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INTRODUCTION

^ompuvatii^t ^natomg

PHYSIOLOGY ;

BEING THE

TWO INTRODUCTORY LECTURES

DEHVERED AT THE

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS,
On the 2\st and Ihth of March, 1816.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE, F R. S.

professor op anatomy and surgeky to the college; assistant surgeon to st.
Bartholomew's hospital; surgeon to bethlehem and b»idewell hospitals;

AND TO the LONDON INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF THE EYE.

Mnxas* Aleibv ill C »lllr^«^

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. CALLOW, MEDICAL BOOKSELLER,
No, 10, CROWN COURT, PRINCES STREET, SOHO.

1816.

>;;^'^U«.

B&KNARD AND FARI.ET,

Skimter-Slrett, Londim^

ISetiicatton.

As a Testimony of sincere Esteem
for a Character adorned by the
greatest Urbanity and Benevolence,
and dignified by the nicest Sense
of Honour, and the most exalted
Principles;

And of the highest Respect for
distinguished Talents, assiduously
and successfully employed in ad-
vancing a Science, and practising

A 2

iv DEDICATION.

a Profession most useful to Man-
kind ;

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE

INSCRIBED

TO

J. R. FARRE, M. D.

PHYSICIAN TO THE LONDON INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF
THE EYE,

BY HIS

FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE,

THE AUTHOR.

ADVERTISEMENT.

X HE following Lectures, not composed
with any view to their Publication, are
now printed in consequence of the Author
having been repeatedly asked for Copies
of them. The Notes and References,
which obviously could not have formed
any part of the Lectures as delivered,
have been added from a notion that they
may be found useful by Students.

In several parts of the Second Lecture
the Views correspond with those which
have been entertained and published on

VI ADVERTISEMENT.

the same Subjects by Cuvier and Bichat;
whose Words are occasionally employed
with slight Alterations. Having been
compelled to do this in the first instance
by want of Time, the Author has preferred
leaving these Passages with the present
general Acknowledgment, to exchanging
them for original ones, because he wished
to print the Lectures exactly as they were
delivered ; not having occasion to alter
any of the Statements, which are the re-
sult of such Reflection and Judgment, as
he could employ on the Subjects.

College of Physicians,
July, 1816.

CONTENTS,

LECTURE I.
On the Objects and History of Comparative Anatomy. . 1

LECTURE II.
On Life.. 115

INTRODUCTION,

Sfc. Sfc,

LECTURE I.

OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF COMPARATIVE
ANATOMY.

GENTLEMEN,

Before renter on the subject of this
Lecture, I shall request your attention, for
a few minutes, to the circumstances under
which I appear before you on the present
occasion : — on such a subject I shall detain
you as shortly as possible.

It was not till the latter part of last
summer, that the Court of Assistants of
this College did me the honour of appoint-
ing me one of their Professors: an ap-
pointment, which I freely acknowledge to

B

2 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

have been most gratifying to my feelings,
not only on account of the body who con-
ferred it, but when I considered to whom
I had succeeded,* and to whom I became
associated. t To your feelings I must trust
for an excuse, if any be thought necessary,
for taking this earliest opportunity of giving
utterance to the sentiments of respect and
gratitude I entertain for the latter gentle-
man. You and the public know, and have
long known his acute mind, his peculiar
talent for observation, his zeal for the ad-
vancement of surgery, and his successful
exertions in improving the scientific know-
ledge and treatment of disease. His sin-
gular happiness in developing and teaching
to others the original, and philosophic
views, which he naturally takes of all the
subjects that come under his examination ;
and the success, with which he communi-

* Astley Cooper, Esq. x J. Abernethy, Esq,

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. S

cates that enthusiasm in the cause of
science and humanity, which is so warmly
felt by himself; the admirable skill, with
which he enlivens the dry details of ele-
mentary instruction ; are most gratefully
acknowledged by his numerous pupils. All
these various excellencies have been re-
peatedly felt in this Theatre. Having had
the good fortune to be initiated in the pro-
fession by Mr. Abernethy, and to have
lived for many years under his roof, I can
assure you, with the greatest sincerity, that
however highly the public may estimate the
surgeon and the philosopher, I have reason
to speak still more highly of the Man and
the Friend ; of the invariable kindness,
which directed my early studies and pur-
suits, of the disinterested friendship, which
has assisted every step of my progress in
life, of the benevolent and honourable feel-
ings, the independent spirit, and the liberal
conduct, which, v/hile they dignifj^ our
B 2

4 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

profession, win our love and command our
respect for genius and knowledge, convert-
ing these precious gifts into instruments of
the most extensive public good.

