MAGAZINE 



OF 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



I. — Some Remarks on the Study of Zoology, and on the present state 

 of the Science. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M. A. ; F. L. S. ; 

 F. Z.S.;&c. 



Natural History has not only, like most other sciences, made 

 great progress of late years, but it has assumed an importance, to 

 which formerly it in vain attempted to lay claim. It is not, indeed, 

 surprising that so long as it was restricted to collecting plants and 

 animals as mere objects of curiosity, or judged to be of no further con- 

 sequence than as it admitted of application to economic purposes, it 

 should be either held up to contempt by the majority of thinking men, 

 or tolerated only so far as it was studied with immediate reference to 

 the ends just alluded to. But there are other grounds upon which, 

 in these days, it is deemed worthy of our regard. The mere collec- 

 tor, indeed, is held in no higher esteem than formerly. The advan- 

 tages we derive from an acquaintance with those organized beings 

 which are capable of supplying the wants, or augmenting the conve- 

 niences of life, are not overlooked, but are considered rather as indi- 

 rect benefits resulting from the cultivation of this science, than as the 

 immediate objects to which all our researches incline. Natural His- 

 tory is of importance from the effects which it produces, or which at 

 least it is capable of producing, upon the human mind. As a study, 

 it tends equally with all other studies to strengthen the faculties, to 

 fix the attention, and, to a certain extent, to exercise our powers of 

 correct judgment and reasoning. As the particular study of those 

 innumerable beings which people the earth, it has an especial tenden- 



NO. I. A 



