VI. 



ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY. 



NATURAL HISTORY is the name familiarly applied to the study 

 of the properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and 

 animals ; the sciences which embody the knowledge man has 

 acquired upon these subjects are commonly termed Natural 

 Sciences, in contradistinction to other so-called &quot;physical&quot; 

 sciences; and those who devote themselves especially to the 

 pursuit of such sciences have been and are commonly termed 

 &quot; Naturalists.&quot; 



Linnaeus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his &quot; Systema 

 Naturae&quot; was a work upon natural history, in the broadest 

 acceptation of the term; in it, that great methodizing spirit 

 embodied all that was known in his time of the distinctive 

 characters of minerals, animals, and plants. But the enormous 

 stimulus which Linnaeus gave to the investigation of nature 

 soon rendered it impossible that any one man should write 

 another &quot; Systema Naturae,&quot; and extremely difficult for any one 

 to become a naturalist such as Linnaeus was. 



Great as have been the advances made by all the three 

 branches of science, of old included under the title of natural 

 history, there can be no doubt that zoology and botany have 

 grown in an enormously greater ratio than mineralogy ; and 



G 