Since the choice of the College was an-
nounced to me, my time has been so occu-
pied, partly by engagements previously
formed, and partly by others, not then
foreseen, that it was not possible for
me to make any preparations for the
course before the period* when it was
opened by Mr. Abernethy. How
small a part of the time, which has
since elapsed, can have been spared from
public and private professional occupa-
tions, you will easily understand ; and you
will, I am sure, make every allowance for
the imperfections of that labour, which has
been entirely prosecuted in the evening and

* The 25th of January.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 6

night after the exertions and fatigues of the
daj''. By deferring these lectures till next
spring, I should have consulted my own
ease, and might perhaps have hoped to
render them less unworthy of the subject
and the audience. But I was averse to
interrupt the arrangements of the Col-
lege, or to disappoint its members, in
their expectation of an annual course of
comparative anatomy. However strange
it may sound, the very magnitude of
the subject, and the consciousness of my
inability to do it justice, were further
motives for proceeding without delay.— ^
The short and uncertain intervals of lei-
sure afforded by a professional life could
not supply the numerous and important
deficiencies of which I am conscious ; and
the expectation that would naturally arise
from delay could not be satisfied by the
performance. In offering to you therefore
such information on comparative anatomy,

6 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

as I acquired some years ago, in a cursory
attention to it, principally as a source of
amusement, I must throw myself entirely
on your indulgence. This I should have
found it necessary to appeal to, even under
the most favourable circumstances of time
and opportunities, when I appear before
you in the chair successively occupied by
Sir Everard Home and Mr. Cooper. I
must entreat you to forget the talents, the
performances, and the reputation of these
gentlemen ; and to make in my behalf all
the allowance that is due to disparity of
age, want of opportunity, and deficient
preparation.

With this explanation, then, I undertake
the task confided to me by the court;
availing myself of the occasion to assure
its members that I value the appointment
most highly, as an unsolicited proof of their
good opmion. I feel grateful to them on

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 7

lie grounds for the pains they have
taken to improve surgical education, and
consequently to increase the respectability
of surgeons. By preparing a suitable
building for the magnificent and invaluable
collection formed by an English surgeon,
by providing for its preservation and in-
crease, and establishing lectures for its
illustration, they have finally rescued sur-
gery from the state, in which it was too
long kept, of a mechanical and subordi-
nate department of the healing art, and
have elevated it to its proper rank of an
independent science. While the seniors of
our profession are thus laudably engaged
in endeavouring to raise it in pubhc esti-
mation by rendering it more worthy of
public confidence, it is particularly incum-
bent on the younger members to co-operate
in the same plans. This consideration
would always be a motive with me for
undertaking any public duty, in which I

8 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

could lend assistance, however feeble, in
supporting the character and rank of
surgery.

The anatomy of animals having been
investigated at first, in order to throw light
on the organization and functions of the
human body, the expression comparative
anatomy was employed to designate the
structure of animals, compared to that of
man, as a standard. It is now used in a
more extensive sense, and means the ana-
tomy of all living beings compared to each
other. It thus furnishes the data, which
constitute the basis of general physiology,
of which the object is to determine the
laws, that regulate the phenomena exhi-
bited by organized beings. Comparative
anatomy bears the same relation to general
physiology, that human anatomy does to
human physiology; the latter expression
denoting the science which is employed

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 9

in ascertaining the vital phenomena of
man.

Natural History, or, to use the most
comprehensive term, Zoology, is not op-
posed to comparative anatomy, but in-
cludes it ; the structure of an animal form-
ing part, and a most important, though
too often neglected part, of its history.

