The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware.

  • Smellie, William, 1740-1795.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    clam, and the qnahog. 4. Vermes or worms, as the earthworm, die leech. 5. Zoophytes, as the star-fish, the sea-urchin, the sea-anemone, the sun-fish, the polypes, the sponges, and the ani- maloules. Those classes will all be more particularly described hereafter. . The whole animal world then Is arranged in two grand divi- sions, and nine distinct classes, as in the following table. I. Vertebral Animals. 1. Mammalia, Kv-arm-hlooded. 2. Birds, > 3. Reptiles, > Cold_bIooded. 4. fishes, ) II. Invertebral Animals. .'). Insects. 6. Crustacea. 7. Mollusca. 8. Vermes or Worms. 9. Zoophytes. After these greater divisions into classes, there are several smaller divisions, of which it will be useful to give some ac- count. Classes are subdivided into a greater or less number of or- ders ; and these are distinguished by some important, clear, and remarkable peculiarities of conformation and structure, which are common to all the animals included under each of them. Thus, in the class Mammalia, the order Quadrumana includes those animals which have hands upon all four of their extremi- ties, such as monkeys and apes ; the order Ruminantia, those which ruminate or chew the cud; the order Carnivora, those adapted to feed principally on animal food. In the other classes, the divisions are of a similar kind. Orders are subdivided into genera. These comprehend animals which have a general external resemblance to each other, a kind of family likeness. Thus the genus Felis includes all those of the cat kind ; and these animals, although differing one from another very much in size and colour, have yet a close resemblance in their general form, figure, character, and habits of life. The genus Canis includes those of the dog kind, the wolf, the fox, the jackal, and the domestic dog, of which the same remark may be made. Thus, too, the horse, the ass, and the zebra, are all of the same genus Equus, on account of their obvious general similarity.