

St. George Mivart. 97 



" Epistemology " an attempt to define the basis of human knowledge, 

 and to found a science of the sciences. 



While in these writings Mivart has provided the thinking public 

 with an immense amount of material for reflection and careful con- 

 sideration, he has placed the world of working zoologists under a deep j 

 obligation for his numerous memoirs and papers, which are for the 

 greater part painstaking records of structural detail, of immense 

 service for reference. Some 73 in all they are, with the exception 

 of four, the work of his own hand ; those in which he was assisted 

 being memoirs on the anatomy of Hyrax, Nycticebus, and the Lemurs, 

 written in conjunction with Dr. J. Murie, and a paper with the Rev. 

 R. Clarke, "On the Sacral Plexus and Sacral Vertebrae of Lizards and 

 other Vertebrata, " which contains some facts of much interest in rela- 

 tion to the question of shifting during growth. Of the 73 works, 

 28 are devoted to the Mammalia, 6 each to Birds and Batrachia, 

 2 to Eeptiles, and but 1 to Fishes. Beyond these, there are a number 

 of magazine articles on other than controversial subjects, and reports 

 of popular lectures, delivered at the Royal and London Institutions, 

 the Zoological Gardens and elsewhere, but they call for no special 

 comment. He also wrote three articles in the ninth edition of the 

 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' viz., "Ape," "Reptilia" (Anatomy), and 

 "Skeleton" ; but while voluminous, these are neither remarkable for 

 any striking originality nor wholly free of error. 



Mivart's papers on the higher Amniota are predominant among his 

 scientific writings, and their contents are but little concerned with any- 

 thing beyond the examination of external characters, the dried skeleton, 

 and the surface of the brain i.e., he was not an anatomist in the broad 

 sense, given to elaborate dissection of parts difficult of access ; for, 

 with the exception of certain dissections of the muscular system of 

 animals he described, his "laboratory work" was done by deputy, as, 

 for example, with his book on * The Cat,' in which he was again 

 aided by Murie. His best work is that upon the skeleton of Mam- 

 mals and Birds, and chief among his papers are those dealing with the 

 skeleton of the Primates and the Insectivora, which are laborious, 

 and will always be of use for reference, and mark the introduction of 

 terms which have been of great service. His papers on the Carnivora 

 are also important, those dealing with the yEluroidea and Arctoidea 

 being very welcome extensions of the late Sir W. Flower's, in which 

 these names were originally introduced. "Man and the Apes" came 

 under his consideration, and he has done good work in the detailed 

 anatomy of their limb-bones ; while not a few rarities have fallen to 

 his lot, as for example, the scarcer Madagascan Lemurs and Insectivores 

 and the Batrachian PletJiodon. 



The aforementioned papers are collectively a valuable series, and 

 conspicuous among the more generally interesting results which they 



