4 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 



through successive gradations to the highest or most complicated con- 

 dition of each organ. 



These series of organs from different species are arranged according 

 to their relations to the great functions of organic and animal life ; and 

 the general scheme is closely analogous to that adopted by Baron 

 Cuvier in his Legons cCAnatomie Comparee, and in the best modern 

 works on Physiology. The only difference seems to be, that the series 

 of the organs subservient to the functions of animal life are interposed, 

 by Hunter, between those which relate to the organic life of the indi- 

 vidual and those which illustrate the great function of generation or 

 perpetuation of the species. 



The lectures which I delivered in this theatre in the years 1837, 

 1838, and 1839, were on the comparative anatomy and physiology of 

 digestion, nutrition, circulation, respiration, excretion, and the tegu- 

 mentary system. In 1840, the comparative anatomy of the generative 

 organs, and the development of the ovum and foetus in the different 

 classes of animals, were treated of. The organs of the animal functions 

 next engaged our attention, and a review of the fossil' remains of 

 extinct animals was combined with the osteology of existing species. 

 The comparative anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, which 

 was the subject of last year's course, terminated the series commenced 

 in 1837 on the plan which 1 have just defined. 



I have the pleasure to see the friendly countenances of some here 

 present who have patiently, and I hope not unprofitably, listened to 

 the whole of this series of lectures, and who may have discerned in 

 it, notwithstanding the long and frequent intervals, the characters of 

 a single and connected scheme of instruction in Comparative Anatomy 

 and Physiology. But with regard to those gentlemen, the students of 

 medicine and surgery in this metropolis, to whom I have the greatest 

 wish to impart profitable and useful instruction, I have seen, with 

 regret^ that portions only of the extensive subject, which the fulness 

 of its treatment compelled me to divide amongst different courses of 

 lectures, have been listened to by successive tenants of the gallery.* 

 The leisure left to the students of medicine, after the arduous task of 

 acquiring the essential elements of their profession, has rarely allowed 

 them to avail themselves of the privilege of admission to this theatre 

 for more than one or two seasons; and I fear that none have 

 been able to serve with us .throughout our six years' siege of the 

 city of physiological science founded by Hunter. 



The advantage — the necessity, rather — of combining a general 



* The gallery of the theatre is appropriated to the students; the body of the 

 theatre to the members and council of the college. W. W. C. 



