PREFACE. . 1X 
activity of the present cultivators of the science 
will atone for the last forty years of zoological list- 
lessness. 
In order to form a correct estimate of the zoolo- 
gical merits of Linnwus, the “ Systema Nature” 
must be regarded as the index, merely, of the names 
of the different animals, not as the exposition of 
their history; and the “ Ameenitates Academic” 
must be studied, as containing numerous examples 
of those efforts which can alone add dignity to this 
department of knowledge. ) | 
It will be fortunate for the interests of science, 
if, in rejecting what is obsolete in the system of 
LINN&US, zoologists do not, at the same time, un- 
dervalue that precision in method at which he aim- 
ed. ‘This observation appears the more necessary, 
as there is now much declamation about the worth- 
lessness of Artificial Systems, and the excellence of 
Natural Methods. But this excellence is more ap- 
parent than real. Many of those natural groups 
which are so much praised are ill defined, and it is 
even acknowledged by their admirers, that precise 
limits cannot be assigned to them. Hence it fre- 
quently happens, that the definition of the group is 
