.

After this Lamarck judiciously refrained from publishing descriptions of
new species, and other fragmentary labors, and for some ten years from
the date of publication of his first zooelogical article reserved his
strength and elaborated his first general zooelogical work, a thick
octavo volume of 452 pages, entitled _Systeme des Animaux sans
Vertebres_, which appeared in 1801.

Linne had divided all the animals below the vertebrates into two classes
only, the Insecta and Vermes, the insects comprising the present classes
of insects, Myriapoda, Arachnida, and Crustacea; the Vermes embracing
all the other invertebrate animals, from the molluscs to the monads.

Lamarck perceived the need of reform, of bringing order out of the
chaotic mass of animal forms, and he says (p. 33) that he has been
continually occupied since his attachment to the museum with this
reform.

He relies for his characters, the fundamental ones, on the organs of
respiration, circulation, and on the form of the nervous system. The
reasons he gives for his classification are sound and philosophical, and
presented with the ease and aplomb of a master of taxonomy.

He divided the invertebrates, which Cuvier had called animals with white
blood, into the seven following classes.

We place in a parallel column the classification of Cuvier in 1798.

_Classification of Lamarck._ _Classification of Cuvier._

1. Mollusca. I. _Mollusca._

2. Crustacea. II. _Insectes et Vers._

3. Arachnides (comprising 1. Insectes.
the Myriapoda). 2. Vers.

4. Insectes. III. _Zoophytes._

5. Vers. 1. Echinodermes.
2. Meduses, Animaux
6. Radiaires. infusorines, Rotifer,
Vibrio, Volvox.
7. Polypes. 3. Zoophytes proprement
dits.

Of these, four were for the first time defined, and the others
restricted. It will be noticed that he separates the Radiata
(_Radiaires_) from the Polypes. His "Radiaires" included the
Echinoderms (the _Vers echinoderms_ of Bruguiere) and the Medusae (his
_Radiaires molasses_), the latter forming the Discophora and
Siphonophora of present zooelogists. This is an antici