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 " 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 Natures 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 impos- 

 sible that any one man should write another Systema 

 Natures, 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 hence, as I suppose, the name of " natural 

 history " has gradually become more and more definitely 

 attached to these prominent divisions of the subject, 

 and by " naturalist " people have meant more and more 

 distinctly to imply a student of the structure and function 

 of living beings. 



However this may be, it is certain that the advance of 

 knowledge has gradually widened the distance between 

 mineralogy and its old associates, while it has drawn 

 zoology and botany closer together ; so that of late years 

 it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary) to 

 associate the sciences which deal with vitality and all its 

 phenomena under the common head of " biology " ; and 



* A Lecture delivered at the South Kensington Museum in 1861. 

 66 L 353 



