It is highly desirable, therefore, to have before us a bird’s-eye view
of the Animal Kingdom even if it is only occasionally brought into
actual use by the average reader. Classification, it should be
understood, is only a process of comparison for the purpose of enabling
us to determine the exact place of each animal in the plan of Nature. In
other words it is simply a scientific method of naming the various
animals from the relation of their resemblances.
We are chiefly indebted to the great Swedish scientist Linnæus for the
scientific method of naming animals. For his purpose, Linnæus used the
Latin as the universal language of science. For example, he named the
dog in his classification _Canis familiaris_, using a generic word and a
specific word--just as they are used in the name of George Washington.
In scientific classification, however, these names have become abstract
terms, and they represent certain grades or degrees of resemblance which
are spoken of as species, genera, families, orders, classes, and so on.