. I have examined, one by one, all the species of which I could procure specimens ; I have approximated those which merely differed from each other in size, colour, or in the number of some less important parts, and have formed them into what I designate a sub- genus. Whenever it was possible, I have dissected at least one species of each sub-genus ; and if those be excepted to which the scalpel cannot be applied, there exists in my work but very few groups of this degree, of which I cannot produce seme considerable portion of the organs. After having determined the names of the species which I had examined, and which had previously been either well figured or well described, I placed in the same sub- genera those which I had not seen, but whose exact figures, or descriptions, sufficiently precise to leave no doubt of their natural relations, I found in authors ; but I have passed over in silence that great number of vague indications, on which, in my opinion, naturalists have been too eager to establish species, the adoption of which has mainly contributed to introduce into the catalogue of beings, that confusion which deprives it of so much of its utility. I could have added, almost every where, a vast number of new species ; but as I could not refer to figures, it would have been incumbent on me to extend their descrip- tions beyond what space permitted : I have, therefore, preferred depriving my work of this ornament, and have only indicated those, the peculiar conformation of which gives rise to new sub -genera. My sub-genera once established on positive relations, and composed of well-authen- ticated species, it remained only to construct this great scaffolding of genera, tribes, families, orders, classes, and primary divisions, which constitute the entire animal kingdom. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. In this I have proceeded, partly by ascending from the inferior to the superior divi- sions, by means of approximation and comparison ; and partly also by descending from the superior to the inferior groups, on the principle of the subordination of characters ; comparing carefully the results of the two methods, verifying one by the other, and always sedulously establishing the correspondence of external and internal structure, which, the one as well as the other, are integral parts of the essence of each animal. Such has been my procedure whenever it was necessary and possible to introduce new arrangements ; but I need not observe that, in very many places, the results to which it would have conducted me had already been so satisfactorily obtained, that I had only to follow the track of my predecessors. Notwithstanding which, even in those cases where no alteration was required, I have verified and confirmed, by new observations, what was previously acknowledged, and what I did not adopt until it had been subjected to a rigorous scrutiny. The public may form some idea of this mode of examination, from the memoirs on the anatomy of mollusks, which have appeared in the Annates du Museum, and of which I am now preparing a separate and augmented collection. I venture to assure the reader that I have bestowed quite as extensive labour upon the vertebrated animals, the anne- lides, the zoophytes, and on many of the insects and crustaceans. I have not deemed it necessary to publish it with the same detail ; but all my preparations are exposed in the Cabinet of Comparative Anatomy in the Jardin du Roi, and will serve hereafter for my treatise on anatomy. Another very considerable labour, but the details of which cannot be so readily authenticated, is the critical examination of species. I have verified all the figures alleged by different authors, and as often as possible referred each to its true species, previously to selecting those which I have indicated : it is entirely from this verifica- tion, and never fiomthe classification of preceding systematists, that I have referred to my sub-genera the species that belong to them. Such is the reason why no astonish- ment should be experienced on finding that such and such a genus of Gmelin is now divided, and distributed even in different classes and still higher divisions ; that nume- rous nominal species are reduced to a single one, and that popular names are very differently applied. There is not one of these changes wluch I am not prepared to 'ustify, and of which the reader himself may not obtain the proof, by recurring to the sources which I have indicated. In order to lessen his trouble, I have been careful to select for each class a principal author, generally the richest in good original figures ; and I quoted secondary works only where the former are deficient, or where it was useful to establish some com- parison, for the sake of confirming synonymes. My subject could have been made to fill many volumes ; but I considered it my duty to condense it, by imagining, abridged means of expression. These I have obtained by graduated generalities. By never repeating for a species that which might be said of an entire suh-genus, nor for a genus what might be applied to a whole order, and so on, we arrive at the greatest economy of words. To this my endeavours have been, above all, particularly directed, inasmuch as it was the principal end of my work. It may be remarked, however, that I have not employed many technical terms, and that I have endeavoured to communicate my ideas without that harbarous array of fictitious words, which, in the works of so many 6 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. so very repulsive. I cannot perceive, however, that I have thereby lost any thing in precision or clearness. I have been compelled, unfortunately, to introduce many new names, although I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to preserve those of my predecessors ; but the numerous sub-genera I have established required these denominations ; for in things so various, the memory is not satisfied with numerical indications. I have selected them, so as either to convey some character, or among the common names which I have latinized, or lastly, after the example of Linnaeus, from among those of mytho- logy, which are generally agreeable to the ear, and which we are far from having exhausted. In naming species, however, I would nevertheless recommend employing the sub- stantive of the genus, and the trivial name only. The names of the sub-genera are designed merely as a relief to the memory, when we would indicate these sub- divisions in particular. Otherwise, as the sub-genera, already very numerous, will in the end become greatly multiplied, in consequence of having substantives continually to retain, we shall be in danger of losing the advantages of that binary nomenclature so happily imagined by Linnaeus. It is the better to preserve it that I have dismembered as little as possible the great genera of that illustrious reformer of science. Whenever the sub-genera into which I divide them were not to be translated into different families, I have left them together under their former generic appellation. This was not only due to the memory of Linnaeus, but was necessary in order to preserve the mutual intelligence of the naturalists of different countries. To facilitate still more the study of this work, — for it is to be studied more than to be glanced over, — I have employed different- sized types in the printing of it, to correspond to the different grades of generalization of the statements contained in it. * * * Thus the eye will distinguish beforehand the relative importance of each group, and the order of each successive idea ; and the printer will second the author with every con- trivance which his art supplies, that may conduce to assist the memory. The habit, necessarily acquired in the study of natural history, of mentally classify- ing a great number of ideas, is one of the advantages of this science, which is seldom spoken of, and which, when it shall have been generally introduced into the system of common education, will perhaps become the principal one : it exercises the student in that part of logic which is termed method, as the study of geometry does in that which is called syllogism, because natural history is the science which requires the most precise methods, as geometry is that which demands the most rigorous reason- ing. Now this art of method, when once well acquired, may be applied with infinite advantage to studies the most foreign to natural history. Every discussion which sup- poses a classification of facts, every research which requires a distribution of matters, is performed after the same manner ; and he who had cultivated this science merely for amusement, is surprised at the facilities it affords for disentangling all kinds of affairs. It is not less useful in solitude. Sufficiently extensive to satisfy the most powerful mind, sufficiently various and interesting to calm the most agitated soul, it consoles the unhappy, and tends to allay enmity and hatred. Once elevated to the contem- plation of that harmony of Nature irresistibly regulated by Providence, how weak and PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 7 trivial appear those causes which it has been pleased to leave dependent on the will of man ! How astonishing to behold so many fine minds, consuming themselves, so uselessly for their own happiness and that of others, in the pursuit of vain combina- tions, the very traces of which a few years suffice to obliterate ! I avow it proudly, these ideas have been always present to my mind, — the companions of my labours ; and if I have endeavoured by every means in my power to advance this peaceful study, it is because, in my opinion, it is more capable than any other of supplying that want of occupation, which has so largely contributed to the troubles of our age ; — but I must return to my subject. There yet remains the task of accounting for the principal changes I have effected in the latest received methods, and to acknowledge the amount of obligation to those naturalists, whose works have furnished or suggested a part of them. To anticipate a remark which will naturally occur to many, I must observe that I have neither pretended nor desired to class animals so as to form a single line, or as to mark their relative superiority. I even consider every attempt of this kind im- practicable. Thus, I do not mean that the mammalia or birds which come last, are the most imperfect of their class ; still less do I intend that the last of mammalia are more perfect than the first of birds, or the last of mollusks more perfect than the first of the annelides, or zoophytes ; even restricting the meaning of this vague word perfect to that of " most completely organized." I regard my divisions and subdivisions as the merely graduated expression of the resemblance of the beings which enter into each of them ; and although in some we observe a sort of passage or gradation from one species into another, which cannot be denied, this disposition is far from being general. The pretended chain of beings, as applied to the whole creation, is but an erroneous application of those partial observations, which are only true when confined to the limits within which they were made ; and, in my opinion, it has proved more detrimental to the progress of natural history in modern times, than is easy to It is in conformity with these views, that I have established my four principal divisions, which have already been made known in a separate memoir. I still think that it expresses the real relations of animals more exactly than the old arrangement of Vertebrata and Invertebrata, for the simple reason, that the former animals have a much greater mutual resemblance than the latter, and that it was necessary to mark this difference in the extent of their relations. M. Virey, in an article of the Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoirc Xati/relle, had already discerned in part the basis of the division, and principally that which repoi on the nervous system. The particular approximation of oviparous Vertebrata, inter se, originated from the curious observations of M. Georfroy on the composition of bony brads, and from tl. which I have added to them relative to the rest of the skeleton, and to the muscles. In the class of Mammalia, I have brought back the Solipedea to the Pachydermata, and have divided the latter into families on a new plan ; the Ruiniiuintiii I have placed at the end of the quadrupeds; and the Manati near the Cetacea. The distribution of the Cbmaria I have somewhat altered ; the Oustitis have been wholly separated from the Monkeys, and a BOrt of parallelism indicated between the Marsupiata and other digitated quadrupeds, the whole from my own anatomical researches. All that I hav° 8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. given on the Quadrumana ana the Bats is based on the recent and profound labours of my friend and colleague M. