120 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY vm 



form all the available information upon limited groups of 

 the animal kingdom, supplementing, as far as possible, the 

 deficiencies of knowledge by fresh observations, and illustrating 

 the subject by a complete series of preparations. At the 

 present day it is only by working out a definite branch of 

 limited extent monographically, that any solid advances in 

 detailed knowledge can be attained. Courses of lectures on 

 this principle, especially if they were published so as to reach a 

 wider circle of students than this theatre is apt to contain, 

 may do much to advance knowledge ; but, on the other hand, 

 they might do less than more elementary lectures, giving a 

 general outline of a larger variety of topics, to diffuse know- 

 ledge, for it is probable that they would be attractive to only 

 a limited number of auditors or of readers. 



I think it therefore advisable, in the first course I have the 

 honour of addressing to you, to confine my subject to a survey 

 of the structure of the animals of the highest class of organised 

 beings; and I think that this will prove of the greater 

 importance and interest to the audience assembled here, 

 because it may be presumed that all have already either 

 commenced or completed the acquisition of a knowledge of 

 the structural anatomy of one, the most elevated member, of 

 that class. I propose, therefore, to take human anatomy as a 

 point of departure, and, presuming on your acquaintance with 

 its details, shall refer only to some of its general outlines, and 

 shall point out the deviations from and resemblance to the 

 mammalian structure as we know it in man, in descending 

 throughout the series of animals composing the class. 



I trust that some further interest may be given thereby 

 to the daily work of the student of our profession. Human 

 anatomy is too often learned as a mere collection of hard 

 names applied to a complicated network of structures, the 

 form, position, and relation of which have to be got up, prob- 

 ably to be forgotten soon afterwards. It might, however, be 

 made a far more attractive and useful subject if taught by the 

 light of a wider morphology. But I am afraid that very little 

 of our anatomical teaching, either by books or lectures, is 

 of this class at present. If any comparative anatomy is 

 introduced, instead of enlightening and illustrating the 



