The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 4, April 1860)Various
General
The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 4, April 1860)
Various
England -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
speaking of Tomkinson with the flabby face, and Tomkinson with the square
forehead, we simply say John and William Tomkinson.
Linnæus did more than this. He not only fixed definite conceptions
of Species and Genera, but introduced those of Orders and Classes.
Cuvier added Families to Genera, and Sub-kingdoms (_embranchements_) to
Classes. Thus a scheme was elaborated by which the whole animal kingdom
was arranged in subordinate groups: the sub-kingdoms were divided into
classes, the classes into orders, the orders into families, the families
into genera, the genera into species, and the species into varieties.
The guiding principle of anatomical resemblance determined each of these
divisions. Those largest groups, which resemble each other only in having
what is called the typical character in common, are brought together
under the first head. Thus all the groups which agree in possessing a
backbone and internal skeleton, although they differ widely in form,
structure, and habitat, do nevertheless resemble each other more than
they resemble the groups which have no backbone. This great division
having been formed, it is seen to arrange itself in very obvious minor
divisions, or Classes—the mammalia, birds, reptiles, and fishes. All
mammals resemble each other more than they resemble birds; all reptiles
resemble each other more than they resemble fishes (in spite of the
superficial resemblance between serpents and eels or lampreys). Each
Class again falls into the minor groups of Orders; and on the same
principles: the monkeys being obviously distinguished from rodents, and
the carnivora from the ruminating animals; and so of the rest. In each
Order there are generally Families, and the Families fall into Genera,
which differ from each other only in fewer and less important characters.
The Genera include groups which have still fewer differences, and are
called Species; and these again include groups which have only minute and
unimportant differences of colour, size, and the like, and are called
Sub-species, or Varieties.
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