THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 175 



effect on the blood, but are intended partly to compress 

 the contents of the abdomen, and to act as hydrostatic 

 organs like the swim bladder of fish. The circulation is 

 compared with that of the Mammalian foetus, the blood 

 passing from one side of the heart to the other, only 

 a sufficient quantity being conveyed to the lungs to 

 ensure the nourishment of those structures. 



VIII 



The influence of the Parisian School undoubtedly 

 stereotyped for many years the character of anatomical 

 research, and the completion of their work may well mark 

 the close of the early struggles of comparative anatomy. 

 Like the Insect emerging abruptly from the secret 

 stresses of metamorphosis, our science, apparently by a 

 single convulsion, moults the clogging accumulations of 

 centuries, and assumes the activities of a free and inde- 

 pendent existence. It would be unjust to claim, how- 

 ever, that the honours of the morphological renaissance 

 belong solely to the founders of the French Academy of 

 Science. They were themselves only an extreme and 

 lively manifestation of the general revival of scientific 

 learning, which was beginning to agitate the intellectual 

 centres of Europe. We cannot forget that they had as 

 contemporaries such men as Steno, Malpighi, Swammer- 

 dam, Willis and Thomas Bartholini, and whilst it must 

 be admitted that they dominated the labours of their 

 successors, of whom Muralt, Collins and Tyson may be 

 quoted as examples, their contemporaries honourably 

 staked out for themselves their own claim on the suffrage 

 of posterity. It is with regret that we take leave of these 

 sincere and venerable guides, and we may do so in the 