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire. The researches of my brother, M. Frederic Cuvier, on the teeth of the Carnaria and Rodentia, have proved highly useful to me in forming the sub-genera of these two orders. Notwithstanding the genera of the late M. Illiger are but the results of these same studies, and of those of some foreign naturalists, I have adopted his names whenever his genera corresponded with my sub-genera. M. de Lacepede has also discerned and indicated many excellent divisions of this degree, which I have been equally compelled to adopt ; but the cha- racters of all the degrees and all the indications of species have been taken from nature, either in the Cabinet of Anatomy or in the galleries of the Museum. The same plan was pursued with respect to the Birds. I have examined with the closest attention more than four thousand individuals in the Museum ; I arranged them according to my views in the public gallery more than five years ago, and all that is said of this class has been drawn from that source. Thus, any resemblance which my sub-divisions may bear to some recent descriptions, is on my part purely accidental.* Naturalists, I hope, will approve of the numerous sub-genera which I have deemed it necessary to make among the birds of prey, the Passerince, and the Shore-birds ; they appear to me to have completely elucidated genera hitherto involved in much confusion. I have marked, as exactly as I could, the accordance of these subdivisions with the genera of MM. de Lacepede, Meyer, Wolf, Temminck, and Savigny, and have referred to each of them all the species of which I could obtain a very positive knowledge. This laborious work will prove of value to those who may hereafter attempt a true history of hirds. The splendid works on Ornithology published within a few years, and those chiefly of M. le Vaillant, which are fdled with so many interesting observations, together with M. Vieillot's, have been of much assistance to me in designating the species which they represent. The general division of this class remains as 1 published it in 1798, in my Tableau Elanentaire.\ I have thought proper to preserve for the Reptiles, the general division of my friend M. Brongniart ; but I have prosecuted very extensive anatomical investigations to arrive at the ulterior subdivisions. M. Oppel, as I have already stated, has partly taken advantage of these preparatory labours ; and whenever my genera finally agreed with his, I have noticed the fact. The work of Daudin, indifferent as it is, has been useful to me for indications of details ; but the particular divisions which I have given in the genera of Monitors and Geckos, are the product of my own observations on a great number of Reptiles recently brought to the Museum by MM. Peron and Geoffroy. My labours on the Fishes will probably be found to exceed those which I have bestowed on the other vertebrated animals. Our Museum having received a vast number of Fishes since the celebrated work of M. de Lacepede was published, I have been enabled to add many subdivisions to those of that learned naturalist, also to combine several species differently, and to multiply anatomical observations. I have also had * This observation not having been sufficiently understood abroad, I am obliged to repeat it here, and openly to declare a fact witnessed by thousands in Paris ; it is this, that all the birds in the gallery of the Museum were named and arranged according to my system, in 1811. Those even of my subdivisions to which 1 had not yet given names, were marked by particular signs. This is my date, lnde- pendeutly of tbis, my first volume was printed in the beginning of 1816. Four volumes are not printed so quickly a« a pamphlet of a few pages. I say no more. (Note to Edit. 18-9). t I only mention this because an estimable naturalist, M. Vieillot, has, in a recent work, attributed to himself the union of the Pica and Pusscres. I had printed it in 1/98, together with my other arrange- ments, so as to render them public in the Museum since 1811 and 1813 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. better means of verifying the species of Commerson, and of some of other travellers ; and, upon this point, I am much indebted to a review of the drawings of Commerson, and of the dried fishes which he brought with him, by M. Dumeril, but which have only been very lately recovered ; — resources to which I have added those presented to me in the fishes brought by Peron from the Indian Ocean and Archipelago, those which I obtained in the Mediterranean, and the collections made on the coast of Coromandel by the late M. Sonnerat, at the Mauritius by M. Matthieu, in the Nile and Red Sea, by M. Geoffroy, &c. I was thus enabled to verify most of the species of Bloch, Russell, and others, and to prepare the skeletons and viscera of nearly ail the sub-genera; so that this part of the work will, I presume, offer much that is new to Icthyologists. As to my division of this class, I confess its inconvenience, but I believe it, never- theless, to be more natural than any preceding one. In publishing it some time ago, I only offered it for what it is worth ; and if any one should discover a better principle of division, and as conformable to the organization, I shall hasten to adopt it. It is admitted that all the works on the general division of the invertebrated animals, are mere modifications of what I proposed in 1795, in the first of my memoirs ; and the time and care which I have devoted to the anatomy of mollusks in general, ami principally to the naked mollusks, are well known. The determining of this class, as well as of its divisions and subdivisions, rests upon my own observations ; the magni- ficent work of M. Poli had alone anticipated me by descriptions and anatomical researches useful for my design, but confined to bivalves and multivalves only. I have verified all the facts furnished by that able anatomist, and I believe that I have more justly marked the functions of some organs. I have also endeavoured to determine the animals to which belong the principal forms of shells, and to arrange the latter from that consideration ; but with regard to the ulterior divisions of those shells of which the animals resemble each other, I have examined them only so far as to enable me to describe briefly those admitted by MM. de Lamarck and de Montfort ; even the small number of genera and sub-genera which are properly mine, are principally derived from observa- tions on the animals. In citing examples, I have confined myself to a certain number of the species of Martini, Chemnitz, Lister, and Soldani ; and that only because, the volume in which M. Lamarck treats of this portion not having yet appeared, I was compelled to fix the attention of my readers on specific objects. But in the choice and determin- ing of these species, I lay no claim to the same critical accuracy which I have employed for the vertebrated animals and naked mollusks. The excellent observations of MM. Savigny, Lesueur, and Desmarest, on the com- pound Ascidians, approximate this latter family of mollusks to certain orders of zoophytes : this is a curious relation, and a further proof of the impracticability of arranging animals in a single line. I believe that I have extricated the Annclides, — the establishing of which, although not their name, belongs virtually to me, — from the confusion in which they had hitherto In in involved, among the Mollusks, the Testacea, and the Zoophytes, and have placed them in tin ir natural order ; even their genera have received some elucidation only by my observations, published in the Dictionnaire t/rs Sciences NatureUee, and else- where. Of the three classes contained in the third volume, I have nothing to remark. 10 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. M. Latreille, who, with the exception of some anatomical details, founded on my own observations and those of M. Ramdohr, which I have inserted in his text, is its sole author, will take upon himself to explain all that is necessary. As to the Zoophytes, which terminate the Animal Kingdom, I have availed myself, for the Echinoderms, of the recent work of M. de Lamarck ; and for the Intestinal Worms, of that of M. Rudolphi, intitled Entozoa ; but I have anatomized all the genera, some of which have been determined by me only. There is an excellent work by M. Tiedemann, on the anatomy of the Echinoderms, which received the prize of the Institute some years ago, and will shortly appear ; it will leave nothing to be desired respecting these curious animals. The Corals and the Infusoria, offering no field for anatomical investigations*, will be briefly disposed of. The new work of M. de Lamarck will supply my deficiencies. f With respect to authors, I can only here mention those who have furnished me with general views, or who were the origin of such in my own mind. J There are many others to whom I am indebted for particular facts, and whose names I have carefully quoted wherever I have made use of them. They will be found on every page of my book. Should I have omitted to do justice to any, it must be attributed to involuntary forgetfulness, and I ask pardon beforehand : there is no property, in my opinion, more sacred than the conceptions of the mind ; and the custom, too pre- valent among naturalists, of masking plagiarisms by a change of names, has always appeared to me a crime. The publication of my Comparative Anatomy will now occupy me every moment : the materials are ready ; a vast quantity of preparations and drawings are arranged ; and I shall be careful in dividing the work into parts, each of which will form a whole, so that, should my physical powers prove insufficient for the completion of my design, what I have produced will still form entire suites, and the materials I have collected be in immediate readiness for those who may undertake the continuation of my labours. Jardin du Roi, October, 1816. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. The preceding preface explains faithfully the condition in which I found the history of animals when the first edition of this work was published. During the twelve years that have since elapsed, this science has made immense progress, not only from the acquisitions of numerous travellers, as well-instructed as courageous, who have explored every region of the globe, but by the rich collections which various governments have formed and rendered public, and by the learned and * The surprising- researches of M. Ehrenberg, now publishing from time to time, triumphantly refute this allegation. — Ed. 1 1 have just received L y Histoire des Pulypiers correWgencs flejibles of M. Lamouroux, which furnishes an excellent supplement to M. rle Lamarck. J M. de Blainville has recently published general zoological tables, which I regret came too late for me to profit by, having appeared when my book was nenrly printed. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 11 splendid works, wherein new species are described and figured, and of which the authors have striven to detect their mutual relations, and to consider them in every point of view.