Volume 1

A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work.

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the earth, and animated nature / By Oliver Goldsmith. With an introductory view of the animal kingdom, tr. from the French by Baron Cuvier. And copious notes embracing accounts of new discoveries in natural history: And a life of the author by Washington Irving. And a carefully prepared index to the whole work. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Observation confirms tlie correctness of this reasoning, by showing that their development and intricacy of structure correspond in degree with those of the organs performing the vegetative functions. The heart and the organs of circulation form a kind of centre for the vegetative functions, in the same manner as the brain and the trunk of the nervous system are the centres of the animal functions; for we see these two systems become gradually more imperfect, and finally disappear together. In the very lowest classes of animals, where nerves can no longer be discovered, all traces of muscular fibres are obliterated, and the organs of digestion are simply excavated in the uniform mass of their bodies. The vascular system [or systematic arrangement of vessels] in insects, disappears even before the nervous; but, in general, the medullary masses are dispersed in a degree corresponding to the agents of muscular motion. A spinal marrow, on which are various knots or ganglions, representing so many brains, corresponds exactly to a body divided into numerous annular [or ring-like] segments, supported upon pairs of limbs, distributed along its entire length. This general agreement in the construction of animal bodies, resulting from the arrangement of their organs of motion, the distribution of the nervous masses, and the energy of the circulating system, ought, then, to form the basis of the primary divisions of the Animal Kingdom. We shall now proceed to examine what the characters are, which ought to succeed immediately to the above, and give rise to the first subdivision.s. If we divest ourselves of the popular prejudices in favour of long-established divi- sions, and consider the Animal Kingdom upon the principles ali'eady laid down, without reference to the size of the animals, their utility, the greater or less know- ledge we may have of them, or to any of these accidental circumstances, but solely in reference to their organization and general nature, we shall find that there are four principal forms, or (if we may use the expression) four general plans, upon which all animals appear to have been modelled. The minor subdivisions, by what- ever titles they may be ornamented by Naturalists, are merely slight modifications of these great divisions, founded upon the greater development or addition of some parts, Avhile the general plan remains essentially the same, 1. Vertebrata—Vertebrated Animals. In the first of these forms, which is that of Man, and of the animals most resem- bling him, the brain and the principal trunk of the nervous system are enveloped in a bony covering, composed of the cranium [or skull], and the vertebrte [or bones of the neck, back, and loins]. To the sides of this medial column are attached the ribs, and the bones of the limbs, forming collectively the framework of the body. The muscles, in general, enclose the bones which they set in motion, and the viscera are contained within the head and trunk. Animals possessed of this form are called Vertebrated Animals {Animalia verte- brata) [from their possessing a vertebral column or spine]. They are all supplied with red blood, a muscular heart, a mouth with two jaws, one being placed either above or before the other, distinct organs of sight, hearing, I smell, and taste, in the cavities of the face, and never more than four limbs. The '< sexes are always separate, and the general distribution of the medullary masses, with the principal branches of the nervous system, are nearly the same in all { Upon examining attentively each of the parts of this extensive division of animals, ' we shall always discover some analogy among them, even in species apparently the ! most removed from each other; and the leading features of one uniform plan may I be traced from man to the lowest of the fishes. i The following are examples of Vertebrated Animals; Man, quadrupeds, whales, birds, serpents, j frogs, tortoises, herrings, carps, &c. ! 2. ]\IOLLUSCA—Molluscous Animals. In the second form of animals we find no skeleton. The muscles are attached solely to the skin, which forms a soft envelop, capable of contracting in various ways.