214 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vn. 



' These series of organs from different species 

 are arranged according to their relations to the 

 great functions of organic and animal life, and 

 the general scheme is closely analogous to that 

 adopted by Baron Cuvier in his " Lecons 

 d'Anatomie Comparee," and in the best modern 

 works on physiology. 



' It has been a subject of much consideration 

 with me, having fulfilled, in one respect, the 

 obligations to the memory of the founder of the 

 collection, how to present the general principles 

 and leading facts of comparative anatomy with 

 most profit and utility to my junior auditors ; and 

 I trust that the plan which I propose to adopt for 

 the present course and that of next year will 

 enable me to give a complete view of the science 

 within that space, which shall not be less subser- 

 vient to the illustration of physiology than were the 

 preceding lectures given on the system indicated 

 by the arrangement of the Hunterian preparations. 



' It is very true that, by tracing the progressive 

 additions to an organ through the animal series 

 from its simplest to its most complex structure 

 we learn what part is essential, what auxiliary 

 to its office ; and the successive series of pre- 

 parations in Hunter's Physiological Collection 

 strikingly and beautifully illustrate this connection 

 between comparative anatomy and physiology. 



' But it is by the comparison of the particular 

 grades of complication of one organ with that of 