* I have endeavoured to avail myself of these discoveries, as far as my plan permitted, by first studying the innumerable specimens received at the Cabinet du lloi, and com- paring them with those which served as the basis of my first edition, in order thence to deduce new approximations or subdivisions ; and then, by searching in all the books I could procure for the genera or sub genera established by naturalists, and the descriptions of species by which they have supported these numerous com- binations. The determination of synonymes has become much easier now than at the period of my first edition. Both French and foreign naturalists appear to have recognized the necessity of establishing divisions in the vast genera in which such incongruous species were formerly heaped together ; their groups are now precise and well-defined ; their descriptions sufficiently detailed ; their figures scrupulously exact to the most minute characters, and often of the greatest beauty as works of art. Scarcely any difficulty remains, therefore, in identifying their species, and nothing hinders them from coming to an understanding with respect to the nomenclature. This, unfortunately, has been the most neglected ; the names of the same genera, and the same species, are multiplied as often as they are mentioned ; and should this discord continue, the same •haos will be produced that previously existed, though arising from another cause. I have used every effort to compare and approximate these redundancies, and, forget- ting even my own trifling interest as an author, have often indicated names which seemed to have been imagined only to escape the avowal of having borrowed my divisions. But thoroughly to execute this undertaking, — this pinax or rectified epitome of the animal kingdom, which becomes every day more necessary, — to discuss the proofs and fix the definitive nomenclature which should be adopted, by basing it on sufficient figures and descriptions, requires more space than I could dispose of, and a time imperatively claimed by other works. In the History of Fishes, which I have commenced pub- lishing, with the assistance of M. Valenciennes, I purpose to give an idea of what appears to me might be effected in all parts of the science. Here, I only profess to offer an abridged summary — a simple sketch ; — well satisfied if I succeed in rendering this accurate in all its details. Various essays of a similar kind have been published on some of the classes, and I have carefully studied them with a view to perfect my own. The Manmalogie of M. Desmarest, that of M. Lesson, the Treatise on the Teeth of Quadrupeds, by -M. Frederic Cuvier, the English translation of my first edition, by Mr. Griffith, enriched by numerous additions, particularly by Hamilton Smith ; the new edition of the Manuel d ' Ornithologie of M. Temminck, the Ornithological Fragments of M. Wagler, the History of Reptiles of the late Merrem, and the Dissertation on the same subject by M. Fitsinger, have principally been useful to me for the vertebrated animals. The Histoire des Animmuc 80113 Vcrt'i brcs of M. de Lamarck, the Mulacologie of iM. de Blainville, have also been of great service to me for the mollusks. To * 9«> n»J dhtOPM b«fcl« the llUtltlltC OB th« P m g r t t it PUltotri naturelle drpuit .a pnir maritime, publUhcd «t the cloi- of tlic 6nt TOlui IC of U»T Klogci, 12 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. these I have added the new views and facts contained in the numerous and learned writings of MM. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, father and son, Savigny, Temminck, Lichtenstein, Kuhl, Wilson, Horsfield, Vigors, Swainson, Gray, Ord, Say, Harlan, Charles Bonaparte, Lamouroux, Mitchell, Lesueur, and many other able and studious men, whose names will be carefully mentioned when I speak of the subjects on which they have treated. The fine collections of engravings which have appeared within the last twelve years, have enabled me to indicate a greater number of species ; and I have amply profited by this facility. I must particularly acknowledge what I owe on this score to the Histoire des Mamm'tferes of MM. Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Frederic Cuvier, the Planches colorie'es of MM. Temminck and Laugier, the Galerie des Oiseaux of M. Vieillot, the new edition of the Birds of Germany, by MM. Nauman, the Birds of the United States of Messrs. Wilson, Ord, and Charles Bonaparte*, the great works of M. Spix, and of his Highness the Prince Maximilian de Wied, on the Animals of Brazil, and to those of M. de Ferussac on the Mollusks. The plates and zoological descriptions of the travels of MM. Freycinet and Duperrey, supplied in the first by MM. Quoy and Gaymard, in the second by MM. Lesson and Garnot, also present many new objects. The same must be said of the Animals of Java, by Dr. Hors- field. Though on a smaller scale, new figures of rare species are to be found in the Mt'moires du Museum, the Annates des Sciences Naturelles, and other French peri- odicals, in the Zoological Illustrations of Mr. Swainson, and in th/i Zoological Journal, published by able naturalists in London. The Journal of the Lyceum of New York, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, are not less valuable ; but in proportion as the taste for natural history becomes extended, and the more numerous the countries in which it is cultivated, the number of its acquisitions increases in geometrical progression, and it becomes more and more difficult to collect all the writings of naturalists, and to complete the table of their results. I rely, therefore, on the indulgence of those whose observations may have escaped me, or whose works I have not sufficiently consulted. My celebrated friend and colleague M. Latreille, having consented, as in the first edition, to take upon himself the important and difficult part of the Crustaceans, Arachnides, and Insects, will himself explain in an advertisement the plan he has followed, so that I need say nothing more on this subject. Jardin du Roi, October, 1828. •The work of M. Audubon upon the Birds of North Auieric* waicU surpasses all others in magnificence, was unknown v. me till after the whole of that part which, treats of rJirJt printed. *^~T"~T~* - ' ^".-l - 13 INTRODUCTION. OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND OF SYSTEMS GENERALLY. As few persons have a just idea of Natural History, it appears necessary to com- mence our work by carefully defining- the proposed object of this science, and establish- ing rigorous limits between it and the contiguous sciences. The word Nature, in our language, and in most others, signifies — sometimes, tbe qualities which a being derives from birth, in opposition to those which it may owe to art ; at oth^r times, the aggregate of beings which compose the universe ; and sometimes, again, the laws which govern these beings. It is particularly in this latter sense that it has become customary to personify Nature, and to employ the name, respectfully, for that of its Author. Physics, or Natural Philosophy, treats of the nature of these three relations, and is either general or particular. General Physics examines, abstractedly, each of the properties of those moveable and extended beings which we call bodies. That depart- ment of them styled Dynamics, considers bodies in mass ; and, proceeding from a very small number of experiments, determines mathematically the laws of equilibrium, and those of motion and of its communication. It comprehends in its different divisions the names of Statics, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydrodynamics, Pneumatics, <\c., ac- cording to the nature of the bodies of which it examines the motions. Optics considers the particular motions of light ; the phenomena of which, requiring experiments for their determination, are becoming more numerous. Chemistry, another branch of General Physics, expounds the laws by which the elementary molecules of bodies act on each other when in close proximity, the com- binations or separations which result from the general tendency of these molecules to unite, and the modifications which different circumstances, capable of separating or approximating them, produce on that tendency. It is a science almost wholly ex- perimental, and which cannot be reduced to calculation. The theory of Heat, and that of Electricity, belong almost equally to Dynamics or Chemistry, according to the point of view in which they arc considered. The method which prevails in all the branches of Genera] Physics consists in isolating bodies, reducing them to their utmost simplicity, in bringing each of their properties separately into action, either mentally or by experiment, in observing or calculating the results, in short, in generalizing and correcting the laws of these pro- 14 INTRODUCTION. perties for the purpose of establishing a body of doctrine, and, if possible, of referring the whole to one single law, under the universal expression of which all might be resolved. Particular Physics, or Natural History, — for these terms are synonymous — has for its object to apply specially the laws recognized by the various branches of General Physics, to the numerous and varied beings which exist in nature, in order to explain the phenomena which they severally present. In this extended sense, it would also include Astronomy ; but that science, suffi- ciently elucidated by Mechanics, and completely subjected to its laws, employs methods too different from those required by ordinary Natural History, to permit of its cultiva- tion by the students of the latter. Natural History, then, is confined to objects which do not allow of rigorous calculation, or of precise measurement in all their parts. Meteorology, also, is subtracted from it, to be ranged under General Physics ; so that, properly speaking, it considers only inanimate bodies, called minerals, and the various kinds of living beings, in all which we may observe the effects, more or less various, of the laws of motion and chemical attraction, and of all the other causes analyzed by General Physics. Natural History should, in strictness, employ the same modes of procedure as the general sciences ; and it does so, in fact, whenever the objects of its study are so little complex as to permit of it. But this is very seldom the case. An essential difference, in effect, between the general sciences and Natural History is, that, in the former, phenomena are examined, the conditions of which are all regulated by the examiner, in order, by their analysis, to arrive at general laws ; while in the latter, they occur under circumstances beyond the control of him who studies them for the purpose of discovering, amid the complication, the effects of general laws already known. It is not permitted for him, as in the case of the experimenter, to subtract successively from each condition, and so reduce the problem to its elements ; but he must take it entire, with all its conditions at once, and can analyze only in thought. Suppose, for example, we attempt to isolate the numerous pheno- mena which compose the life of an animal a little elevated in the scale ; a single one being suppressed, the life is wholly annihilated. Dynamics have thus become a science almost purely of calculation ; Chemistry is still a science wholly [chiefly*] of experiment ; and Natural History will long remain, in a great number of its branches, one of pure observation. These three terms sufficiently designate the modes of procedure employed in the three branches of the Natural Sciences ; but in establishing between them very different degrees of certitude, they at the same time indicate the point to which the two latter should tend, in order to approach perfection. Calculation, so to speak, commands Nature ; it determines phenomena more exactly than observation can make them known : experiment forces her to unveil ; while obser- vation watches her when deviating from her normal course, and seeks to surprise her. Natural History has, moreover, a principle on which to reason, which is peculiar to it, and which it employs advantageously on many occasions ; it is that of the conditions of existence, commonly termed final causes. As nothing can exist without the concur- rence of those conditions which render its existence possible, the component parts of each • The discovery of the atomic theory has reduced many of its phenomena to calculation. — Ed. INTRODUCTION. 