Philosophy of Zoology. 4837 



Contributions to the Philosophy of Zoology. By R. Knox, M.D., 



F.R.S.E., &c. 



Part I. — On the Relation of Species or Race to Genus or Natural 

 Family : a Question of Transcendental Anatomy. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Zoology, to be esteemed a Science, must be based on philosophical 

 principles. True, it is a science of observation and not of calcula- 

 tion ; it has to deal with living bodies, and with the mysterious and 

 hitherto undiscovered principle of life, whose laws are not to be ex- 

 plained by numbers, however multiplied, nor by a geometry, however 

 refined. Fluxions avail not here, nor the integral calculus. Never- 

 theless, some great minds have shown that Zoology has its laws, 

 which, despite difficulties almost innumerable, may be so inquired 

 into as to evolve some truths of more import to man than at first 

 appears. 



The observation of nature is no doubt the first duty of every candid 

 observer; next comes the duty of the inquirer into her laws, for the 

 mere observance of a fact is of no value whatever, unless that fact be 

 placed in its relations with all others. Men had observed, and no 

 doubt observed carefully, long before the age of Aristotle, but he 

 alone was equal to the production of the ' Historia Auimalium.' He 

 was followed, at a long interval, by Buffon and Linne ; last came the 

 immortal Cuvier. The discovery of the true signification of the fossil 

 remains of the organic world by this illustrious and justly celebrated 

 man, was unquestionably the most remarkable step ever made for the 

 advancement of the human mind. The element of research he em- 

 ployed was the descriptive anatomy of the adult or fully-developed indi- 

 vidual of all, or at least of most, of the species of animals now occupying 

 the globe. The minute descriptive anatomy of the species, with a view 

 to the rigorous determination of its true nature and position in a natural- 

 history arrangement, seemed to be the ultimatum of all his inquiries ; 

 and if he spoke of genera or natural families it was more as a 

 naturalist, or as one by whom generic distinctions were viewed rather 

 as expressions of philosophic arrangement than as realities based in 

 Nature. It was whilst pursuing this inquiry into the existing and 

 living Fauna of the present world that the thought struck him of 

 applying the element of research he then wielded with such dexterity 

 XIII. 2 R 



