Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/926

* CLARK UNIVERSITY. 816 CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. kins X'liivcrsit.v. Consult Clark Vniiers^ity, 1SS9- 99, Decennial Celebration (Worcester, IS'J'J). CLASEN, kla'z( n, LoRicxzo ( 1 81 2-99 ) . A Ger- man artist an<l art critic, burn in DiisseUiorf. lie painted several historical pictures, inchulin"; "Poetic Contest on the Wartburg," and "The Watch on the Khine." But he is better known for his . art criticisms in periodicals, for his editorship of Faber's Kon versa! ions- Lexikon fiir bildende Kunst, and for his publications, Des Kitnstfrciindes lieiseahenieuer (1847), and Er- lebtes und Vericebies (188G). CLASSICS (Lat. classicus, from classis. class, from iiil'in. Lik.Ka(lf,kalein, to call). The term classici was ori<;inally applied to those citizens of Rome that belonged to the first and most in- fluential of the six classes into which Servius Tullius divided the population. As early as the second century a.d., it is applied figuratively by Oellius to writers of the highest rank ; and this mode of designation has since been very gener- ally adopted, in both literature and art. ilost nations have had, at some one time, a more than usual outburst of literature : this they usually style the classical period of their literature, and its most distinguished writers their classics. But as the great productions of the writers and artists of antiquity have continued to be looked upon by moderns as models of jjerfection, the word 'classic' has come to designate, in a nar- rower sense, the best writers of Greece and Rome, and 'classical' to mean much the same as 'ancient.' CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. Classi- fication is the act of sorting out and putting into groups kindred ideas, observations, or ob- jects. As many classifications, then, are pos- sible as are the categories which different per- sons may erect; for no two persons see things in the same light, nor have the same thoughts. Besides, there are many aspects that the one ob- server may take in viewing the same thing. Thus, wo may classify plants and animals ac- cording to their anatomical structure, the meth- od of their embryological development, their food or habitats. . classifications, then, are arbitrary: are the attempts of man to arrange, in an orderly fashion, his conceptions and ob- servations. Classification in biology' is, conse- quently, to be regarded as a subjective process. Nevertheless, the constant attempt of all mod- ern naturalists is to conform, in the formation of their groups, as closely as possible to the facts of nature, and thereby express the natural kinship or blood-relationship of animals, as learned through the investigation of their struc- ture and phjdogeny, A natural and true classi- licalioii, then, is a statement of near or remote relationships, acconling to the degree of dilVer- cntiation the forms sought to be classified have vuidergone iu their descent from a more or less remote common ancestor. If a comjilete classi- fication of animals is ever nuide. it w ill be a com- plete genealogy' of the animal kingdom. In this sense, classification is neither arbitrar}' nor artificial, but only tentative; and it will be per- manent in so far as it conforms to the facts of kinsliip in descent. Hence, a nearer and nearer approach to a natural and real classification has been made with each forward step of knowl- edge in embryology, morphology, and paleon- tology. "There is no question in natural history," said Louis Agassiz, in his classic Essay on Ctassi- ftcaiion, "on which more diversified opinions are entertained than on that of classification — not that naturalists disagree as to the necessity of some sort of arrangement in describing animals or plants, for since nature has become the object of special studies, it has been the universal aim of all natiualists to arrange the objects of their investigations in the most natural order pos- sible. Even BufTon, who Ijegan the publication of his great Xatural History by denying the ex- istence in nature of anything like a system, closed his work by grouping the birds according to certain general features exhibited in common by many of them. It is true, authors have dif- fered in their estimation of the characters on which their different arrangements are foimiled; and it is equally true that they have not viewed their arrangements in the same light, some hav- ing plainly acknowledged the artificial character of their systems, while others have urged theirs as the true expression of the natural relations which exist between the objects themselves." By collaboration and by common consent, cer- tain categories have been agreed tipon ; and these we generally have in mind wlicn we speak of the classification of the animal or vegetable kingdom. These categories are foimded mainly on anatomical and embryological relationships and dilVerences: and in zoological classification, for example, animals that resemble one another in structure, development, or botli, are grouped closely together, or are more distantly associat- ed, according to tlu' nearness or remoteness of the kinship as evidenced by the facts of struc- ture or development, whether in existing or in Individual Race Species Genus Family Order Class Houee Cat Manx ] .iij-ora I Tabby f domestics Tortoise-shell J lion tiger leopard Fells FelidiB Ivnxps liunting-cata J dogs hyenas bears Carnirora whales t)ats apes, etc. .VammaHa