15 must be so arranged as to render possible the whole living being, not only with regard to itself, but to its surrounding relations ; and the analysis of these conditions fre- quently conducts to general laws, as demonstrable as those which are derived from calculation or experiment. It is only when all the laws of general physics, and those which result from the condi- tions of existence, are exhausted, that we are reduced to the simple laws of observation. The most effectual mode of observing is by comparison. This consists in suc- cessively studying the same bodies in the different positions in which Nature places them, or in a comparison of different bodies together, until constant relations are recognized between their structures and the phenomena which they manifest. These various bodies are kinds of experiments ready prepared by Nature, who adds to or subtracts from each of them different parts, just as we might wish to do in our laboratories, and shows us herself the results of such additions or retrenchments. It is thus that we succeed in establishing certain laws, which govern these relations, and which are employed like those that have been determined by the general sciences. The incorporation of these laws of observation with the general laws, either directly or by the principle of the conditions of existence, would complete the system of the natural sciences, in rendering sensible in all its parts the mutual influence of every being. This it is to which the efforts of those who cultivate these sciences should tend. All researches of this kind, however, presuppose means of distinguishing with certainty, and causing others to distinguish, the objects investigated ; otherwise we should be incessantly liable to confound the innumerable beings which Nature presents. Natural History, then, should be based on what is called a System of Nature, or a great catalogue, in which all beings bear acknowledged names, may be recognized by distinctive cha- racters, and distributed in divisions and subdivisions themselves named and characterized, in which they may be found. In order that each being may always be recognized in this catalogue, it should carry its character along with it : for which reason the characters should not be taken from properties, or from habits the exercise of which is transient, but should be drawn from the conformation. There is scarcely any being which has a simple character, or can be recognized by an isolated feature of its conformation : the combination of many such traits is almost always necessary to distinguish a being from the neighbouring ones, which have some but not all of them, or have them combined with others of which the first is destitute ; and the more numerous the beings to be discriminated, the more must these traits accumulate : insomuch that, to distinguish from all others an individual being, a complete description of it must enter into its character. It is to avoid this inconvenience that divisions and subdivisions have been invented. A certain Dumber of neighbouring beings only are compared together, and their par- ticular characters need only to express their differences, which, by the supposition itself, are the less important parts of their confornmtion. Such a reunion is termed a genus. The same inconvenience would recur in distinguishing genera from each other, were it not that the operation is repeated in collecting the neighbouring genera, bo as to form an order ; the neighbouring orders to form a class, &c. Intermediate subdivisions may also be established. Ihis scatlulding of divisions, the superior of which contain the inferior, is what is 16 INTRODUCTION called a method. It is, in some respects, a sort of dictionary, in which we proceed from the properties of things to discover their names ; being the reverse of ordinary dic- tionaries, in which we proceed from the names to obtain a knowledge of the properties. When the method, however, is good, it does more than teach us names. If the sub- divisions have not been established arbitrarily, but are based on the true fundamental relations, — on the essential resemblances of beings, the method is the surest means of reducing the properties of these beings to general rules, of expressing them in the fewest words, and of stamping them on the memory. To render it such, an assiduous comparison of beings is employed, directed by the principle of the subordination of characters, which is itself derived from that of the conditions of existence. All the parts of a being having a mutual correlativeness, some traits of conformation exclude others ; while some, on the contrary, necessitate others : when, therefore, we perceive such or such traits in a being, we can calculate before- hand those which co-exist in it, or those that are incompatible with them. The parts, properties, or the traits of conformation, which have the greatest number of these relations of incompatibility or of co-existence with others, or, in other words, that exercise the most marked influence upon the whole of the being, are what are called important characters, dominant characters ; the others are the subordinate characters, all varying, however, in degree. This influence of characters is sometimes determined rationally, by considering the nature of the organ : when this is impracticable, recourse must be had to simple observation ; and a &ure means of recognizing the important characters, which is derived from their own nature, is, that they are more constant ; and that in a long series of different beings, approximated according to their degrees of similitude, these characters are the last to vary. From their influence and from their constancy result equally the rule, which should be preferred for distinguishing grand divisions, and in proportion as we descend to the inferior subdivisions, we can also descend to subordinate and variable characters. There can only be one perfect method, which is the natural method. An arrangement is thus named in which beings of the same genus are placed nearer to each other than to those of all other genera ; the genera of the same order nearer than to those of other orders, and so in succession. This method is the ideal to which Natural History should tend ; for it is evident that, if we can attain it, we shall have the exact and complete expression of all nature. In fact, each being is determined by its resem- blance to others, and its differences from them ; and all these relations would be fully given by the arrangement which we have indicated. In a word, the natural method would be the whole science, and each step towards it tends to advance the science to perfection. Life being the most important of all the properties of beings, and the highest of all characters, it is not surprising that it has been made in all ages the most general prin- ciple of distinction ; and that natural beings have always been separated into two immense divisions, the living and the inanimate. OF LIVING BEINGS, AND OF ORGANIZATION IN GENERAL. If, in order to obtain a just idea of the essence of life, we consider it in those beings in which its effects are the most simple, we readily perceive that it consists in the INTRODUCTION. 17 faculty which certain corporeal combinations have, of enduring for a time, and under a determinate form, by incessantly attracting into their composition a part of sur- rounding substances, and rendering to the elements portions of their own proper substance. Life, then, is a vortex (tourbillon), more or less rapid, more or less complicated, the direction of which is constant, and which always carries along molecules of the same kind, but into which individual molecules are continually entering, and from which they are constantly departing ; so that the form of a living body is more essential to it than its matter. As long as this movement subsists, the body in which it takes place is living — ■ it lives. When it is permanently arrested, the body dies. After death, the elements which compose it, abandoned to the ordinary chemical affinities, are not slow to separate, from which, more or less quickly, results the dissolution of the body that had been living. It was then by the vital motion that its dissolution was arrested, and that the elements of the body were temporarily combined. All living bodies die after a time, the extreme limit of which is determined for each species ; and death appears to be a necessary consequence of life, which, by its own action, insensibly alters the structure of the body wherein its functions are exercised, so as to render its continuance impossible. In fact, the living body undergoes gradual but constant changes during the whole term of its existence. It increases first in dimensions, according to the proportions and within the limits fixed for each species, and for each of its several parts ; then it augments in density, in most of its parts : — it is this second kind of change that appears to be the cause of natural deatn. On examining the various living bodies more closely, a common structure is discerned, which a little reflection soon causes us to adjudge as essential to a vortex, such as the vital motion. Solids, it is evident, are necessary to these bodies for the maintenance of their forms, and fluids for the conservation of motion in them. Their tissue, then, is com- posed of interlacement and network, or of fibres and solid lamina?, which inclose the liquids in their interstices : it is in these liquids that the motion is most continual and most extended ; the extraneous substances penetrate the intimate tissue of bodies in incorporating with them ; they nourish the solids by interposing their molecules, and also detach from them their superfluous molecules : it is in a liquid or gaseous form that the matters to be exhaled traverse the pores of the living body ; but, in return, it is the solids which contain these fluids, and by their contraction communicate to them a part of their motion. This mutual action of the solids and fluids, this passage of molecules from one to the other, necessitated considerable affinity in their chemical composition ; and, accord- ingly, the solids of organized bodies are in great part composed of elements easily convertible into liquids or gases. The motion of the fluids, requiring also a continually repeated action on the Dart of the solids, and communicating one to them, demanded of the latter both flexibility and dilatability ; and hence we find this character marly general in all organized solids. lhis fundamental structure, common to all living bodies — this areolar tissue, the more c 18 INTRODUCTION or less flexible fibres or laminae of which intercept fluids more or less aoundant — constitutes what is termed the organization ; and, as a consequence of what we have said, it follows that only organized bodies can enjoy life. Organization, then, results from a great number of dispositions or arrangements, which are all conditions of life ; and it is easy to conceive that the general move- ment of the life would be arrested, if its effect be to alter either of these conditions, so as to arrest even one of the partial motions of which it is composed. Every organized body, besides the qualities common to its tissue, has one proper form, not only in general and externally, but also in the detail of the structure of each of its parts ; and it is upon this form, which determines the particular direction of each of the partial movements that take place in it, that depends the complication of the general movement of its life, which constitutes its species, and renders it what it is. Each part concurs in this general movement by a peculiar action, and experiences from it particular effects ; so that, in every being, the life is a whole, resulting from the mutual action and reaction of all its parts. Life, then, in general, presupposes organization in general, and the life proper to each being presupposes the organization peculiar to that being, just as the movement of a clock presupposes the clock ; and, accordingly, we behold life only in beings that are organized and formed to enjoy it ; and all the efforts of philo- sophers have not yet been able to discover matter in the act of organization, either of itself or by any extrinsic cause. In fact, life exercising upon the elements which at every instant form part of the living body, and upon those which it attracts to it, an action contrary to that which would be produced without it by the usual chemical affinities, it is inconsistent to suppose that it can itself be produced by these affinities, and yet we know of no other power in nature capable of reuniting previously separated molecules. The birth of organized beings is, therefore, the greatest mystery of the organic economy and of all nature : we see them developed, but never being formed ; nay, more, all those of which we can trace the origin, have at first been attached to a body of the same form as their own, but which was developed before them ; — in one word, to a. parent. So long as the offspring has no independent life, but par- ticipates in that of its parent, it is called a germ. The place to which the germ is attached, and the occasional cause which detaches it, and gives it an independent life, vary ; but the primitive adherence to a similar being is a rule without exception. The separation of the germ is what is designated generation. All organized beings produce similar ones ; otherwise, death being a necessary con- sequence of life, their species would not endure. Organized beings have even the faculty of reproducing, in degrees varying with the species, certain of their parts of which they may have been deprived. This has been named the power of reproduction. The developement of organized beings is more or less rapid, and more or less ex- tended, according as circumstances are differently favourable. Heat, the supply and quality of nourishment, with other causes, exert great influence ; and this influence may extend to the whole body in general, or to certain organs in particular : — hence the similitude of offspring to their parents can never be complete. INTRODUCTION. 