An essay on the comparative merits of artificial and natural classification, as applied to diseases of the skin ... / [John Paget].

  • Paget, John, 1808-1892.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the comparative merits of artificial and natural classification, as applied to diseases of the skin ... / [John Paget]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    indispensable for the acquisition of the rudiments of knowledge. It presents, however, the inconvenience of placing in relation objects naturally separated, and of disuniting those most inti¬ mately related. The system of Linnaeus informs us of the number of stamens and pistils in a plant,—-of the number and form of the teeth of Mammalia,—of the relative position of the fins of fishes ; but here the knowledge derivable from the system ceases. A natural method, on the contrary, which is derived from the sum of the characters of affinity, those characters having regard to the constancy of appearance and importance of func¬ tion of the organ from which they are taken, serves to mark, by the distribution of the objects, the relative rank they hold in the scale of creation,—the analogies they present with those which surround them,—and the distinctions by which they are separated from them; in short, 44 it considers the object under every possible point of view, and therefore makes one really know it.11 If the naturalist desired to learn the name of an object only, indeed the system would have the advantage, since only one organ need be known to furnish the key to this knowledge; while in the other, the whole structure and history must have been previously well studied. In all subjects it is desirable to unite as closely as possible the convenience of the one with the solid utility of the other. In a science possessing very natural relations throughout all its parts, in which the same organs or characters, variously modified, are repeated throughout each family, this may generally be effected by selecting the most constant and essential character to form the basis of the system, and superadding it to the methodical arrangement founded on the sum of the characters. Jussieu has effected this object (for even Jussieu is a systematist) with so much success, that the Linnsean system might almost be dispensed with, even for the beginner. It may perhaps be urged that this complication is unneces¬ sary, since in botany many of the genera, as arranged artifi¬ cially by Linnaeus, are in the same relative position as in the natural classification of Jussieu; and in zoology, Cuvier has at last returned, as observed by M. Isidore G. St-Hilaire, to exactly the same order in his arrangement of Mammalia, as that originally proposed by Linnaeus himself. Nor should this be wondered at; for such is the harmony of organization which reigns throughout creation,—such the successive and propor¬ tionate increase of developement,—such the sympathy of form in the different parts of one body, that, except in monstrosities.