285 

 NATURAL-HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Barox Cuvier's Lectures on the History of the Natural Sciences. 



Lecture VII. {Continued.) Aristotle's History of Animals 



The History of Animals is truly a masterpiece. On reading this treatise, it is 

 difficult to understand how the author could have obtained from personal obser- 

 vation so many generalizations, so many aphorisms whose accuracy is perfect, 

 but of which his predecessors had never formed the slightest idea. This book 

 is not, properly speaking, a treatise on zoology ; it is a summary, which bears 

 the same relation to this branch of natural science as the Philosophia Bota- 

 nica of Linnffius holds in another department. 



The first book treats of the parts which compose the body of animals, which 

 are described, not by species, but by natural families, detailing the peculiarities 

 of each group. Such a labour could not have been performed, had not the au- 

 thor possessed very clear notions on the classification of beings. However, as he 

 lias not deemed it necessary to trace a zoological gradation, some individuals have 

 pretended that his work is destitute of method. Such a reproach only evinces 

 a very superficial mind in him who advances it. 



The whole of the commencement of this first book is in some degree detatched 

 from the rest, and is intended to serve as an introduction. It is principally com- 

 posed of general propositions presented without development, but in so clear a 

 manner that any one may understand them, and easily apply them to the natural 

 objects with which he is acquainted. The object of the author has evidently 

 been to fix the attention, by thus assembling in a small space a great number of 

 remarkable results, and to give, in the first place, an idea of the interest which 

 will be found in the study of nature. The most part of these aphorisms indicate 

 the observation of an immense number of particular facts, as may be judged from 

 the following, which we select. 



All animals, without exception, are furnished with a mouth, and possess the 

 sense of touch ; but these characters are the only two which are indispensible, 

 and we cannot find a third which is not absent in some species. 



Amongst terrestrial animals, there are not any which are fixed to the earth ; 

 amongst aquatic animals, on the other hand, we know many which are fixed. 



Every animal which has wings has also feet. (The author relies upon this 

 observation in denying the existence of dragons, which had been represented as 

 winged serpents.) 



Amongst winged insects, many are furnished with stings. Those which 

 carry this organ in the anterior part of the body have never more than two wings ; 

 those which have it posteriorly possess four. 



Such propositions, it is well known, cannot be formed a priori ; they are ne- 

 cessarily based on a profound observation of facts, and indicate an almost uni- 

 versal examination of animals. 



In this same introduction, Aristotle establishes the foundations of his classifi- 

 cation. He divides animals according as they have blood or as they have not ; 

 in other words, he separates red-blooded from white-blooded animals. The ani- 

 mals with red blood are quadrupeds, serpents, birds, fishes, and cetacea. Al- 

 though both the two latter classes live in the water, and resemble each other 

 somewhat in external form, Aristotle, in connecting them, is far from confound- 

 ing them. He knew the nature of the cetacea as well as we know it now ; he 

 knew that these animals have warm blood, that they bring into the world a liv- 

 ing offspring, and that they nourish their young with milk from their mammae. 

 He established also amongst the quadrupeds a well-marked division into vivipa- 

 rous and oviparous ; the latter, said he, in their internal organization and their 

 tegumentary system, have a great anaJogy with the serpents. From this sub- 