19 Differences of this kind, between organized beings, are what are termed varieties. There is no proof that all the differences which now distinguish organized beings are such as may have been produced by circumstances. All that has been advanced upon this subject is hypothetical : experience seems to show, on the contrary, that, in the actual state of things, varieties are confined within rather narrow limits ; and, so far as we can retrace antiquity, we perceive that these limits were the same as at present. We are then obliged to admit of certain forms, which, since the origin of things, have been perpetuated without exceeding these limits ; and all the beings appertaining to one of these forms constitute what is termed a species. Varieties are accidental subdivisions of species. Generation being the only means of ascertaining the limits to which varieties may extend, species should be defined the reunion of individuals descended one from the other, or from common parents, or from such as resemble them as closely as they resemble each other ; but, although this definition is rigorous, it will be seen that its application to particular individuals may be very difficult when the necessary experi- ments have not been made.* To recapitulate, — absorption, assimilation, exhalation, developement, and generation, are the functions common to all living beings ; birth and death, the universal limits of their existence ; a porous, contractile tissue, containing within its laminae liquids or gases in motion, the general essence of their structure ; substances almost all susceptible of being converted into liquids or gases, and combinations capable of easy transformation into one another, the basis of their chemical composition. Fixed forms, and which are perpetuated by generation, distinguish their species, determine the complication of the secondary functions proper to each of them, and assign to them the office they have to fulfil in the grand scheme of the universe. These forms neither produce nor change themselves ; the life supposes their existence ; it can exist only in organizations already prepared ; and the most profound meditations, assisted by the most delicate observations, can penetrate no further than the mystery of the pre-existence of germs. DIVISION OF ORGANIZED BEINGS INTO ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. Living or organized beings have been subdivided, from the earliest times, into ani- mate bei/iys, or those possessing sense and motion, and inanimate beings, which enjoy • That insurmountable difficulties oppose the rigid determination of species, and, consequently, render even the definition of the tirtn Impossible, except in a very vague »nd loose manner, will readily appear on consideration of some of the phenomena presented. The prevalent idea is, that a ipeciet consists of the aggregate of Individuals descended from one original parentage, which alone arc supposed to be capable of producing offspring that are prolific inter le ; and that when individuals, not of the same pristine derivation, Interbreed, the hybrids are necessarily mulrt , which are cither quite sterile, or at most can only propagate with individuals of nui descent. But it so happens, that every possible gTadc of approst* ;i is manifested, from the most diverse races, to UlOM which are utterly uiiaistinguishablc ; While, even in the latter case, urgent ana- I . notwithstanding, sometimes for lie a iepantel origin ; as when a scries of analogous races Inhabiting d] are compared together, sonu ol which are obs-tonal; different, doubtfully so, and some apparently Identical. Ami It remalni to be sh . ivvn whether such intimately allied race! as some of these, even if not descended from a common stock, (.which of course cannot be ascertained), would not produce hybrids capable of transmitting and perpetuating the mingled breed. It Is true that Cuvicr guards against this contingency, in the wording of his definition . and that in ost naturalists would concur in regarding such miscible races, how- ever dissimilar, as mrietirt merely of the same : hut a question arises, whether there be not different decreet of fertility in hybrids, corresponding to the amount of affinity, or physiological aceordancy, subsisting betwixt the parent races ; it being only within a certain sphere of that alhnity that they can he produced at all : besides which, as hybrids are seldom exactly intermediate, and in some instances (particularly among multiparous rates I have been known 10 r. .cubic entirely one or the other parent, it may be presumed that this i stance would also materially a:: apabUity of propagation* Experiment! are ueeded to solve this important proM> m, though there is ■ very reason to suspect that the I "ill eventu- al! v gain the general assent of naturalist.. vi>.. thai uKiU-jnuderailt diuimilaritf don mat oj neceanrp lassv/p apee^eaJ drier,;, y, tne run- mtrm tquaUf < retemblanct jatli 0/ iliel/ to cos ititute ipectical identity . — V.V. 20 INTRODUCTION. neither the one nor the other of these faculties, hut are reduced to the simple function of vegetating. Although many plants retract their leaves when touched, and the roots direct themselves constantly towards moisture, the leaves towards air and light, and though some parts of vegetables appear even to exhibit oscillations without any perceptible external cause, still these various movements bear too little resem- blance to those of animals to enable us to recognize in them any proofs of perception or of will. The spontaneity of the movements of animals required essential modifications, even in their simply vegetative organs. Their roots not penetrating the ground, it was necessary that they should be able to place within themselves provisions of food, and to carry its reservoir along with them. Hence is derived the first character of animals, or their alimentary cavity, from which their nutritive fluid penetrates all other parts through pores or vessels, which are a sort of internal roots. The organization of this cavity and of its appurtenances required varying, according to the nature of the aliment, and the operations which it had to undergo before it could furnish juices proper for absorption : whilst the atmosphere and the earth supply to vegetables only juices ready prepared, and which can be absorbed immediately. The animal body, which abounds with functions more numerous and more varied than in the plant, required in consequence to have an organization much more com- plicated ; besides which, its parts not being capable of preserving a fixed relative posi- tion, there were no means by which the motion of their fluids could be produced by external causes, as it required to be independent of heat and of the atmosphere : from this originates the second character of animals, or their circulatory system, which is less essential than the digestive, since it was unnecessary in the more simple animals. The animal functions required organic systems, not needed by vegetables, as that of the muscles for voluntary motion, and that of the nerves for sensibility ; and these two systems, like the rest, acting only through the motions and transformations of the fluids, it was necessary that these should be more numerous in animals, and that the chemical composition of the animal body should be more complicated than that of the plant : and so it is, for an additional substance (azote) enters into it as an essential element, while in plants it is a mere accidental junction with the three other general elements of organization, — oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. This then is the third character of animals. The soil and the atmosphere supply to vegetables water for their nutrition, which is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, air, which contains oxygen and azote, and car- bonic acid, which is a combination of oxygen and carbon. To extract from these aliments their proper composition, it was necesary that they should retain the hydrogen and carbon, exhale the superfluous oxygen, and absorb little or no azote. Such, then, is the process of vegetable life, of which the essential function is the exhalation of oxygen, which is effected through the agency of light. Animals in addition derive nourishment, more or I£ss immediately, from the vegetable itself, of which hydrogen and carbon form the principal constituents. To assimilate them to their own composition, they must get rid of the superfluous hydrogen, and especially of the superabundant carbon, and accumulate more azote ; this it is wmch is performed in respiration, by means of the oxygen of the atmosphere combining with the hydrogen and carbon of the blood, and being exhaled with them under the form of INTRODUCTION. 21 water and carbonic acid. The azote, whatever part of their body it may penetrate, appears to remain there. The relations of vegetables and animals with the atmosphere are then inverse ; the former retain (d('font) water and [decompose] carbonic acid, while the latter reproduce them. Respiration is the function essential to the constitution of an animal body ; it is that which in a manner animalizes it ; and we shall see that animals exercise their peculiar functions more completely, according as they enjoy greater powers of respira- tion. It is in this difference of relations that the fourth character of animals consists. OF THE FORMS PECULIAR TO THE ORGANIC ELEMENTS OF THE ANIMAL BODY, AND OF THE PRINCIPAL COMBINATIONS OF ITS CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. An areolar tissue and three chemical elements are essential to every living body, a fourth element being peculiar to that of animals ; but this tissue is composed of vari- ously formed meshes, and these elements are united in different combinations. There are three kinds of organic materials, or forms of tissue, — the cellular membrane, the muscular fibre, and the medullary matter; and to each form belongs a peculiar combination of chemical elements, together with a particular function. The cellular membrane is composed of an infinity of small lamina?, fortuitously dis- posed, so as to form little cells that communicate with each other. It is a sort of sponge, which has the same form as the entire body, all other parts of which fill or traverse it. Its property is to contract indefinitely when the causes which sustain its extension cease to operate. It is this force that retains the body in a given form, and within determined limits. When condensed, this substance forms those more or less extended laminae which are called membranes ; the membranes, rolled into cylinders, compose those tubes, more or less ramified, which are termed vessels ; the filaments, named fibres, resolve them- selves into it ; and the bones are nothing but the same, indurated by the accumulation of earthy particles. The cellular substance consists of that combination [isinglass] which bears the name of gelatine, and the character of which is to dissolve in boiling water, and to assume the form, when