22 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



observation may be deemed, if not equal in importance to 

 those great branches of human knowledge wrapped up in 

 the study of numbers and- of literature, at least useful, 

 practically calculated to expand the intellect the first 

 object of all education. 



" It is a matter not only curious in itself, but fraught 

 with interest to the future historian, to trace, however 

 briefly, the gradual unfolding of modern education, as 

 contrasted not merely with the ancient but with that which, 

 even in my younger days, prevailed everywhere. The 

 interest lies chiefly in contrasting the low estimate which 

 prevailed respecting the nature and character of the 

 sciences of simple observation as compared with true 

 science ; that description of knowledge which admits of a 

 priori reasoning, from that which scarcely, if at all, admits 

 of such. Hence, no doubt, the exclusion of chemistry, 

 anatomy, and natural history, from the curriculum of 

 all Universities, Schools, Colleges, Examining Bodies. 



But of one thing I am thoroughly convinced. This 

 improved condition of education, even in France, was 

 the result of accident of the accidental appearance in 

 France of a man destined to revolutionize all Zoological 

 Science, viewed under every possible aspect that man was 

 George Cuvier. To be convinced of the truth of this view, 

 we have but rapidly to trace the history of Zoology from 

 the period of the immortal Historia Animahum of Aristotle 

 to that of St. Pierre and Faujas St. Fond. (3.) 



"Before Rome existed, and before the Iliad was com- 

 posed, Egypt had its Pyramids and its Thebes ; that land 



(b) See " Great Artists and Great Anatomists." London : Van Voorst. 



