INTRODUCTION. XIX 



ought to have had a place in any university, came at last in 

 many to play a prominent part ; as if to complete the mis- 

 apprehensions of true science, it required only to add to these 

 the mechanical art of surgery ; and this of course followed : 

 nor could it have been otherwise in a country where constants 

 are alone looked on as valuable, applicative, productive ; in- 

 dustrial facts bearing on the great questions of profit and 

 loss direct, immediate, alone esteemed. 



Generally speaking, the continental universities resisted 

 this pollution: they refused all association with faculties, 

 medical or otherwise, and more especially that of France ; 

 access to the scientific departments of the army was closed, by 

 the rigorous education and examination of the Polytechnic 

 School, to all who had not mastered the elements at least of 

 natural science ; whilst of the aspirant for the diploma of medi- 

 cine a first university degree was demanded. Now that 

 degree the candidate could not obtain if ignorant of those 

 branches of knowledge which constitute Natural History. The 

 necessity produced a want, namely, a brief manual of instruc- 

 tion suited to such a case ; the want was supplied in respect 

 of Zoology by my friend M. Milne Edwards, whose work in 

 an English dress I now present to the public ; the botanical 

 manual was the work of a descendant of the illustrious 

 Jussieu ; the mineralogical and geological by Beudant : the 

 three comprising all Natural History. 



But of one thing I am thoroughly convinced. This im- 

 proved condition of education, even in France, was the result 

 of accident, of the accidental appearance in France of a man 

 destined to revolutionize all zoological science, viewed under 

 every possible aspect that man was George Cuvier. To be 

 convinced of the truth of this view, we have but rapidly to 

 trace the history of Zoology from the period of the immortal 

 Historia Animalium of Aristotle, to that of St. Pierre and 

 Faujas St. Fond. 



Before Eome existed, and before the Iliad was composed, 

 Egypt had its Pyramids and its Thebes ; that land of practical 