cold, of a trembling jelly. The medullary matter has not yet been reduced to its organic molecules : it ap- pears to the naked eye as a sort of soft bouillie [pultaceous mass], consisting of exces- sively small globules ; it is not susceptible of any apparent motion, but in it resides the admirable power of transmitting to the me the impressions of the external senses, and of conveying to the muscles the mandates of the will. The brain and the spinal chord arc chiefly composed of it; and the nerves, which are distributed to all the sentient organs, are, essentially, but ramifications of the same. The fleshy or muscular fibre is a peculiar sort of filament, the distinctive property of which, during life, is that of contracting when touched or struck, or when it experi- ences, through the medium of the nerves, the action of the will. The muscles, immediate organs of voluntary motion, are merely bundles of fleshy fibres. All the membranes, all the vessels which need to excrcisf any compn —inn, are furnished with these fibres. They are always intimately connected with nervous threads; but those which subserve the purely vegetative functions contract without 22 INTRODUCTION. tfte knowledge of the me, so that the will is indeed one means of causing the fibres to act, but which is neither general nor exclusive. The fleshy fibre has for its base a particular substance termed fibrine, which is insoluble in boiling water, and of which the nature appears to be to take of itself this filamentous form. The nutritive fluid, or the blood, such as we find in the vessels of the circulation, not only resolves itself principally into the general elements of the animal body, — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and azote, but it also contains fibrine and gelatine, all but disposed to contract, and to assume the forms of membranes or of filaments peculiar to them ; nought being ever acquired for their manifestation but a little repose. The blood pre- sents also another combination, which occurs in many animal solids and fluids, namely, albumen [or white of egg], the characteristic property of which is to coagulate in boiling water. Besides these, the blood contains almost all the elements which may enter into the composition of the body of each animal, such as the lime and phosphorus, which hardens the bones of vertebrated animals, the iron, which colours the blood itself as well as various other parts, the fat or animal oil, which is deposited in the cellular substance to maintain it, &c. All the fluids and solids of the animal body are composed of chemical elements contained in the blood ; and it is only by possessing some ele- ments more or less, or in different proportions, that each is severally distinguished ; whence it becomes apparent that their formation entirely depends on the subtraction of the whole or part of one or more elements of the blood, and, in some few cases, on the addition of some element from elsewhere. The various operations, by which the blood supplies nourishment to the solid or liquid matter of all parts of the body, may take the general name of secretion. This term, however, is often exclusively appropriated to the production of liquids, while that of nutrition is applied more especially to the production and deposition of the matter necessary to the growth and conservation of the solids. Every solid organ, as well as fluid, has the composition most appropriate for the office which it has to perform, and it preserves it so long as health continues, because the blood renews it as fast as it becomes changed. The blood itself, by this continual contribution, is altered every moment ; but is restored by digestion, which renews its matter ; by respiration, which sets free the superfluous carbon and hydrogen ; and by perspiration and various other excretions, that relieve it from other superabundant principles. These perpetual changes of chemical composition constitute part of the vital vortex, not less essential than the visible movements and those of translation : the object, in- deed, of these latter is simply to produce the former. OF THE FORCES WHICH ACT IN THE ANIMAL BODY. The muscular fibre is not only the organ of voluntary motion ; we have seen that it is also the most powerful of the means employed by nature to effect the move- ments of translation necessary to vegetative life. Thus the fibres of the intestines pro- duce the peristaltic motion, which causes the aliment to pass onward along this canal ; the fibres of the heart and arteries are the agents of the circulation, and, through it, of all the secretions, &c. INTRODUCTION. 23 The will causes the fibre to contract through the medium of the nerve ; and the involuntary fibres, such as those we have mentioned, are equally animated by the nerves which pervade them ; it is, therefore, probable, that these nerves are the cause of their contraction. All contraction, and, generally speaking, all change of dimension in nature, is produced by a change of chemical composition, though it consists merely in the flowing or ebbing of an imponderable *, such as caloric ; it is thus also that the most violent of known movements are occasioned, as combustions, detonations, &c. There is, then, great reason for supposing that it is by an imponderable fluid that the nerve acts upon the fibre ; and the more especially, as it is demonstrated that this action is not mechanical. The medullary matter of the whole nervous system is homogeneous, and must exercise, wherever it is found, the functions appertaining to its nature ; all its ramifi- cations receive a great abundance of blood-vessels. All the animal fluids being derived from the blood by secretion, it cannot be doubted that the same holds with the nervous fluid, nor that the medullary matter secretes [or evolves] it. On the other hand, it is certain that the medullary matter is the sole conductor of the nervous fluid ; and that all the other organic elements serve as non-conductors, and arrest it, as glass arrests electricity. The external causes which are capable of producing sensations, or of occasioning contractions in the fibre, are all chemical agents, capable of effecting decompositions, such as light, caloric, the salts, odorous vapours, percussion, compression, &c. It would seem, then, that these causes act upon the nervous fluid chemically, and by changing its composition : which appears the more likely, as their action becomes weakened by continuance, as if the nervous fluid needed to resume its primitive com- position in order to be altered anew. The external organs of sense may be compared to sieves, which allow nothing to pass through to the nerve except the species of agent which should affect it in that particular place, but which often accumulates so as to increase the effect. The tongue has its spongy papilla?, which imbibe saline solutions : the ear a gelatinous pulp, which is intensely agitated by sonorous vibrations ; the eye transparent lenses, which concentrate the rays of light, &c. It is probable that what are styled irritants, or the agents which occasion the con- tractions of the fibre, exert this action by producing on the fibre, by the nerve, the same effect which is produced by the will ; that is to say, by altering the nervous fluid in the manner necessary to change the dimensions of the fibre on which it has inflneni but the will has nothing to do in this fiction ; the mk is often even without any knowledge of it. The muscles separated from the body are still BUSCeptible of irrita- tion, so long as the portion of the nerve distributed within them preserves it- power of acting on them ; the will being evidently unconnected with this phenomenon. The nervous fluid is altered by muscular irritation, as well as by Bensatiofl and voluntary motion ; and the same necessity occurs for the re-establishment of its primi- tive composition. rhe movements of translation necessary to vegetative life are determined by irritants : • " Impondcnbll fluiil" i* the c*|irct»ion in the original. — Ed. 1 24 INTRODUCTION. the aliment irritates [or excites] the intestine, the blood irritates the heart, &c. These movements are all independent of the will, and in general (while health endures) take place without the cognizance of the me ; the nerves which produce them have even, in several parts, a different distribution from that of the nerves affected by sensations or subject to the will, and the object of the difference appears to be the securing of this independence.* The nervous functions, that is to say, sensitiveness and muscular irritability, are so much the stronger at every point, in proportion as the exciting cause is more abundant ; and as this agent, or the nervous fluid, is produced by secretion [or evolution], its abundance must be in proportion to the quantity of medullary or secretory matter, and the amount of blood received by the latter. In animals that have a circulation, the blood is propelled through the arteries which convey it to its destined parts, by means of their irritability and that of the heart. If these arteries be irritated, they act more vigorously, and propel a greater quantity of blood ; the nervous fluid becomes more abundant, and augments the local sensibility ; this, in its turn, increases the irritability of the arteries, so that this mutual action may be carried to a great extent. It is termed orgasm, and when it becomes painful and permanent, inflammation. The irritation may also originate in the nerve, when it experiences acute sensations. This mutual influence of the nerves and fibres, either in the intestinal system, or in the arterial system, is the real spring of vegetative life in animals. As each external sense is permeable only by particular kinds of sensation, so each internal organ may be accessible only to such or such agent of irritation. Thus, mercury irritates the salivary glands, cantharides excite the bladder, &c. These agents are what are termed specifics. The nervous system being homogeneous and continuous, local sensations and irrita- tion debilitate the whole ■ and each function, carried too far, may enfeeble the others. Excess of aliment thus weakens the faculty of thought ; while prolonged meditation impairs the energy of digestion, &c. Excessive local irritation will enfeeble the whole body, as if all the powers of life were concentrated on a single point. A second irritation produced at another point may diminish, or divert as it is termed, the first ; such is the effect of purgatives, blisters, &c. [denominated counter-irritation] . All rapid as the foregoing enunciation is, it is sufficient to establish the possibility of accounting for all the phenomena of physical life, by the simple admission of a fluid such as we have defined, from the properties which it manifests. f • In the above sentence, there are distinctly mentioned the three sorts of nerves, the separate functions of which have been con- clusively demonstrated by Sir Charles Bell: viz., nerves of volition, which transmit the mandates of the will ; of sensation, which convey to the sensoriuin the impressions of the senses; and of sympathy, or involuntary movement, the reunion of the ramifications of which in a plexus of knots, or ganglions, is intimated in the text, those of the second class being distinguished by a swelling or ganglion near their base. — Ed. t The unceasing chemical changes consequent upon vitality must necessarily develope electricity ; and that the nervous fluid is no other than the electric, may be considered approved by the identity of their phenomena. Indeed, it has long been known that the transmission of voltaic electricity along the nerves of a recently dead animal, suffices to produce the most violent muscular action ; but the regula- tion of that action, its exclusive direction to particular suites of t^uscles, requires the vital impulse. " If the brain," remarks Sir John Herschel, " (for which wonderfully constituted organ no other mode of action possessing the least probability has ever been devised), be an electric pile, constantly in action, it may be conceived to dis- charge itself at regular intervals, when the tension of the electricity developed reaches a certain point, along the nerves which communi- cate with the heart, and thus to excite the pulsations of that organ. This idea is forcibly suggested by a view of that elegant apparatus, the dry pile of Deluc, in which the successive accumulations of electricity are carried off by a suspended ball, which is kept, by the discharges, in a state of regular pulsation for any length of time. We have witnessed the action of such a pile, maintained in this way for whole years, in the study of the above-named eminent philosopher. The same idea of the cause of the pulsation of the heart appears to have occurred to Dr. Arnott, and is mentioned in his useful and ex- cellent work on Physics, to which, however, we are not indebted for the suggestion, it having occurred to us independently many years ago."— Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 343.— Ed. INTRODUCTION. 25 SUMMARY IDEA OF THE FUNCTIONS AND ORGANS OF THE BODIES OF ANIMALS, AND OF THEIR VARIOUS DEGREES OF COMPLICATION. After what we have stated respecting the organic elements of the body, its chemical principles, and the forces which act within it, it remains only to give a sum- mary idea in detail of the functions of which life is composed, and of their respective organs. The functions of the animal body are divided into two classes : — The animal functions, or those proper to animals, — that is to say, sensibility and voluntary motion. The vital, vegetative functions, or those common to animals and vegetables ; that is to say, nutrition and generation. Sensibility resides in the nervous system. The most general external sense is that of touch ; its seat is in the skin, a mem- brane enveloping the whole body, and traversed all over by nerves, of which the extreme filaments expand on the surface into papillae, and are protected by the epider- mis, and by other insensible teguments, such as hairs, scales, &c. Taste and smell are merely delicate states of the sense of touch, for which the skin of the tongue and nostrils is particularly organized ; the former by means of papillae more convex and spongy ; the latter, by its extreme delicacy and the multiplication of its ever humid surface. We have already spoken of the eye and ear in general. The organ of gene- ration is endowed with a sixth sense, which is seated in its internal skin ; that of the stomach and intestines declares the state of those viscera by peculiar sensations. In fine, sensations more or less painful may originate in all parts of the body through accidents or diseases. Many animals have neither ears nor nostrils; several are without eyes, and some are reduced to the single sense of touch, which is never absent. The action received by the external organs is continued through the nerves to the central masses of the nervous system, which, in the higher animals, consists of the brain and spinal chord. The more elevated the nature of the animal, the more volumi- nous is the brain, and the more the sensitive power is concentrated there ; in propor- tion as the animal is placed lower in the scale, the medullary masses are dispersed, and in the lowest genera of all, the nervous substance appears to merge altogether, and blend in the general matter of the body. That part of the body which contains the brain and the principal organs of sense, is called the head. When the animal has received a sensation, and which has induced in it an ad of volition, it is by [particular] nerves also that this volition is transmitted to the iiium'K s. The muscles are bundles of fleshy fibres, the contractions of which produce all the movements of the animal body. The extensions of the limbs, and all the Lengthenings <>t parts, arc the effect of muscular contractions, equally with flexions and abbreviations. i lie muscles of each animal are disposed in Dumber and direction according to the movements which it has to execute; and when these movements require to be effected With Some vigour, the muscles are inserted into hard part-, articulated one over another, and may be considered as so many levers. These parts are called bones in 26 INTRODUCTION. the vertebratecl animals, where they are internal, and formed of a gelatinous mass, penetrated with molecules of phosphate of lime. In mollusks, crustaceans, and insects, where they are external, and composed of a calcareous or corneous substance that exudes between the skin and epidermis, they are termed shells, crusts, and scales. The fleshy fibres are attached to the hard parts by means of other fibres of a gela- tinous nature, which seem to be a continuation of the former, constituting what are called tendons. The configuration of the articulating surfaces of the hard parts limits their move- ments, which are further restrained by cords or envelopes attached to the sides of the articulations, and which are termed ligaments. It is from the various dispositions of this bony and muscular apparatus, and from the form and proportions of the members which result therefrom, that animals are capable of executing those innumerable movements which enter into walking, leaping, flight, and swimming. The muscular fibres appropriated to digestion and circulation are independent of the will ; they receive nerves, however, but, as we have said, the chief of them exhibit subdivisions and enlargements which appear to have for their object the estrangement of the empire of the me. It is only in paroxysms of the passions and other powerful mental emotions, which break down these barriers, that the empire of the me becomes perceptible ; and even then its effect is almost always to disorder these vegetative functions. It is also in a state of sickness only that these functions are accompanied by sensations. Digestion is ordinarily performed unconsciously. The aliment, divided by the jaws and teeth, or sucked up when liquids con- stitute the food, is swallowed by the muscular movements of the back part of the mouth and throat, and deposited in the first portion of the alimentary canal, usually expanded into one or more stomachs ; it there is penetrated with juices proper to dis- solve it. Conducted thence along the rest of the canal, it receives other juices destined to complete its preparation. The parietes of the canal have pores which extract from this alimentary mass its nutritious portion, and the useless residue is rejected as excrement. The canal in which this first act of nutrition is performed, is a continuation of the skin, and is composed of similar layers ; even the fibres which encircle it are analogous to those which adhere to the internal surface of the skin, called the fleshy pannicle. Throughout the whole interior of this canal there is a transudation, which has some connexion with the cutaneous perspiration, and which becomes more abundant when the latter is suppressed ; the skin even exercises an absorption very analogous to that of the intestines. It is only in the lowest animals that the excrements are rejected by the mouth, and in wdiich the intestine has the form of a sac without issue. Among those even in which the intestinal canal has two orifices, there are many in which the nutritive juices, absorbed by the coats of the intestine, are immediately diffused over the whole spongy substance of the body : this appears to be the case with the whole class of insects. But, ascending from the arachnides and worms, the nutritive fluids circulate in a system of confined vessels, the ultimate ramifications of which alone dispense its molecules to the parts that are nourished by it ; those particular vessels which convey it are named INTRODUCTION. 27 arteries, and those •which bring it back to tne centre ot the circulation are termed veins. The circulating vortex is sometimes simple, sometimes double, and even triple (includ- ing that of the vena porta) ; the rapidity of its movements is often aided by the contrac- tions of a certain fleshy apparatus denominated hearts, and which are placed at one or the other centres of circulation, and sometimes at both of them. In the red-blooded vertebrated animals, the nutritive fluid exudes white or transpa- rent from the intestines, and is then termed chyle ; it is poured by particular vessels, named lactcals, into the venous system, where it mingles with the blood. Vessels resembling these lacteals, and forming with them what is known as the lymphatic system, also convey to the venous blood the residue of the nutrition of the parts and the products of cutaneous absorption. Before the blood is proper to nourish the several parts, it must experience from the ambient element, by respiration, the modification of which we have already spoken. In animals which have a circulation, a portion of the vessels is destined to carry the blood into organs, where they spread over an extensive surface, that the action of the ambient element might be increased. When this element [or medium] is the air, the surface is hollow, and is called lungs ; when water, it is salient, and termed gills* There are always motive organs disposed for propelling the ambient element into, or upon, the respiratory organ. In animals which have no circulation, the air is diffused through every part of the body by elastic vessels, named tracheae ; or water acts upon them, either by pene- trating through vessels, or by simply bathing the surface of the skin. The blood which is respired is qualified for restoring the composition of all the parts, and to effect what is properly called nutrition. It is a great marvel that, with this facility which it has of becoming decomposed at each point, it should leave precisely the species of molecule which is there necessary ; but it is this wonder which consti- tutes the whole vegetative life. For the nourishment of the solids, we see no other arrangement than a great subdivision of the extreme arterial ramifications ; but for the production of liquids, the apparatus is more complex and various. Sometimes the extremities of the vessels simply spread over large surfaces, whence the produced fluid exudes ; sometimes it oozes from the bottom of little cavities. Very often, before these arterial extremities change into veins, they give rise to particular vessels that convey this fluid, which appears to proceed from the exact point of union between the two kinds of vessels ; in this case, the blood-vessels and these latter tinned especial, form, by their interlacement, the bodies called conglomerate or secretory glands. In animals that have no circulation, and particularly insects, the nutritive fluid bathes all the parts ; each of them draws from it the molecules necessary for its suste- nance : if it be necessary that some liquid he produced, the appropriate vessels float in the nutritive fluid, and imbibe from it, by means of their pores, the constituent elements of that liquid. It is thus that the blood incessantly supports all the parts, and repairs the altera" tions which are the continual and necessary consequence of their functions. The • II may be remarked here, that, in ItrlclOCU or language, no •Ire water, but the air which is impended I which hu b«n McerUlned to contain mora oxygen tout to I tn r,-. n,.