VI. 

 ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY. 



NATURAL HISTORY is the name familiarly applied to the 

 study of the properties of such natural bodies as mine- 

 rals, plants, and animals ; the sciences which embody 

 the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects 

 are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinc- 

 tion to other so-called " physical " sciences ; and those 

 who devote themselves especially to the pursuit of 

 such sciences have been and are commonly termed 

 " Naturalists." 



Linnaeus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his 

 " Systema Naturae " 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 

 " Systema Naturae," 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 



