INTRODUCTION. 



divide nature into three kingdoms, that of minerals, of plants, and 

 of animals. 



As the history of mankind does not result from a collection of 

 biographies, so Natural History is not formed by the description of 

 animal species. Therefore Zoology describes not merely the sepa- 

 rate animals (monographically) according to external parts and 

 internal structure, but it comprises the entire kingdom of animals, 

 denotes their mutual relations, and assigns to each animal its rank 

 and position. 



Zoology falls into different parts. First, it is divided into 

 Description and History. Description of animals (zoographia) sup- 

 plies precise descriptions of the separate internal and external parts 

 of the animal body, and thus of the entire animal. In a narrower 

 sense, it makes us acquainted with the external parts and the ex- 

 ternal form of the animal, and with the distribution into classes 

 and orders. When it makes us acquainted with the internal struc- 

 ture of animals, as well in respect of form and position (structura) 

 as of tissue (textura), it is called the Anatomy of Animals (Zootomia), 

 which has been especially cultivated of late years, and is generally 

 named Comparative Anatomy (Anatomia Comparata}. But this ap- 

 pellation has not exactly the same meaning as the first : it denotes, 

 rather, a philosophical science, which, not content with the simple 

 knowledge of the different forms, investigates, by comparison of the 

 anatomy of all animals and also of the human body, the general 

 laws of animal organisation and its unity. 



The History of Animals (Historia Animalium) comprehends a 

 comparative history of the nature and intellect of animals : it illus- 

 trates the phsenomena of life, and their obedience to law in the 

 animal economy. It may be also termed General Physiology 

 (Biology}. The knowledge of the geographical and physical dis- 

 tribution of animals over the surface of the earth, the knowledge 

 of the series of forms which in earlier periods inhabited our planet, 

 and of which the remains have been found in beds and strata of 

 rocks deposited from water, also belong to the History of the Ani- 

 mal Kingdom. 



These subdivisions cannot dispense with mutual assistance. 

 Conjointly they form only one science which we term Zoology. 



