Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/1054

CLASSIFICATION]

The characters of the six classes are thus given by Linnaeus:—

Between Linnaeus and Cuvier there are no very great names; but under the stimulus given by the admirable method and system of Linnaeus observation and description of new forms from all parts of the world, both recent and fossil, accumulated. We can only cite the names of Charles Bonnet (1720–1793), the entomologist, who described the reproduction of Aphis; Banks and Solander, who accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage(1768–1771); Thomas Pennant (1726–1708), the describer of the English fauna; Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), who specially extended the knowledge of the Linnaean Vermes, and under the patronage of the empress Catherine explored Russia and Siberia; De Geer (1720–1778), the entomologist; Lyonnet (1707–1789), the author of the monograph of the anatomy of the caterpillar of Cossus ligniperdus; Cavolini (1756–1810), the Neapolitan marine zoologist and forerunner of Della Chiaje (fl. 1828); O. F. Müller (1730–1784), the describer of fresh-water Oligochaeta, Abraham Trembley (1700–1784), the student of Hydra; and O. F. Ledermiiller (1719–1769), the inventor of the term Infusoria. The effect of the Linnaean system upon the general conceptions of zoologists was no less marked than were its results in the way of stimulating the accumulation of accurately observed details. The notion of a scala naturae, which had since the days of classical antiquity been a part of the general philosophy of nature amongst those who occupied themselves with such conceptions, now took a more definite form in the minds of skilled zoologists. The species of Linnaeus were supposed to represent a series of steps in a scale of ascending complexity, and it was thought possible thus to arrange the animal kingdom in a single series—the orders within the classes succeeding one another in regular gradation, and the classes succeeding one another m a similar rectilinear progression.

J. B. P. de Lamarck (1744–1829) represents most completely, both by his development theory (to be further mentioned below) and by his scheme of classification, the high-water mark of the popular but fallacious conception of a scala naturae. His classification (1801–1812) is as follows:—

Vertebrata.
 * 3. Intelligent Animals.
 * Class XIII. Class XV.
 * ”  XIV. .  ”   XVI..