INTRODUCTION. XI 



characterises the celebrated Marennes oysters. We 

 may next refer to the artificial oyster beds, which are 

 readily constructed, and might indeed be planned, on 

 the model of the mussel beds of Esnandes. Nor 

 must we pass over in silence the introduction into 

 Europe of new species of domestic animals a subject 

 to which the Sodetd cCacclimatation is especially de- 

 voted. Next there is the artificial fattening of stock 

 and the extraction of fatty matters, the first sugges- 

 tion of which is due to zoologists; and, lastly, we must 

 remind our readers of the immense development 

 which the various artificial means of rearing animals 

 will probably attain in the course of time. With 

 such considerations before us, it surely can no longer 

 be asked of zoology, Cui bono ? 



Thus much for utilitarianism. Man, if he were 

 a mere material organism, only a little superior to 

 the inert bodies in nature, would still owe some debt 

 of gratitude to zoology. Man, however, combines 

 with his material nature an intelligence and a soul. 

 Every man worthy of the name has intellectual and 

 moral wants as imperative as his physical necessities ; 

 and we may unhesitatingly venture to assert that 

 no science satisfies in so high a degree as zoology 

 the noble instincts which constitute the human 

 species a kingdom apart in the realm of nature. Is 

 there not then some degree of utility in such a result 

 as this ? 



In the course of the present work I have fre- 



