212 Miscellaneous. The two latter animals were presented to the Museum collection by Andrew Charlton, Esq., of Liskard, Cheshire, with a series of spe-cimens of Felts marmoratus from Malacca. White-thighed Jacchus, Jacchus leucomerus. Pale brown ; hair pale, with a broad dark terminal band ; hinder part of body and legs darker ; face and tail black ; throat and beneath paler ; front edge of thighs and sides of loins white ; ears not tufted. Hab. Bolivia. Brought to England by Mr. Bridges, and in the collection of the British Museum. This may be /. melanura, Geoff. General Views on the Classification of Animals. By J. D. Dana*. In Cuvier's classification of animals, the division Radiata includes all invertebrated animals not comprised in either of the subkingdoms Articulata and Mollusca. Consisting thus only of refuse species, and not limited by positive characters, as Owen states, we should not expect that the group could be a natural assemblage. No line of subdivision, however, has yet been made out which has met with general favour ; yet greater precision has been given to our views of the affinities that run through the animal kingdom, by appealing to the nerves, the seat of sensibility and sentiment, as a basis in clas-sification ; and in this manner the subdivisions have been character-ized as follows by Dr. Grant : — I. The Vertebrata, having a brain and a spinal cord, constitute the Spini-Vertebrata. II. The Mollusca, having the nerves forming generally a trans-verse series of ganglia disposed around the oesophagus, the Cyclo-GANGLIATA. III. The Articulata, having no proper brain, and the main cord which runs the length of the body, double, the Diplo-neura. IV. The Radiata, having a radiate structure in the body and the nervous ganglia arranged in a circle, Cyclo-neura. An objection might be made to this system, on the ground of the apparent absence of nerves in some of the lower orders. But a real absence can hardly be concluded from our inability to distinguish them. Many of these animals show by their voluntary motions and sensibility that nervous influences traverse the body : moreover, ner-vous matter is secreted in lines. We can therefore only infer the indistinctness, and not the absence of nerves, from our ineffectual efforts to trace them out ; and we must consequently be guided by general structure, in determining the relations of groups, when the nerves fail of giving aid. The above arrangement fails, in some respects, of presenting a clear idea of the system in nature, although highly philosophical in its general features. A study of the animal kingdom, as has been lately shown, brings to light lines or general systems of development * Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. ii. p. 281, Oct. 1845.
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