BLAINVILLE

This article appears in Volume V23, Page 139 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BER-BLA

BLAINVILLE . He divided the " oviparous subtype " of Vertebrates into four classes, Birds,

Reptiles

REPTILES (Lat. Reptilia, creeping things, from reptilis; ref ere, to creep; Gr. Ep7rety, whence the term " herpetology," for the science dealing with them)

, Amphibians and Fishes,' a modification of the

system

SYSTEM

which is all the more significant as he designates the

reptiles

REPTILES (Lat. Reptilia, creeping things, from reptilis; ref ere, to creep; Gr. Ep7rety, whence the term " herpetology," for the science dealing with them)

" Squammiferes Ornithoides, ecailleux," and the amphibians " Nudipelliferes, Ichthyoides nus." In these terms we perceive clear indications of the relations which exist to the class of birds on the one hand, and to that of fishes on the other; but, unfortunately, Blainville himself did not follow up the ideas thus expressed, and abandoned even the terms in a later edition of his systematic tables.
The direct or indirect

influence

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

of the

work

WORK

French

anatomists manifested itself in the systems of the other herpetologists of this period. The Crocodiles, especially, which hitherto (strange to say, even in Cuvier's

classification

CLASSIFICATION (Lat. classis, a class, probably from the root cal-, cla-, as in Gr. icaMce, clamor)

) had been placed as one of the families of Saurians, now commence to be separated from them. MERREM (Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien, Marburg, 182o, 8vo) distinguishes two classes of " Amphibians," Pholidota and

Batrachia

BATRACHIA

.
The Pholidota (or Reptiles) are divided into three orders, distinguished chiefly by osteological and splanchnological characters: I. TESTUDINATA.
2. LoRICATA (=Crocodiles).
3. SQUAMATA (=

Oppel

OPPEL, CARL ALBERT (1831–1865)

's Squamata, excluding Crocodiles). Merrem's subdivision of the Squamata into (1) Gradientia (=limbed Lacertilia), (2) Repentia (=limbless Lacertilia), (3) Serpentia (=

Snakes

SNAKES

and Amphisbaena), (4) Incedentia (=Chirotes), and (5) Predentia (=Chamaeleons) was based chiefly on the modifications of the limbs, and not adopted by his successors. The greater

part

PART

of his

work

WORK

is occupied with a synopsis of all the species of Reptiles known, each being shortly characterized by a diagnosis; but, as only a small proportion (about one hundred and seventy) were known to him from autopsy, this synopsis has all the faults of a compilation.

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