INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 



GENTLEMEN, 



THE object of this Course of Lectures is to demonstrate 

 the structure of Animals, to explain their Functions, to 

 detail their History and Uses, and to illustrate the princi- 

 ples of their Classification. 



These subjects constitute the departments of Physical 

 Science, termed Comparative Anatomy or Zootomy, 

 Comparative Physiology, and Zoology, which treat of the 

 forms, the mechanism, the properties, the phenomena, and 

 the relations of all the existing and extinct species of 

 Animals known upon the earth. 



The word Zootomy (derived from coov, an animal, 

 and rspvsiv, to cut,) is employed to express the knowledge 

 acquired by dissecting the bodies of animals. This science 

 makes us acquainted with their organization, or with the 

 structure and form of all their internal parts and organs. 

 It points out the connexions which subsist between the 

 different parts of the animal machine, by which they are 

 all enabled to co-operate towards the same great objects 

 the preservation of the individual, and the continuance of 

 the race. It examines the changes which the organs 

 undergo at different periods of life, to suit them for the 

 various stages of infancy, maturity, and decay. It traces 

 the modifications of form and structure presented by the 

 different organs and parts of the machine, in all the in- 

 ferior tribes of animals, by which the whole organization 

 of the species is always admirably adapted to the circum- 

 stances in which they are placed. 



It points out the regular gradation in the forms of indi- 



B 



