A treatise on the geography and classification of animals / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the geography and classification of animals / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    persion, and yet experience teaches us, that certain divisions of the earth are characterised by peculiar animals. We are now to enquire, what are these divisions? how they are to be defined? and what are their pecu- liarities? We shall, in the first instance, notice the dif- ferent theories that have been formed upon these points, enquire how far they are in accordance with observed facts, and then explain our own views upon this inter- esting subject. (13.) Fabricius appears to have been the first na- turalist who ventured on any actual definitions of what he conceived to be natural climates or provinces, and his views are confined alone to the insect world. He considers that there are eight of these divisions, which he has named the Indian, 2. Egyptian, 3. Southern, 4. Mediterranean, 5. Northern, 6. Oriental, 7. Occidental, and 8. Alpine. _The first comprehends the tropics of the Old and the New World ; the second, the northern re- gions immediately adjoining ; the third, the southern ; the fourth, the countries bordering the Mediterranean, and part of Asia Minor; the fifth, the northern parts of Europe ; the sixth, the coldest regions of northern Asia ; the seventh includes North America, Japan, and China ; and the eighth, all those mountains whose sum- mits are clothed in perpetual snow. (14.) The objections to this theory, as urged by M. Latreille, are, that the divisions are too vague, and at the same time too arbitrary ; and that if heat is to be considered as of such primary importance, it is not sufficiently correct as to temperature. This learned entomologist further observes (what, indeed, must be obvious to every one at all acquainted with the subject), that in places where the temperature is the same, the insects, and, we may add, the animals, in general, are totally different. The fact is, that Fabricius, by not attempting to demonstrate the correctness of any one of his divisions, seems to have subsequently abandoned them altogether, since no one, it may be fairly presumed,
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