PREFACE. IX 



activity of the present cultivators of the science 

 will atone for the last forty years of zoological list- 

 lessness. 



In order to form a correct estimate of the zoolo- 

 gical merits of LINNJEUS, the " Systema Naturae" 

 must be regarded as the index, merely, of the names 

 of the different animals, not as the exposition of 

 their history ; and the " Amoenitates Academicae" 

 must be studied, as containing numerous examples 

 of those efforts which can alone add dignity to this 

 department of knowledge. 



It will be fortunate for the interests of science, 

 if, in rejecting what is obsolete in the system of 

 LINNAEUS, zoologists do not, at the same time, un- 

 dervalue that precision in method at which he aim- 

 ed. This observation appears the more necessary, 

 as there is now much declamation about the worth- 

 lessness of Artificial Systems, and the excellence of 

 Natural Methods. But this excellence is more ap- 

 parent than real. Many of those natural groups 

 which are so much praised are ill defined, and it is 

 even acknowledged by their admirers, that precise 

 limits cannot be assigned to them. Hence it fre- 

 quently happens, that the definition of the group is 