Our first step in the study of life is to
examine the organs, that are its material
instruments ; and to ascertain their visible
structure : but this examination must not
be confined to one animal. We should
endeavour to discover what is the essential
circumstance, the necessary condition to
the occurrence of the phenomena. The
organs must therefore be viewed under all
their modifications of greater and less sim-
plicity, of combination with others, &c. ;
they must be surveyed in every kind of

10 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

animal : and such labours only can lead
to any satisfactory knowledge of general
structure. The phenomena of life must
be studied in the same way ; the functions
must be observed and compared in all the
links of the great chain of beings, to whom
any modification of vitality has been im-
parted.

It is the series of such facts that com-
poses hitherto the science of physiology ;
it is only by comparing these that we can
hope to ascend to general causes, and to
deduce common laws.

The connexion and mutual influences of
the various organs oppose great and insu-
perable obstacles to our knowledge of the
precise effect and importance of each.
Here comparative anatomy comes to our
aid : we find, in the various classes of
animals, almost every possible combina-

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 11

tion of organs, and there is no organ, which
is not wanting in some class or other. The
effect of such combinations and privations
cannot but illustrate the nature and opera«
tions of the part in question. Fishes have
no tympanum, nor external ear; insects
no circulating system, many of the lower
orders no brain nor nervous system.

In viewing the subject of life, we should
be led to the most erroneous conclusions,
if we confined our survey to man, or to the
more complicated animals nearly allied to
him. The only way to avoid such errors,
and to rectify our notions, is to extend our
views over the whole animated creation.
A slight injury of the brain will destroy a
man or a mammiferous quadruped ; a smart
blow on the skull, or the effusion of a little
blood are sufficient ; while the removal of
the whole cranial contents is by no means

12 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

suddenly fatal in the frog, turtle, and other
reptiles.

" In the beginning of November, Redi
opened the skull of a land tortoise, and
removed the whole brain. ^The tortoise did
not seem to suffer ; it moved about as be-
fore ; but groping its way ; for the eyes
soon shut after losing the brain, and never
opened again. A fleshy integument form-
ed, which covered the opening of the skull;
and in this state the animal lived until
May, that is six complete months. Spal-
lanzani deprived four frogs of the brain :
two lived till the fifth day. He also de-
prived three newts of the brain : they suf-
fered violent convulsions ; their eyes closed;
they hardly moved from one place to
another ; and expired about the middle of
the third day. He cut out the heart of
three newts : they took to flight, leapt,

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 13

swam, and executed the same functions as
before ; however, all died in forty-eight
hours. Four frogs, deprived of the heart,
kept their eyes open, and preserved the
use of their limbs. They survived thirty-
six hours."'*

What a contrast is there between the
precarious tenure of life in man and the
higher orders of animals, where the various
organs are connected by numerous sympa-
thies, and where the whole system is in-
fluenced by the affections of each part, so
that disorders and destruction are con-
stantly impending ; and the simple but
powerful vitality of the hair-worm (gor-
dius), or the wheel animal (vorticella ro-
tatoria), which after remaining for years in

* Spallanzani's Tracts on the Nature of Animals
and Vegetables ; v. 1. Introductory Observations,
p. 45.

14 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OP

a dried state resume life and motion on
being moistened.*

The power of reproduction — of restoring
or renewing parts, that have been mutilated
or entirely lost, is one of the most striking
characters of organized bodies. It is one
of the most important provisions of nature,
inasmuch as it guards animals and plants
against the multiplied dangers to which
their bodies are exposed. Hence, when
viewed in connexion with the system of
nutrition altogether, it forms one of those
decisive and grand characters, which dis-
tinguish at once the machines, that proceed
from the hand of the Creator, from all, even
the most ingenious and boasted productions

* Leeuwenboeck Epist. ad Societatem regiam, alios-
que illastres viros ; Leid. 1719, 4to. and Arcana Na-
tura continuata; Ito. Baker's Etnplojment for the
Microscope, 1764. Spallanzani's Tracts, v. 2. tr. 4.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 15

of human skill. The difference is recog-
nised at the first glance: the distance is
immeasurable. The springs and wheels
of mechanical instruments have no power
of repairing themselves, when they are
bent, broken, worn, or spoiled ; but such a
faculty is enjoyed in various degrees by
every animal, and by every plant. It
exists, however, in very different degrees in
the different departments of the animal
kingdom. In man, and such animals as
are nearly allied to him, it is very limited,
although sufficiently active to be capable
of remedying the effects of great injuries.
If a bone be broken, a muscle or tendon
divided, or a piece of skin destroyed, pro-
cesses are set up in the parts, by which
restoration is accomplished. The ends of
the bone are joined by an osseous sub-
stance, which gives to the part its original
solidity, the tendon regains its firmness

