VII THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY 197 



plants. But the enormous stimulus which 

 Linnaeus gave to the investigation of nature soon 

 rendered it impossible that any one man should 

 write another " Systema Naturae," and extremely 

 difficult for any one to become even a naturalist 

 such as Linnaeus was. 



Great as have been the advances made by all 

 the three branches of science, of old included 

 under the title of natural history, there can be no 

 doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an 

 enormously greater ratio than mineralogy; and 

 hence, as I suppose, the name of " natural history " 

 has gradually become more and more definitely 

 attached to these prominent divisions of the 

 subject, and by " naturalist " people have meant 

 more and more distinctly to imply a student of 

 the structure and function of living beings. 



However this may be, it is certain that the 

 advance of knowledge has gradually widened the 

 distance between mineralogy and its old associates, 

 while it has drawn zoology and botany closer to- 

 gether; so that of late years it has been found 

 convenient (and indeed necessary) to associate the 

 sciences which deal with vitality and all its phe- 

 nomena under the common head of " biology " ; 

 and the biologists have come to repudiate any 

 blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, the 

 mineralogists. 



Certain broad laws have a general application 

 throughout both the animal and the vegetable 



