148 Dr Craigie^s Observations on the 



a general standard of reference ; and while the importance of 

 correct knowledge of the latter is readily admitted, that of the 

 animal tribes generally is not less valuable, in reference to the 

 great purpose of illustrating the nature and characters of animal 

 structure and living actions. 



The soundness of these principles it would be easy to illus- 

 trate and enforce, in different modes. But perhaps by no me- 

 thod can they be placed in so clear a point of view as by the 

 history of the science itself, and of the successive stages through 

 which it has passed. In this manner we shall be enabled to 

 appreciate the estimation in which it has at different periods 

 been held, to understand the objects with which it has been 

 cultivated, to distinguish the impediments by which its progress 

 has at different periods been obstructed, and to form a just idea 

 of its utility and applications when cultivated, without reference 

 to temporary, local, or particular purposes, and on the general 

 principles of philosophical inquiry. 



Sect. I. — Aristotle and Ancients. 



The first person who can be said to have cultivated compara- 

 tive anatomy systematically, and in a scientific manner, is Aris- 

 totle; and it is an interesting circumstance in the history of 

 science, that the same individual who distinguished himself by 

 the depth and accuracy of his views on the political constitution 

 of society, and the acuteness of his analytical powers in investi- 

 gating the history of the human mind, and applying it to morals 

 and literature, was also the first to explain the structure of ani- 

 mal bodies. It is further important to remark, that it was to 

 the peculiar construction of his mental faculties, and his turn 

 for generalization, that the success and the failures of the philo« 

 sopher of Stagira may be traced in both these opposite depart- 

 ments of science ; and while most of his political and metaphy- 

 sical opinions are erroneous, in being founded on too limited a 

 series of observations, the results of his zootomical researches, 

 in which he was less likely to be misled by mere speculation, 

 constitute a collection of facts, of which the value has been re- 

 cognised by the most distinguished modern anatomists. Aris- 

 tode is almost a solitary example of an individual, who, finding 



