462 Liinucan Society 



others occupy a more limited .station; some have as it were 

 their metropolis, from which as they recede, they become 

 gradually less minierous. Some again that are found inha- 

 biting the plains of a cold country, take their station on the 

 mountains of a xmrmcr one. Every quarter or principal di- 

 strict of the globe has likewise its peculiar types, so that a 

 practised zoologist can often lay his finger upon an animal that 

 he never saw before, and say confidently. This is of Asiatic 

 origin — this of African — this of Amevicun — this of Australa- 

 sian : and even in cases where creatures from these countries 

 are apparently synonymous with those of Europe, there is, 

 not unfrequently, a note of difference, that speaks their exotic 

 birth. As the importance of assigning their genuine cor.ntry 

 to our animal specimens is now universally acknowledged, 

 it would be a very useful labour, and form a very valuable 

 communication, would any gentleman, properly qualified, un- 

 dertake the correction of some of the numerous errors, with 

 regard to their real habitat, that zoologists have propagated 

 concerning the animals they have described. 



I must not pass without notice another branch of our 

 science of the deepest interest and highest im})ortance, and 

 more particularly as we have to lament that hitherto it has 

 been very imperfectly cultivated, especially with regard to in- 

 vertebrate animals, in these islands, — I mean the Comparative 

 Anatomy of animals. France, in which this science has at- 

 tained to its acme, can boast of her Cuvier, Savigny, Marcel 

 de Serres, De Blainville, Chabrier, and others ; Germany of 

 her Blumenbflch, Ramdohr, Treviranus, Herold, and a 

 host besides; Italy of her Malpighi, Spallanzani, Scarpa, and 

 Poll; Holland of her Swamnierdam and I^yonnet: but the 

 only boast of Britain, an illustrious one indeed, nee j'luribns 

 impar, in this department, is her Hunter ; and even he, if 

 my recollection does not fail me, employed his scalpel chiefly 

 on the higher orders of animals. Medical gentlemen who 

 cwltivate this province have usually, perhaps, the human sub- 

 ject too much in their view, and do not always recollect, that 

 to compare one of the lower animals with this, without making 

 a gradual approach to it by the study of the structure of the 

 intervening groups, must inevitably lead them to erroneous 

 conclusions. When it is recollected that some of the most 

 eminent comparative anatomists have not been professional 

 men, I trust it will stimulate zoologists in general to labour in 

 this field. I beg not to be misunderstood in what I have 

 here stated. I have the highest possible opinion of the medi- 

 cal gentlemen of my country in every branch of their profes- 

 sion ; I venerate their skill and science : but the most important 



duties 



