ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The importance of the study of Animal Physiology, as a 
branch of General Education, can scarcely he over-estimated ; 
and it is remarkable that it is not more generally appreciated. 
It might have been supposed that curiosity alone would have 
led the mind of Man to the eager study of those wonderful 
actions by which his body is constructed and maintained ; 
and that a knowledge of those laws, the observance of which 
is necessary for the due performance of these actions,—in other 
words, for the maintenance of his health ,—would have been 
an object of universal pursuit. That it has not hitherto been 
so, may he attributed to several causes. The very familiarity 
of the occurrences is one of these. We are much more apt 
to seek for explanations of phenomena that rarely present 
themselves, than of those which, we daily witness. The Comet 
excites the world’s curiosity, whilst the movements of the 
sun, moon, and planets are regarded as things of course. We 
almost daily see vast numbers of animals of different tribes, 
in active life around us; their origin, growth, movements, 
decline, death, and reproduction, are continually taking place 
under our eyes; and there seems to common apprehension 
nothing to explain, where everything is so apparent. And of 
Man too, the ordinary vital actions are so familiar, that the 
study of their conditions appears superfluous. To he horn, 
to grow, to he subject to occasional disease, to decline, to die, 
is his lot in common with other animals; and whafc know¬ 
ledge can avail (it may he asked) to avert the doom imposed 
on him by his Creator h 
