ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



ENTBODUCTIOK 



THE importance of the study of Animal Physiology, as a 

 branch of General Education, can scarcely be over-estimated ; 

 and it is remarkable that it is not more generally appreciated. 

 It might have been supposed that curiosity alone would have 

 led the mind of Man to the eager study of those wonderful 

 actions by which his body is constructed and maintained ; 

 and that a knowledge of those laws, the observance of which 

 is necessary for the due performance of these actions, in other 

 words, for the maintenance of his health, would have been 

 an object of universal pursuit. That it has Dot hitherto been 

 so, may be attributed to several causes. The very familiarity 

 of the occurrences is one of these. We are much more apt 

 to seek for explanations of phenomena that rarely present 

 themselves, than of those which we daily witness. The Comet 

 excites the world's curiosity, whilst the movements of the 

 sun, moon, and planets are regarded as things of course. We 

 almost daily see vast numbers of animals of different tribes, 

 in active hfe around us ; their origin, growth, movements, 

 decline, death, and reproduction, are continually taking place 

 under our eyes ; and there seems to common apprehension 

 nothing to explain, where everything is so apparent. And of 

 Man too, the ordinary vital actions are so familiar, that the 

 study of their conditions appears superfluous. To be born, 

 to grow, to be subject to occasional disease, to decline, to die, 

 is his lot in common with other animals ; and what know- 

 ledge can avail (it may be asked) to avert the doom imposed 

 on him by his Creator 1 



