Miscellaneous. 



77 



It may indeed be urged, that the taste for such pursuits in the 

 minds of persons in authority may have in some degree contributed 

 to such a result, but it appears to me that it is quite independent of 

 such consideration. How, in fact, were it not so, can we account 

 for the non-publication of such works in this country, when it is well 

 known that the Royal family are and have long been interested in 

 these pursuits ? the Princess Charlotte, for instance, having possessed 

 a cabinet of exotic insects, and her present Majesty as well as her 

 Consort being understood to have a strong predilection for natural 

 history. 



It will be sufficient to prove the correctness of these observations, 

 to mention a few of the works published under the direction of con- 

 tinental states, which throw into deep shade all that the Government 

 of this country has ever aided in producing. 



The great work on Egypt, undertaken by the direction of Napo- 

 leon, would alone be a " monumentum sere perennius." Its magni- 

 ficent plates (of which those of the Annulose animals are perhaps 

 the most elaborate, and which cost the eyesight of the inimitable 

 Savigny) are on a par with all the undertakings of the gigantic- 

 minded emperor. More recently, under the auspices of the present 

 king and his government, we have the Expedition scientifique de 

 Moree, the Voyage de la Coquille, those of the Astrolabe, of D'Or- 

 bigny, and others, each of which surpasses any of the Government 

 natural history works of this country. 



were desirable to know why plants should have been deemed worthy of at- 

 tention, while animals have been utterly neglected. I can only acknowledge 

 with regret that such has been the case. If it be said that lectures on na- 

 tural affinities are included in some course of comparative anatomy, I am 

 truly glad to hear it ; but if it be urged that the knowledge of comparative 

 anatomy implies that of the animal kingdom, I deny it totally, since com- 

 parative anatomy is only the instrument of zoology ; and while no man can 

 be versed in natural affinities without some acquaintance with comparative 

 anatomy, examples may easily be specified of comparative anatomists who 

 know nothing of natural history. A Professorship of Natural History is 

 necessarily charged with duties that give ample employment in Paris to thir- 

 teen professors with their numerous assistants. [Since this was written an- 

 other professorship has been established for the investigation of the Annu- 

 lose animals in particular.] I have ventured to give this humiliating picture 

 of the state of zoological instruction in Great Britain, because there are per- 

 sons who affect surprise that in that science which relates to the animated 

 works of God, France should be the predecessor over a nation comparatively 

 more religious." — Horce Entomologies, p. 457. 



Entertaining as I do the opinion, that other and far higher considerations 

 are involved in the study of zoology than the elucidation of natural affinities, 

 I cannot discover the slighest shadow of reason why zoology should be neg- 

 lected where botany, geology, and comparative anatomy are introduced. 

 The very notion of such an arrangement is ridiculous, even in the truly En- 

 glish cui bono view of the question. 



If the establishment of such a professorship rests with the Universities, 

 and does not depend upon private endowment, it behoves the zoologists of 

 the country to bring the subject in a proper manner before the Senatus 

 Academicus. 