16 OBJECTS AND HISTOEY OF

and power of resistance ; the muscle will
contract again, and move the points of its
attachment; and the surface of the body
is covered by a new piece of integument.
In the cases, which have been just men-
tioned, the restorative power repairs in-
juries, but it goes no further: neither in
man, nor in any warm-blooded animals are
entire organs ever reproduced. If a limb
be cut off, or a piece of flesh taken away,
the wound is healed, the sides of the
chasm grow together; but the lost parts
are never formed again. In the lower
orders of the animal kingdom, on the con-
trary, such are the strength and perfection
of the reproductive energy, that consider-
able members are restored, and we can
hardly assign a limit to the power in some
instances. The lower we descend in the
scale of beings, the more surprising are the
manifestations of this reproductive faculty.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 17

The large claws of the crab and lobster,
and the entire limbs or tail of the newt*
can be restored : the same holds good of
the rays of the star-fish and the arms or
tentacula of the cuttle-fish. The entire
eye of the water newt, with all its coats

* There is an interesting account in the Memoires
de I'Acad. des Sciences de Paris, 1686, particularly of
the restoration of the tail of lizards. Spallanzani,
Bonnet, and Blumenbach, have employed themselves
in researches on this subject. The former first called
the attention of the public to it in his " Prodrome di
un opera da imprimersi sopra le riproduzione ani-
mali." Bonnet published his memoir on the repro-
duction of the limbs of the water newt in the Journal
de Physique, 1777. His Enquiries were again pub-
lished in his CEuvres d'Histoire Naturelle, t. 5; and
there are three memoirs by him on the subject, tranS"
lated into English, in Spallanzani's Tracts on the
Natural History of Animals and Vegetables, v. 2. The
experiments of Blumenbach are contained in his
" Specimen Physiologiae Comparatae inter animalia
calidi et frigidi Sanguinis." 4to.

C

18 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

and humours has been extirpated, and in
the course of ten months succeeded by a
liew and perfect eye-ball.* The whole
head of the common snail, with its four

* *« With a scalpel," says Bonnet, " I extracted the
right eye of a large newt on the 13th of September,
1779 ; but I did not obtain the globe without much
injury to the tunics. A deep bloody wound in the
socket of the eye was the consequence of this cruel
operation ; and the reader will not be surprised if I
hardly expected any thing from it, and that the newt
would probably remain blind for ever. How great was
my astonishment, therefore, when on the 31st of May,
1780, I saw a new eye formed by nature. The iris
and coriiea were already well shaped ; but the latter
wanted its peculiar transparency, which is very con-
siderable in these animals. The restoration was com-
plete on the 1st of September; the cornea being
transparent, an-d the iris having acquired its yellow
gilded colour. On the 8th of November, 1780, it
differed from the other eye only in being a little
smaller, and in the iris or golden circle going only
half round the ball." Spallanzani's Tracts, &c. v. 2,
p. 432, et seq.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 19

horns has been reproduced, after being
removed in experiments, in many in-

" I repeated," says Blumenbach, " the experiment
of the celebrated Bonnet concerning the reproduction
of the eje in the water newt. I cut out the whole
globe, at the insertion of the optic nerve, in three
instances, in neither of which was the organ repro-
duced: but a white and firm fungus, shooting from
the cut end of the nerre, gradually filled the orbit,
the animals themselves becoming affected with a kind
of dropsical swelling, and dying in a few months.
Instructed by these failures, I proceeded to operate in
a different way on a fourth animal, in May, 1784. I
first divided the cornea, to let out the lens and other
humours, and then cut away the remaining empty and
collapsed coats, leaving a small portion of the com-
mon coverings of the bulb, which, from a careful ex-
amination with a glass in water of the parts removed,
I judge to have been scarcely equal to one-fifth of the
whole globe. In the following months the whole
orbit seemed to be filled by the approximated eyelids,
which, however, began to separate in the sixth month
after the operation, and thus disclosed a new little
bulb springing up from the bottom of the orbit. This
new globe was still much smaller than the other in

c 2

20 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

Stances.* If the earth-worm f or actinia J
(the sea anemone) be cut in two, each half
will become a perfect animal. The fresh
water polype may even be cut into several
pieces : each of which will become a per-
fect polype.

