2 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



PALLAS. SCHROETER. BORN. MERREM. HERMANN. 



BLOCH. SCHNEIDER. SCHCEPF. LATHAM. SHAW. 



SIR J. SMITH. BERKENHOUT. LEWIN. OTHO FABRICIUS. 



" — OLIVI. ENTOMOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIVE WORKS OF THIS 



PERIOD. —ERNST. ESPER. HUBNER. HERBST. JABLON- 



SKY. VOET. WOLF. MINOR WRITERS. PANZER. 



PETAGNI. ROSSI. PAYKULL. LESPEYRES. GMELIN. 



EUFFON's SCHOOL. PLANCHES ENLUMINEES. BONNET. 



DE GEER. BRISSON. ADANSON. DUHAMEL. SONNERAT. 



SONNINI. LEVAILLANT. FUESSLY. THE MODERN 



FRENCH SCHOOL. CUVIER. DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULAR 



NATURE OF AFFINITIES. 



(1.) To form a just estimate of the relative position 

 of any science at a given period, it is necessary that 

 the prominent events in its history be rightly under- 

 stood. It seems, therefore, expedient to commence 

 this discourse with a slight sketch of the rise and 

 progress of zoological science ; or, more properly, 

 of the progressive discovery of the forms, structures, 

 and habits belonging to the animal world ; a world 

 replete with such an infinity of beings, each pos- 

 sessing so many peculiarities of habit and economy, 

 that, notwithstanding the united efforts of human 

 research for thousands of years, there is not one of 

 them whose history, as yet, can be pronounced 

 complete. 



(2.) The vast and diversified field of enquiry over 

 which zoology extends, and the many distinct por- 

 tions into which it is now distributed, render it 

 extremely difficult to embrace the whole in one 

 general exposition. For it has happened, that at 

 one period of time while our knowledge has made 

 gigantic progress in one department, it has been 

 stationary, or even retrograde, in others; and at 



