v1 PREFACE. 
the animal kingdom. We may go farther than this, 
and say, that if we had been ready to take hints from 
the structures which we find in animals, and those 
which are built up by them, many improvements in 
the arts might have advanced much more rapidly 
than they have done. For example, in the construc- 
tion of optical instruments, a difficulty which Sir Isaac 
Newton thought never could be remedied, chromatic 
aberration, might have been remedied long before it 
was if that perfect optical instrument made by the 
Creator, the Eye, had been properly examined in re- 
lation ‘to this pot. So, too, paper might long ago 
have been made from wood, if the habits of that first 
paper-maker, the wasp, had been observed. 
Another reason for making this study prominent is, 
that its connection with other studies is such that it 
contributes greatly to their interest and resources. 
This is true, for example, of Geography. It adds 
vastly to the interest of this study to have the pupil 
know familiarly how the various tribes of animals are 
distributed over the earth, and what relation this dis- 
tribution has to climate, situation, ete. The connec- 
tion between Zoology and Geology is of the most in- 
timate character, as the pupil will see in the course of 
his study of this book. Then, too, Chemistry and 
Natural Philosophy, especially the latter, have many 
of their best illustrations in the composition and struc- 
ture of animals, so that Zoology, with its relations to 
Physiology properly developed, will offer no incon- 
siderable additions to the interest of the two depart- 
ments of science above named. 
But the grand practical benefit to be derived from 
the study of Natural History, or, indeed, any of the 
