ESSAYS AND PAPERS. 



OBSERVATIONS ON COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 



INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 



COMPAEATIVE Anatomy is fit only to be read by those that 

 understand a good deal of the human body and the general animal 

 economy ; for if they do not understand the standard, they cannot 

 understand the variations from it. It is too great a task for any indi- 

 vidual to make it any way perfect, for he must dissect most animals to 

 be able to class them, and arrange them in such order as to make 

 them intelligible and easier for others to pursue this species of know- 

 ledge. For example, if we find that all the lion-tribe are the same [in 

 structure], it will save others from dissecting all this class, or it will 

 enable us to dissect or examine them with much more accuracy. 



When I compared the human with the quadruped (not considering the 

 intended uses of [the parts in] each, which would make me admire them 

 equally), it always put mo in mind of two machines of the same kind, one 

 made by an artist, the other only an imitation of it made by a novice. 



The human body is not a standard in every part for Comparative 

 Anatomy ; for though the brain may be a standard, yet the teeth are 

 not ; for they are of the mixed kind in the human ; therefore we must 

 either begin with the true herbivorous or carnivorous animals, and 

 the human comes in between. The human, however, seems to have 

 most of original forms, or fewer forms in common [with those- of other 

 animals]. 



[Subkingdom Vertebrata.] 



On the External Form and Skeleton. 



In Comparative or Universal Animal Anatomy it would be, perhaps, 

 the most natural way to begin with the most simple animal, and pro- 

 VOI,. II. B 



