THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 281 



Zoologists who knew and could properly apply 

 every technical term of the sy sterna nature? with- 

 out the least real acquaintance with animal 

 structure in general, or w T ith that of any single 

 animal in particular, were not to his mind. He 

 occupied himself, therefore, with the production 

 of the series of admirable monographs appended 

 to the descriptions of Buffon in the ' Histoire 

 Naturelle.' 2 



The effect of the co-operation of many zealous 

 workers, along the first of these lines, culminated 

 in the ' Anatomie Comparee' of Cuvier ; while, to 

 the followers of the second method, we owe a 

 host of monographs upon species, or groups of 

 species, belonging to all the divisions of the 

 animal kingdom. In virtue of these labours it 

 came about that, by the year 1830, the province 

 of anatomy had been systematically and, in many 

 regions, minutely surveyed. An adequate, though 

 far from complete, knowledge of all the higher 

 forms had been attained ; and, with the improve- 

 ment of the microscope, the structural characters 

 of the very lowest forms were beginning to be 

 elucidated. 



Thus, the foundations of anatomical science 

 in accurately recorded observations of structure 



2 It is very much to be re- a history of even the little group 



gretted that his example has of British Mammals up to the 



not been more largely followed level of the work of Buffon and 



for the commoner animals. We Daubenton, now nearly a cen- 



do not possess, at this moment, tury and a half old. 



