IX THE HISTORY AND SCOPE OF ZOOLOGY 295 



in contrast to the earlier zoologists they always were 

 in possession of the whole living plant, raised from 

 seed if need be in a hothouse, instead of having only 

 a dried skin, skeleton, or shell. Consequently the 

 study of vegetable Anatomy and Physiology has grown 

 up naturally and in a healthy way in strict relation 

 to the rest of botanical knowledge, whilst animal Ana- 

 tomy and Pliysiology have been external to Zoology 

 in origin, the product of the medical profession and, 

 as a consequence, subjected to a misleading anthropo- 

 centric method. 



Whilst we may consider the day as gone by in 

 which Zoology could be regarded as connoting solely 

 a special museum knowledge of animals (as twenty- 

 five years ago was still the case), it is interesting to 

 observe by the way the curious usurpation of the 

 word '' Physiology," which, from having a wide conno- 

 tation, indicated by its etymology, — the physiologus 

 of the Middle Ages being nothing more nor less than 

 the naturalist or student of nature — has in these later 

 days acquired a limitation w^hich it is difficult to 

 justify or explain. Physiology to-day means the 

 study of the physical and chemical properties of the 

 animal or vegetable body, and is even distinguished 

 from the study of structure and strictly confined to 

 the study of function. It would hardly be in place 

 here to discuss at length the steps by which Physio- 

 logy became thus limited, any more than to trace 

 those by which the words "physician" and ''physicist" 

 (which both mean one who occupies himself with 

 nature) have come to signify respectively a medical 



