IX THE HISTORY AND SCOPE OF ZOOLOGY 297 



within the three last centuries; and, whilst the 

 theories and fables which were current in earlier times 

 in regard to animal life and the various kinds of 

 animals form an important subject of study from the 

 point of view of the history of the development of the 

 human mind, they really have no bearing upon the 

 history of scientific Zoology. The great awakening 

 of western Europe in the sixteenth century led to an 

 active search for knowledge by means of observation 

 and experiment, which found its natural home in the 

 universities. Owing to the connection of medicine 

 with these seats of learning, it was natural that the 

 study of the structure and functions of the human 

 body and of the animals nearest to man should take 

 root there ; the spirit of inquiry which now for the 

 first time became general showed itself in the ana- 

 tomical schools of the Italian universities of the six- 

 teenth century, and spread fifty years later to Oxford. 

 In the seventeenth century the lovers of the new 

 philosophy, the investigators of nature by means of ob- 

 servation and experiment, banded themselves into aca- 

 demies or societies for mutual support and intercourse. 

 It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of the influ- 

 ence which has been exercised by these associations 

 upon the progress of all branches of science and of Zoo- 

 logy especially. The essential importance of academies 

 is to be found, as Laplace, the great French astronomer, 

 has said, "in the philosophic spirit which develops 

 itself in them and spreads itself from them as centres 

 over an entire nation and all relations. The isolated 

 man of science can give himself up to dogmatism 



