74 NATURAL HISTORY. 



More particularly he began now to devote himself to the 

 study of comparative anatomy, a science which had been 

 hitherto little cultivated, and in which he had not only 

 ample scope for his wonderful manipulative skill, but also 

 the certainty of being rewarded by many and important 

 discoveries. At an early period in his career, he had 

 begun to combine with his studies in human anatomy 

 similar investigations into the anatomy of the lower 

 animals ; and he had made many preparations illustrative 

 of the structure of the latter. He had also made various 

 interesting discoveries, such as that of the existence of 

 lymphatic vessels in birds; but he did not publish these 

 till a later period. Even during his military service 

 abroad, he had not pretermitted his zoological observa- 

 tions wholly, for we find him varying his duties as army 

 surgeon with experiments on the digestive powers of 

 lizards and snakes at different seasons, and with researches 

 into the auditory powers of fishes. When he returned 

 to London, and settled down as a surgical practitioner 

 and teacher, he renewed his old love for comparative 

 anatomy and physiology ; and devoted to this pursuit all 

 his spare time, and, it may be added, all his spare cash. 

 Finding it difficult to carry out many of his investigations 

 at his house in Golden Square, he purchased a piece of 

 ground at Brompton, which was then about two miles 

 out of London, and upon this he built a house, afterwards 

 well known under the name of Earl's Court. Here he 

 used to spend as much of his time as he could spare from 

 his professional avocations, surrounded by all sorts of 

 beasts and birds which had been presented to him, or 

 which he had purchased. 



