OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 29 



the distribution of animals presented in this work. They 

 will find that the science, thus treated^ is not only capable 

 of affording an ample source of agreeable and interesting 

 instruction and entertainment ; but also, that, in exhibiting 

 a methodical arrangement of a most copious and multifa- 

 rious subject, it is a very useful exercise and discipline of 

 the mind. This advantage, of distributing and classing a 

 vast number of ideas, which belongs in a remarkable degree 

 to natural history, has not yet been so much insisted on as 

 it deserves : it exercises us in that important intellectual 

 operation, which may be called method, or orderly distri- 

 bution ; as the exact sciences train the mind to habits of 

 close attention and strict reasoning. Natural history re- 

 quires the most precise method or arrangement ; as geo- 

 metry demands the most rigorous reasoning. When this 

 art (if it may be so called) is once thoroughly acquired, it 

 may be applied with great advantage to other objects. All 

 discussions that require a classification of facts, all researches 

 that are founded on an orderly distribution of the subject, 

 are conducted on the same principles ; and young men, who 

 have turned to this science as a matter of amusement, will 

 be surprised to find how much a familiarity with its processes 

 will facilitate the unravelling all complicated subjects. 



I do not enter into any detail of the accessions for which 

 science is indebted to this illustrious naturalist, this great 

 comparative anatomist ; because the limits of a lecture 

 would be insufficient. Neither do I mean to compare or 

 contrast * his merits with those of any other individual ; 



* One object of the Physiological Lectures was, to contrast Mr. Hun- 

 ter's knowledge of comparative anatomy with that of Cuvier. The field 

 of living nature has been surveyed and cultivated by these two great men 

 with very different, views and objects ; by the former, for the elucidation 

 of physiology ; by the latter, for establishing the laws of zoology. It would 

 have been interesting to shew how the general course of proceeding, the 

 mode of investigation, the selection of objects, and the result, have been 

 modified by this diversity of design ; and to point out the difference which 

 are traceable to the original diversity of endowment and of education. 

 Such a comparison requires a mind free from the national affections and 

 antipathies, in which t!ie author of the Lectures glories : it requires too, 



