4544 Animal and Vegetable Life. 



On the Introduction of Forms of Animal and Vegetable Life into 

 New Localities. By Alfred Merle Norman, Esq. 



Times are changed. No longer is the student of the works of the 

 Creation looked upon as half-witted, or despised as one who trifles 

 away his time in an idle and useless pursuit. Each day is adding to 

 the number of our naturalists. The time when the study of Nature 

 was centred in the few is gone, we trust, never to return ; and some 

 acquaintance with the leading features of Natural History is consi- 

 dered at the present day to be almost a necessary part of education. 



Many have been the causes which have conduced to this most en- 

 couraging state of things. Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Mu- 

 seums, Ward's cases, and glass tanks, have brought many of the most 

 beautiful productions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms before 

 the eyes of hundreds, who would otherwise have been ignorant of the 

 existence of such gems. They have looked, admired and looked 

 again ; the attention at length becomes fixed, and what was at first a 

 mere idle gaze ripens into one of interest, and ends in enthusiasm. I 

 have known many such instances, more especially resulting from ad- 

 miration of the rich and endless variety of form and colouring dis- 

 played by the prisoners in Marine Vivaria. 



Another cause of the impulse which the study of Natural History 

 has of late received, has been the establishment of Natural History 

 Societies throughout the country ; and although the meetings of many 

 such societies consist for the most part of persons who come to see 

 their friends, and not from any real regard to the objects of the meet- 

 ing, yet still they cannot listen to the lectures, usually delivered on 

 such occasions, without receiving some instruction ; and their being 

 present at any rate tends to make Natural History fashionable. 

 Many of these societies, moreover, have already done much real 

 scientific good in adding not a little, by means of carefully prepared 

 local Faunas and Floras, to our knowledge of the geographical distri- 

 bution of animals and plants. 



The microscope has been a third and most invaluable incentive to 

 many to look more closely into the works of Nature ; and while it has 

 revealed to the astonished student the fact that each drop of water is 

 in itself a world, the telescope has shown the world itself to be a mere 

 drop of water as compared with the vastness of Creation. 



But much of encouragement as we may see in the enlistment 

 which is so rapidly taking place, from these combined causes, in the 



