442 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



sciences. Many of these in turn are capable of still further 

 division. We shall turn now to the history of zoology. After 

 seeing the many avenues along which animal studies may be 

 approached we are in a position to appreciate the fact that 

 the history of such a diversified science cannot be simple. 



The Background of Zoological History. We have proof that 

 man has known something about animals since before the 

 dawn of history. There are caves in southern France where 

 man lived long before the period of which we have any 

 consecutive record, or history. On the walls of these caves 

 are pictures of deer and of horses. These pictured animals 

 are entirely different from any of the animals now living, 

 but like the ones of a past geological period. Doubtless 

 these were the animals which primitive man hunted. The 

 drawings in the caves and the carvings on bone from these 

 same ancient homes of prehistoric man show us that he 

 had a considerable knowledge of animals. But there was no 

 zoology at that early period, for in our definition we must 

 include the statement that zoology is the science of animals. 

 The knowledge which the ancient races of mankind had 

 concerning animals merely furnished the foundation on 

 which zoology could be built in later generations. For a 

 science consists not alone of facts but requires that these 

 facts shall be arranged in such manner as to show how they 

 are related to one another. 



No one knows when these facts with which primitive man 

 must have been familiar became knit together into a science 

 of zoology. The earliest person of whom we definitely know 

 as a writer on animals is the Greek philosopher Aristotle 

 (Fig. 231), who lived in the fourth century B.C. 



Zoology in the Middle Ages. In spite of its venerable be- 

 ginnings in the period of Greek culture and learning, 

 zoology never prospered as a separate science and profession 

 until modern times. Throughout the important epochs of 