- dementi of water, n ri i, arc I. while thoae of air arc only ' :r,.m the one, therefore, dccompoaltloo li required ; from t'10 other, no disunion. The only distinction, then, in the respiration of animals is, that aomc Lrralhe tlic free air, and are lup- pUed with lungi, and other! that dloTiued in water, and hive there- fore (Uli i but (Ten tin- • •'> lm,rc apparent than real, as in all cases i: aire* to lie aoist W wot, In order to perform lu foe f lis atr by boll ami it cannot support 111-. — V.a. 28 INTRODUCTION. general ideas which we form respecting this process are tolerahly clear, although we have no distinct or detailed notion of what passes at each point ; and for want of knowing the chemical composition of each part with sufficient precision, we cannot render an exact account of the transformations necessary to produce it. Besides the glands which separate from the blood those fluids which perform some office in the internal economy, there are some which detach others from it that are to be totally rejected, either simply as superfluities, such as the urine, which is produced by the kidneys, or for some use to the animal, as the ink of the cuttle, and the purple matter of various other mollusks, &c. With respect to generation, there is one process or phenomenon infinitely more difficult to conceive than that of the secretions ; it is the production of the germ. We have seen even that it may be regarded as little less than incomprehensible ; but, the existence of the germ once admitted, generation presents no particular difficulty : so long as it adheres to the parent, it is nourished as if it were one of its organs* ; and when it detaches itself, it has its own proper fife, which is essentially similar to that of the adult. The germ, the embryo, the foetus, and the new-born animal, have in no instance, however, precisely the same form as the adult, and the difference is sometimes so great, that their assimilation merits the name of metamorphosis. Thus, no one not previously aware of the fact, would suppose that the caterpillar is to become a butterfly. All living beings are more or less metamorphosed in the course of their growth, that is to say, they lose certain parts, and develope others. The antennae, wings, and all the parts of the butterfly were inclosed within the skin of the caterpillar ; this skin disappears along with the jaws, feet, and other organs that do not remain in the butterfly. The feet of the frog are inclosed by the skin of the tadpole : and the tad- pole, to become a frog, loses its tail, mouth, and gills. The infant likewise, at birth, loses its placenta and envelope ; at a certain age its thymous gland almost disappears ; and it acquires by degrees its hair, teeth, and beard. The relative size of its organs alters, and its body increases proportionally more than its head, its head more than its internal ear, &c. The place where these germs are found, the assemblage of them, is named the ovary ; the canal through which, when detached, they are carried forward, the oviduct ; the cavity in which, in many species, they are obliged to remain for a longer or shorter period before birth, the matrix or uterus ; the exterior orifice through which they pass into the world, the vulva. When there are sexes, the male sex fecundates ; the germs appearing in the female. The fecundating liquor is named semen ; the glands which separate it from the blood, testicles ; and, when it is necessary that it should be intro- duced into the body of the female, the intromittent organ is called a. penis. RAPID EXPOSITION OF THE INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONS OF ANIMALS. The impression of external objects on the me, the production of a sensation, of an image, is a mystery impenetrable to our intellect ; and materialism an hypothesis, so much the more conjectural, as philosophy can furnish no direct proof of the actual * Germs have been detected in the ovaria of a human fcetns. — Ed. INTRODUCTION. 29 existence of matter. But the naturalist should examine what appear to be the mate- rial conditions of sensation ; he should trace the ulterior operations of the mind, ascer- tain to what point they reach in each being, and assure himself whether they are not subject to conditions of perfection, dependent on the organization of each species, or on the momentary state of each individual body. For the me to perceive, there must be an uninterrupted nervous communication between the external sense and the central masses of the medullary system. Hence it is only when a modification is experienced by these masses that the me perceives : there may also be real sensations, without the external organ being affected, and which originate either in the nervous passage, or in the central mass itself; such are dreams and visions, or certain accidental sensations. By central masses, we mean a part of the nervous system, which is more circum- scribed as the animal is more perfect. In man, it consists exclusively of a limited portion of the brain ; but in reptiles, it includes the brain and the whole of the medulla, and each of their parts taken separately ; so that the absence of the entire brain does not prevent sensation. In the inferior classes this extension is still greater. The perception acquired by the ME, produces the image of the sensation ex- perienced. We trace to without the cause of that sensation, and thus acquire the idea of the object which produces it. By a necessary law of our intelligence, all the id< as of material objects are in time and space. The modifications experienced by the medullary masses leave impressions there, which are reproduced, and recall to mind images and ideas ; this is memory, a cor- poreal faculty that varies considerably, according to age and health. Ideas that are similar, or which have been acquired at the same time, recall each other ; this is the association of ideas. The order, extent, and promptitude of this asso- ciation constitute the perfection of memory. Each object presents itself to the memory with all its qualities, or with all its accessory ideas. Intellect has the power of separating these accessor)' ideas of objects, and of com- bining those that are alike in several different objects under one general idea, the prototype of which nowhere really exists, nor presents itself in an isolated form ; this is abstraction. Every sensation being more or less agreeable or disagreeable, experience and re- peated essays show promptly what movements are required to procure the one and avoid the other ; and with respect to this, the intellect abstracts itself from general rules to direct the will. An agreeable sensation being liable to consequences that are not so, and vice verad, the subsequent sensations become associated with the idea of the primitive one, ami modify the general rules abstracted by the intellect ; this is prudence. From the applicat'on of rules to general ideas, result certain formula, which are afterwards adapted easily to particular cases ; this is called reasoning — ratiocination. A lively remembrance of primitive and associated Bensations, ami of the impressions of pleasure and pain that attach to them, constitutes imagination. i) e privileged being, Man, has the faculty of associating his general ideas with particular images more or 1' ss arbitrary, easily impressed upon the memory, and which serve to recall the general ideas which they represent. These associated images are 30 INTRODUCTION. what are called signs ; their assemblage is a language. When the language is com- posed of images that relate to the sense of hearing or sound, it is termed speech. When its images relate to that of sight, they are called hieroglyphics. Writing is a suite of images that relate to the sense of sight, by which we represent elementary sounds ; and, in combining them, all the images relative to the sense of hearing of which speech is composed : it is, therefore, only a mediate representation of ideas. This faculty of representing general ideas by particular signs or images associated with them, enables us to retain distinctly in the memory, and to recall without con- fusion, an immense number, and furnishes to the reasoning faculty and the imagina- tion innumerable materials, and to individuals the means of communication, which cause the whole species to participate in the experience of each individual ; so that no bounds seem to be placed to the acquisition of knowledge : this is the distinctive character of human intelligence.* The most perfect animals are infinitely below man in their intellectual faculties ; but it is, nevertheless, certain that their intelligence performs operations of the same kind. They move in consequence of sensations received, are susceptible of durable affections, and acquire by experience a certain knowledge of things, by which they are governed in- dependently of actual pain and pleasure, and by the simple foresight of consequences.f When domesticated, they feel their subordination, know that the being who punishes them may refrain from doing so if he will, and when sensible of having done wrong, or behold him angrv, they assume a suppliant air. In the society of man they become either corrupted or improved, and are susceptible of emulation and jealousy : they have among themselves a natural language, which, it is true, expresses only their momentary sensations ; but man teaches them to understand another, much more complicated, by which he makes known to them his will, and causes them to execute it. In short, we perceive in the higher animals a certain degree of reason, with all its consequences, good and bad, and which appears to be about the same as that of chil- dren before they have learned to speak. In proportion as we descend to the animals more removed from man, these faculties become enfeebled ; and, in the lowest classes, we find them reduced to signs, at times equivocal only, of sensibility, that is to say, to a few slight movements to escape from pain. Between these two extremes, the degrees are endless. In a great number of animals, however, there exists a different faculty of intelli- gence, which is named instinct. This prompts them to certain actions necessary to the preservation of the species, but often altogether foreign to the apparent wants of individuals ; frequently, also, very complicated, and which, to be ascribed to intelligence, would suppose a foresight and knowledge in the species that execute them infinitely superior to what can be admitted. These actions, the result of instinct, are not the effect of imitation, for the individuals that perform them have often never seen them performed by others : they are not proportioned to the ordinary intelligence, but become more singular, more wise, more disinterested, in proportion as the animals belong to less elevated classes, and are, in all the rest of their actions, more dull and * Liniiccus defined the human being to be a" self-knowing animal ;" . but it is doubtful whether any of them can mentally trace remote which is a bold assumption, taken either way. — Ed. causes, amid the complication of phenomena. It is with man in his t That is to say, they obviously remark coincidences and sequences ; | least civilized state that they should be compared, — Ed, INTRODUCTION. 31 stupid. They are so truly the property ot the species, that all its individuals perform ■lem in the same way, without any improvement. Thus the working bees have always constructed very ingenious edifices, agreeably to the rules of the highest geometry, and destined to lodge and nourish a posterity not even their own. The wasps and the solitary bees also form very complicated nests, in which to deposit their eggs. From this egg issues a grub, which has never seen its parent, which is ignorant of the structure of the prison in which it is confined, but which, once metamorphosed, constructs another precisely similar. In order to have a clear idea of instinct, it is necessary to admit that these animals have innate and perpetual images or sensations in the sensorium, which induce them to act as ordinary and accidental sensations commonly do. It is a sort of dream or vision that ever haunts them, and may be considered, in all that relates to instinct, as a kind of somnambulism. Instinct has been granted to animals as a supplement for intelligence, to concur with it, and with force and fecundity, to the preservation, in a proper degree, of each species. There is no visible mark of instinct in the conformation of the animal ; but intelli- gence, so far as has been observed, is in constant proportion to the relative size of the brain, and particularly of its hemispheres.* OF METHOD, AS APPLIED TO TnE ANIMAL KINGDOM. After what we have said respecting methods in general, there remains to ascertain which are the most influential characters of animals, that should serve as the basis of their primary divisions. It is evident they should be those which are drawn from the animal functions ; that is to say, from the sensations and movements ; for not only do both these make the being an animal, but they establish, in a manner, its degree of animality. Observation confirms this position, by showing that their degrees of developement and complication accord with those of the organs of the vegetative functions. The heart and the organs of the circulation form a kind of centre for the vege- tative functions, as the brain and trunk of the nervous system do for the animal • One of the most curious phenomena of instinct is the transmission of laitUled habits by generation, as in the instance of high-bred pointer and tetter dog*, often requiring no training to 6t thcin for their particular modes of indicating game. Propensities arc similarly