OBSERVATIONS 
ON THE 
STATE OF ZOOLOGY IN EUROPE, Ac. 
When it was proposed last year, at the Turin meeting, that 
some person should be requested to give an account to the 
members, at the ensuing meeting, of the scientific researches 
which might he made during the year in all countries, espe- 
cially as regarded new discoveries on subjects relating to the 
respective sections, I pointed out the great difficulties which 
presented themselves, particularly in regard to Zoology. I re- 
marked, that expectations would thus he aroused, which could 
not he accomplished by a single person, and that any one who 
should earnestly and diligently undertake so difficult a task, 
might easily incur the criticisms of those, who in particular 
departments, were acquainted with details of which he was 
unavoidably ignorant. Besides, who could assure himself, that 
the work would ever he fully accomplished ? What security 
could be found, that he who undertook it would not be inter- 
rupted by the arrival of the future meeting \ It appeared to 
me, also, to be more consonant with the independence of our 
pursuits, and more conducive to that spirit of intercommuni- 
cation, which is a chief object of our meetings, that every 
one should use his own privilege, of informing the members, 
of whatever has, to his knowledge, been effected during the 
year in those places where literature and science are pursued. 
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