PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF ZOOLOGY 9 



practical importance of the subject. We use the word practical 

 in its widest sense : not only in the sense of importance in 

 helping man to make his living, but of importance in aiding 

 man to understand his relationship to this wonderful universe 

 in which he finds himself. Indeed it may be said that a 

 rational conception of his relationship to the universe is just 

 what distinguishes the civilised man from the savage. Since 

 he was able to think at all, man has formed conceptions of his 

 relations to the universe which may be termed working hypo- 

 theses. These still survive amongst large sections of mankind, 

 and even amongst many who consider themselves civilised, as 

 beliefs in magic and other superstitions, but they are not based 

 on data which have been thoroughly examined and tested. It is 

 the great characteristic of science that it will not accept any 

 data except those which have been subjected to the most 

 searching examination, and experience has shown that by the 

 way of science alone, and not by the ways of magic and ancient 

 religion, is it possible to gain any mastery over Nature. 



Now the first reason why zoology is such an eminently 

 practical science is that we are ourselves animals. Our bodies 

 are made of fundamentally the same stuffs as their bodies and 

 are subject to the same laws. Whether the animus or spirit 

 in us, which knows and feels, differs in kind or only in degree 

 from the animus in them, is a question which, strictly speaking, 

 lies outside the province of zoology altogether. The science 

 which should attempt to deal with questions like these is 

 termed Comparative Psychology. In virtue of possessing the 

 power of speaking a power possessed by no other animal 

 man is able to explore and make the acquaintance of the 

 animus which resides in each of his fellow-men ; but this 

 avenue into the inner consciousness of animals is closed, and no 

 other exists which can lead the inquirer very far. Zoology, 

 then, concerns itself with what can be directly observed about 

 animals, viz. the structure of their bodies and their behaviour, 

 without trying to pry very much into what they know and 

 feel. 



But the study of the structure of the bodies and of the 

 behaviour of animals throws an enormous amount of light on 

 the working of the parts of the human body. The only other 

 way of finding out the uses of the parts of the human body is 



