On the present state of Zoology. S 



to such pursuits, — " Here is employment enough for the vastest parts, 

 the most indefatigable industries, the happiest opportunities, the most 

 prolix and undisturbed vacancies." And well might he add, in the 

 words of Seneca, — " Multum adhac restat operis, multumque resta- 

 bit, nee ulli nato post inille scecula prcecludetur occasio aliquid ad- 

 hue adjiciendi."* 



If we turn from contemplating this extensive field to taking a ge- 

 neral view of what has been as yet effected in it, we shall not be sur- 

 prised at finding the progress of the science to have been very un- 

 equal in its different departments. This may be attributed to two 

 causes. One is the natural predilection shown by most observers to- 

 wards certain branches of Zoology in preference to others; those es- 

 pecially which are calculated to excite notice by reason of the size or 

 beauty of the animals of which they treat. It is this circumstance 

 which has obtained for the Mammalia and Birds so large a share of the 

 attention of naturalists, whilst it has caused the Reptiles and Fish to be 

 comparatively neglected. The same partiality appears in the case of 

 the Invertebrate animals. It is notorious how the departments of 

 Entomology and Conchology have had their respective admirers from 

 the earliest times, and how seldom we have seen, till lately, any de- 

 sire manifested to investigate the other portions of that immense 

 group. If here and there we find certain individuals who have de- 

 voted themselves to the more obscure tribes ; — if Ellis and Lamou- 

 roux and a few others have acquired celebrity by their researches into 

 the nature of Corallines and other Zoophytes ; — if the name of Miil- 

 ler will be for ever associated with the microscopic Infusoria, and that 

 of Rudolphi with a class of animals from which most other observers 

 would shrink with disgust ; — these men stand as illustrious exceptions 

 to the general indifference shown towards such departments, and shine 

 the more conspicuous from having so few competitors in the same 

 field. It may, however, be remarked that at the present day this 

 source of unequal progress is much on the decline. Naturalists 

 do not now restrict themselves so much as formerly to certain branches 

 of the science. There appears to be an earnest wish to set them all as 

 much as possible upon the same footing, and to bring up from the rear 

 some which had for a long time been neglected and overlooked. But 

 another cause operates yet more extensivel and more unavoidably 

 to retard our knowledge of certain groups of animals, and that is the 

 difficulty which in many instances attends the study of them. We 

 find some whose ordinary place of residence is confined to stations not 



* Wisdom of God in the Creation, &c. p. 173. 



