THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 147 



ancients, who confined their work rather to the higher 

 forms of life. 



2. Samuel Collins in 1685 says: "And I humbly 

 conceive the great use of comparative anatomy is to 

 illustrate the structure, actions, and uses of man's body, 

 which are sometimes more clear in that of other animals, 

 than in ours ; as I have discovered in frequent dissections 

 to my great satisfaction, pleasure and admiration." 



3. Alexander Pitfeild in 1687 observes that as 

 regards "the Construction, Fabrick, and Genuine Use 

 of the Parts of Animals, and even of Man : A Know- 

 ledge no way better to be obtained than from the 

 Comparative Anatomy of divers Animals ; that Texture 

 of Parts being discoverable in one Animal, which Nature 

 has conceal' d and made more obscure in another." 



4. Edward Tyson, in his scholarly work on the 

 anatomy of the Chimpanzee, published in 1699, remarks : 

 " To render this Disquisition more useful, I have made a 

 comparative Survey of this Animal, with a Monkey, an 

 Ape, and a Man. By viewing the same Parts of all these 

 together, we may the better observe Nature's Gradation 

 in the Formation of Animal bodies, and the Transitions 

 made from one to another; than which, nothing can more 

 conduce to the Attainment of the true Knowledge, both 

 of the Fabrick, and Uses of the Parts." 



Here we may enquire when the expression 

 Comparative Anatomy first appears in the literature of 

 Biology. In 1675 Grew published a tract entitled " The 

 Comparative Anatomy of Trunks" [of trees]. This was 

 reprinted during his own lifetime, and under his super- 

 vision, in 1682, when the word comparative, for some 

 unexplained reason, was erased. In the meantime, in 

 1681, he had also issued " The Comparative Anatomy of 

 Stomachs and Guts begun," in which he again commits 



