Download or read book The American Beaver and His Works (Classic Reprint) written by Lewis H. Morgan and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-20 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The American Beaver and His Works The publication of Cuviers Animal Kingdom established an epoch in the science of zoology. This eminent scholar brought to his subject the critical and reflective powers of a great intellect, and the varied and profound acquirements of a laborious life. Having possessed himself of the results of antecedent as well as contemporary investigations, and extended his researches with more or less exactness, over the entire animal kingdom, he was enabled to construct, upon the System of Nature, that remarkable system for the classification of animals, which now forms the basis of zoological science. This system of classification is founded exclusively upon the anatomical structure of animals, whence comparative anatomy is the source of its materials. It not only rejects the habits and properties of animals as immaterial and transient, but it also leaves out of consideration their mental endowments, which, however important in other respects, were incapable of affording a basis of classification. Under its clear and definite discriminations all the species of each of the four great branches of the animal kingdom are seen in intelligible and harmonious relations, notwithstanding their striking diversities of form. Unity of type runs through the structural organization of all the individuals comprised in each of these branches. The grandeur of this fourfold plan of creation is not more impressive than the wonderful adaptation of the surrounding elements to the condition and wants of the multitude of animal organisms which God has made. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.