THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 277 



species which appear to be most similar under certain 

 relations differ essentially in respect to others, and 

 when their scalpel was employed in the dissection of 

 those animals which deviate abruptly from the 

 neighbouring groups, appearing to form a distinct 

 class, they passed over these exceptions, which were 

 at first very rare, or endeavoured, as well as they 

 could, to make them fall within their regular systems. 

 This mode of studying animals could indeed only 

 afford a key to a method of classification, and while 

 it revealed the general tendencies of the organisation 

 and inspired elevated views capable of embracing 

 the entire animal kingdom in one vast and general 

 whole, it necessarily was attended with very serious 

 inconveniences. The science of living creatures 

 was assimilated too closely to that of inert bodies, 

 and because the latter presented a certain number of 

 more or less rigorous laws, a premature attempt was 

 made to proceed in the same manner in respect to 

 descriptive zoology, anatomy, and physiology. Very 

 soon zoology, like physics and chemistry, and almost 

 like mathematics, had a certain number of formulas, 

 which were generally estimated at their right value 

 by those who propounded them, but which many of 

 their pupils and imitators soon converted into in- 

 flexible rules and incontestable truths. 



Science, however, has always advanced, and it has 

 been found necessary to admit that a great number 

 of generalisations which had been taken for granted 

 or recognised as facts thirty years ago, require in 

 our own day a most severe revision. From hence 

 has arisen that special interest which belongs to the 



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