16 
INTRODUCTION. 
The first expedition was sent forth by George III. of Eng¬ 
land, in 1765. Reaumur ( 1683-1757) made the earliest 
zoological collection in France; and the West Indian col¬ 
lections of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1752) were the nucleus of 
the British Museum. The accumulation of specimens sug¬ 
gested comparisons, which eventually resulted in the high¬ 
est advance of the science. 
The brilliant style of Buff on (1707-1788) made Zoology 
popular not only in France, but throughout Europe. While 
the genius of Linnaeus led to classification, that of Buffon 
lay in description. He was the first to call attention to the 
subject of Distribution. Lamarck (1745-1829), of Paris, 
was the next great light. The publication of his “ Animaux 
sans Vertebres,” in 1801, was an epoch in the history of the 
lower animals. He was also the first prominent advocate of 
the transmutation of species. 
But the brightest luminary in Zoology was George Cuvier 
(1769-1832), a German, born on French soil. Before his 
time, “ there was no great principle of classification. Facts 
were accumulated, and more or less systematized, but they 
were not yet arranged according to law ; the principle was 
still wanting by which to generalize them and give meaning 
and vitality to the whole.” It was Cuvier who found the 
key. He was the first so to interpret structure as to be able 
from the inspection of one bone to reconstruct the entire 
animal, and assign its position. His anatomical investiga¬ 
tions revealed the natural affinities of animals, and led to the 
grand generalization, that the most comprehensive groups 
in the kingdom were based, not on special characters, but on 
different plans of structure. Palissy had long ago (1580) 
asserted that petrified shells were of animal origin ; but the 
publication of Cuvier’s “ Memoir on Fossil Elephants,” in 
1800, was the beginning of those profound researches on the 
remains of ancient life which created Paleontology. The 
discovery of the true relation between all animals, living 
and extinct, opened a boundless field of inquiry ; and from 
that day the advance of Zoology has been unparalleled. 
Special studies of particular parts or classes of animals have 
so rapidly developed, that the history of Zoology during the 
last fifty years is the history of many sciences. 3 
