Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/854

Rh ZOOLOGY Aris totle s classifi cation. four-footed or legless Wotton s modifica tions. Gesner. Medical anatom ists and micro- scopists. many respects Wotton was simply an exponent of Aristotle, whose teaching, with various fanciful additions, constituted the real basis of zoological knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. It was Wotton s merit that he rejected the legendary and fantastic accretions, and returned to Aris totle and the observation of nature. The most ready means of noting the progress of zoology during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries is to compare the classificatory con ceptions of successive naturalists with those which are to be found in the works of Aristotle himself. Aristotle did not definitely and in tabular form propound a classification of animals, but from a study of his treatises Historia Animalium, De Generatione Animalium, and De Partibus Animalium the following classification can be arrived at : A. &quot;Evai|xa, blood-holding animals ( = Vcrtebrata). 1. ZWOTOKOWTO, 4v ai/Tols, viviparous Ensema ( Mammals, including the Whale). 2. &quot;OpviOes ( = Birds). 3. ferpdwoda. ij &Troda UOTOKOVVTO.. Enssma which lay eggs ( = Reptiles and Amphibia), 4. 1x6 fes ( = Fishes). B. &quot;Aveu(j.a, bloodless animals ( = Invertebrata). 1. MaXd/cta, soft-bodied An&ma ( = Cephalopoda). 2. MaXa/akrrpaKa, soft-shelled An&ma ( Crustacea). 3. &quot;Ei&amp;gt;TOfj.a, insected An&ma or Insects (= Artbropoda, ex clusive of Crustacea}. 4. OffTpaKoS^pfj.ara, shell-bearing Ansema (= Echini, Gastro poda, and Lamcllibranchia. ) Wotton follows Aristotle in the division of animals into the Enaema and the Anxma, and in fact in the recognition of all the groups above given, adding only one large group to those recognized by Aristotle under the Aneema, namely, the group of Zoophyta, in which Wotton includes the Holo- thuriee, Star-Fishes, Medusa, Sea-Anemones, and Sponges. Wotton divides the viviparous quadrupeds into the many- toed, double-hoofed, and single-hoofed. By the introduc tion of a method of classification which was due to the superficial Pliny, viz., one depending, not on structure, but on the medium inhabited by an animal, whether earth, air, or water, Wotton is led to associate Fishes and Whales as aquatic animals. But this is only a momentary lapse, for he broadly distinguishes the two kinds. Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), who was a physician and held professorial chairs in various Swiss cities, is the most voluminous and instructive of these earliest writers on systematic zoology, and was so highly esteemed that his Historia Animalium was republished a hundred years after his death. His great work appeared in successive parts, e.g., Vivipara, Ovipara, Aves, Pisces, Se rpe ntes et Scorpio, and contains descriptions and illustrations of a large num ber of animal forms with reference to the lands inhabited by them. Gesner s work, like that of John Johnstone (b. 1603), who was of Scottish descent and studied at St Andrews, and like that of Ulysses Aldrovandi of Bologna (6. 1522), was essentially a compilation, more or less critical, of all such records, pictures, and relations concern ing beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, and monsters as could be gathered together by one reading in the great libraries of Europe, travelling from city to city, and frequenting the company of those who either had themselves passed into distant lands or possessed the letters written and sometimes the specimens brought home by adventurous persons. The exploration of parts of the New World next brought to hand descriptions and specimens of many novel forms of animal life, and in the latter part of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th that careful study by &quot; specialists &quot; of the structure and life-history of particular groups of animals was commenced which, directed at first to common and familiar kinds, was gradually extended until it formed a sufficient body of knowledge to serve as an anatomical basis for classification. This minuter study had two origins, one in the researches of the medical anatomists, such as Fabricius (1537-1619), Severinus (1580-1656), Harvey (1578-1657), and Tyson (1649-1708), the other in the careful work of the entomologists and first microscopists, such as Malpighi (1628-1694), Swam- merdam (1637-1680), and Hook (1635-1702). The com mencement of anatomical investigations deserves notice here as influencing the general accuracy and minuteness with which zoological work was prosecuted, but it was not until a late date that their full influence was brought to bear upon systematic zoology by Georges Cuvier (1769- 1832). The most prominent name between that of Gesner and John Linnaeus in the history of systematic zoology is that of ^ a 7- John RAY (q.v.). Though not so extensive as that of Linnaeus, his work is of the highest importance, and rendered the subsequent labours of the Swedish naturalist far easier than they would otherwise have been. A chief merit of Ray is to have limited the term &quot;species&quot; and to have assigned to it the significance which it has until the Dar winian era borne, whereas previously it was loosely and vaguely applied. He also made considerable use of ana tomical characters in his definitions of larger groups, and may thus be considered as the father of modern zoology. Associated with Ray in his work, and more especially occupied with the study of the Worms and Molhisca, was Martin Lister (1638-1712), who is celebrated also as the author of the first geological map. After Ray s death in London in 1705 the progress of From anatomical knowledge, and of the discovery and illustration Ra y to of new forms of animal life from distant lands, continued m11 with increasing vigour. We note the names of Vallisnieri (1661-1730) and Alexander Monro (1697-1767); the travellers Tournefort (1656-1708) and Shaw (1692-1751) ; the collectors Rumphius (1637-1706) and Hans Sloane (1660-1753); the entomologist Reaumur (1683-1757); Lhwyd (1703) and Linck (1674-1734), the students of Star- Fishes; Peyssonel (b. 1694), the investigator of Polyps and the opponent of Marsigli and Reaumur, who held them to be plants; Woodward, the palaeontologist (1665- 1722), not to speak of others of less importance. Two years after Ray s death Carl LINNAEUS (q.v.) wasLinnsou born. Unlike Jacob Theodore Klein (1685-1759), whose careful treatises on various groups of plants and animals were published during the period between Ray and Linnaeus, the latter had his career marked out for him in a university, that of Upsala, where he was first professor of medicine and subsequently of natural history. His lectures formed a new departure in the academic treatment of zoology and botany, which, in direct continuity from the Middle Ages, had hitherto been subjected to the traditions of the medical profession and regarded as mere branches of &quot;materia medica.&quot; Linnaeus taught zoology and botany as branches of knowledge to be studied for their own intrinsic interest. His great work, the Systema Naturae, ran through twelve editions during his lifetime (1st ed. 1735, 12th 1768). Apart from his special discoveries in the anatomy of plants and animals, and his descriptions of new species, the great merit of Linnaeus was his introduction of a method of enumeration and classification which may be said to have created systematic zoology and botany in their present form, and establishes his name for ever as the great organizer, the man who recognized a great practical want in the use of language and supplied it. Linnaeus adopted Ray s conception of species, but he made species a practical reality by insisting that every species shall have a double Latin name, the first half to be the name of the genus common to several species, and the second half to be the specific name. Previously to Linnaeus long many-worded names had been used, sometimes with