II 



238 EARLY STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 



earthworm the locomotive function of the setae is 

 plained, and the reproductive organs are figured anc 

 discussed ; it was not discovered, however, that th( 

 earthworm is hermaphrodite.^ The typhlosole and the 

 dorsal pores are mentioned. 



King, afterwards Sir Edmund (1629-1709), took a chiei 

 part in the celebrated operation of transfusing the blood 

 of a sheep into a man (1667) ; he is also remembered 

 as the physician who bled Charles II with a penknife at 

 the outset of his fatal illness. There is much to say 

 about Willis, both as an anatomist and as a physician, 

 but it is not for a naturalist to say it. 



Edward Tyson (1650-1708), a London physician, made 

 careful studies of the structure of a chimpanzee (which 

 he calls an orang-outang,^ an opossum, a porpoise and a 

 rattlesnake. His account of the chimpanzee was pub- 

 lished separately ; the rest are to be found in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, where also he figured, but 

 without description, the "cochineel-fly." It was some- 

 thing to recognise, as early as 1685, that cochineal was 

 an insect and not a fruit {supra, p. 208). Tyson figures 

 also a Taenia, with its head and hooks. He has no 

 doubt that there is a transition from minerals through 

 plants and animals to man,^ but this was not a con- 

 clusion drawn from his own observation and reflection. 

 Such a transition had been a common theme of philoso- 

 phers, occasionally of anatomists and naturalists also, 

 ever since the time of Aristotle. 



An Essay on Comparative Anatomy was published 

 anonymously in 1744 by Alexander Munro primus, the 



lA general statement of the fact, without precise details, was published 

 by Redi in 1684. See also Poupart on the reproduction of the earthworm 

 {supra, p. 236). 



^ Orang-Outang, or the Anatomy of a Pygmie. 4to. Lond. 1699. 



* Epistle Dedicatory to Anatomy of a Pygmie. 



