Ss errr SS 
ADDRESS. Ixv 
The probability of a further augmentation of the military force of the 
Federal Government, in reference to a possible rupture with the Mother- 
country, must be greatly diminished by an ocean telegraph. And we may 
confidently hope that this and other applications of pure science will tend to 
abolish wars over the whole earth; so that men may come to look back 
upon the trial of battle between misunderstanding nations, as a sign of a 
past state of comparative barbarism ; just as we look back from our present 
phase of civilization in England upon the old border-warfare. 
Bacon, commenting on the History of the Works of Nature, as it presented 
itself to him, describes it as a chaos “of fables, antiquities, quotations, 
frivolous disputes, philology, ornaments, and table-talk.” Since his day the 
chief steps, by which Natural History has advanced to the dignity of a 
science, are associated with the names of Ray, Linnzeus, Jussieu, Buffon, and 
Cuvier. 
By the two former the phenomena were digested and classified, according 
to artificial but conveniently applicable methods ; of necessity the precursors 
of systems more expressive of the natural affinities of plants and animals. 
To perfect the natural system of plants has been the great aim of botanists 
since Jussieu. To obtain the same true insight into the relations of animals 
has stimulated the labours of zoologists since the writings of Cuvier. To 
that great man appertains the merit of having systematically pursued and 
applied anatomical researches to the discovery of the true system of distri- 
bution of the animal kingdom: nor, until the Cuvierian amount of zootomical 
seience had been gained, could the value and importance of Aristotle’s 
‘History of Animals’ be appreciated. ‘The Greek philosopher, in this de- 
partment of science, had advanced far beyond his systematic depreciator, 
Bacon, who could not, in fact, in the then state of natural knowledge, com- 
prehend his discoveries. Such was the low state of Zoology in the in- 
terval between Aristotle and Cuvier, that there is no similar instance, in 
the history of science, of the well-lit torch gradually growing dimmer and 
smouldering through so many generations and centuries before it was again 
fanned into brightness, and a clear view regained, both of the extent of 
ancient discovery, and of the true course to be pursued by modern research. 
Rapid and right has been the progress of Zoology since that resumption. 
Not only has the structure of the animal been investigated, even to the 
minute characteristics of each tissue, but the mode of formation of such 
constituents of organs, and of the organs themselves, has been pursued from 
the germ, bud, or egg, onward to the maturity and decay of the individual. 
To the observation of outward characters is now added that of inward 
organization and developmental change, and Zootomy, Histology, and Em- 
bryology combine their results in forming an adequate and lasting basis for 
the higher axioms and generalizations of Zoology properly so called. 
Three principles, of the common ground of which we may ultimately 
obtain a clearer insight, are now recognized to have governed the construc- 
1858. e 
