In his System of Nature, A.D. 1776,
Linnaeus declares, "I hereby separate the whales from the fish."
But of my own knowledge, I know that down to the year 1850,
sharks and shad, alewives and herring, against Linnaeus's
express edict, were still found dividing the possession
of the same seas with the Leviathan.
The grounds upon which Linnaeus would fain have banished
the whales from the waters, he states as follows: "On account
of their warm bilocular heart, their lungs, their movable eyelids,
their hollow ears, penem intrantem feminam mammis lactantem,"
and finally, "ex lege naturae jure meritoque." I submitted all
this to my friends Simeon Macey and Charley Coffin, of Nantucket,
both messmates of mine in a certain voyage, and they united in
the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether insufficient.
Charley profanely hinted they were humbug.
Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned
ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.
This fundamental thing settled, the next point is, in what internal
respect does the whale differ from other fish. Above, Linnaeus has given
you those items. But in brief they are these: lungs and warm blood;
whereas, all other fish are lungless and cold blooded.
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