The extensive examination of various
structures is not only a necessary ground-
work for the edifice of general physiology,
but it has thrown great hght on the orga-

April, 178i5, when the animal died accidentally, though
in other respects it was most perfect, exhibiting the
golden iris, with its regular pupillar aperture behind
the cornea ; all which points are clearly distinguish-
able in the preparation, which I preserved." Specimen,
p. 31.

* Spallanzani's Tracts, v. 2.

t Reaumur Mem. pour servir a I'Hist. Nat. des In-
sectes : t. 6. Preface.

Spallanzani, prodrome di un opera sopra le ripro-
duzione animali.

% An essay towards elucidating the history of the
Sea-anemones, by Abbe Dicquemare. Philos. Trans,
vol. 63.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 21

nization and functions of the human frame.
" Quotidie experior/' says Haller,* " de ple-
rarumque partium corporis animati func-
tione non posse sincerum judicium ferri, nisi
ejusdem partis fabrica et in homine, et in
variis quadrupedibus, et in avibus, et in
piscibus, ssepe etiam et in insectis innotu-
erit.'' Whoever will reflect on our pre-
sent knowledge of the digestive, respiratory,
generative, or other processes of man, and
will review the successive stages of its pro-
gress, will find that comparative anatomy
has rendered us the most essential assist-
ance, and will be disposed to agree with
Haller, when he asserts that physiology
has been more illustrated by the dissection
of animals than by that of the human
subject. The formation of the germ in the
ovary, and its passage through the Fal-
lopian tube into the uterus, could not have

* Elementa Physiologiae. Pref.

23 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

been discovered in man. Although they
are now universally believed, they rest,
not on actual demonstration, but on ana-
logy and other indirect arguments. In
birds, fishes, and reptiles, these points ad-
mit of the clearest and most direct proof.

Doubts were entertained respecting the
functions and relative importance of the
two organs composing the human biliary
system ; whether the bile were formed in
the liver, or in the gall bladder, or in both.
These points could hardly be determined
from the human body only ; but we look
at animals. We find in many large quad-
rupeds that bile is secreted in the liver
alone, without any gall bladder ; that no
animal has the latter without the former
part ; that in all which have a gall bladder
this receptacle is either attached to the
liver, or communicates with its secretory
duct. We conclude, therefore, that the

COMPARATIVE AJSIATOMY. 23

liver is essential to the formation of bile ;
that the gall bladder is not essential ; and
that this ' fluid passes from the liver in
which it is formed, into the gall bladder.

Comparative anatomy is again of the
greatest importance in reference to natural
history. There is a close correspondence
betvreen the structure and the habits of
animals, and they mutually illustrate each
other. The quadruped, which has to pur-
sue and to kill his prey, has instruments
of motion altogether different from those
of the animals who collect their food from
the vegetable kingdom. The jaws, the
teeth, and all the digestive apparatus are
equally different in the JtwQ cases. The
creatures which burrow under ground, are
very differently constructed from those
which live in trees, or such as inhabit the
water. In short the organization is uni-
versally in relation to the mode of life ;

24 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

and, in consequence of their reciprocal
influence, all the various parts of an animal
are so closely connected to each other, that
this relation may be traced even in the
minutest particulars.* The succeeding
Lectures will be a continued illustration

* The mutual relations of the organs, and the laws
of co-existence, to which their combinations are sub-
jected, are so well pointed out hy Cuvier, tliat I quote
his words, as the work in which they occur, is not so
generally known in this country, as the other produc-
tions of this justly celebrated zoologist.

*^ Every organized being consists of parts, which
correspond mutually, which concur by means of reci-
procal influences in the production of a common end,
and thus form together a whole, a perfect system. No
one part can change, without the others being modified ;
and consequently each, taken separately, indicates all
the others.

*' Thus, if the intestines of an animal are adapted
hy their organization to digest flesh, and that in a

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 25

of this point. No branch of natural know-
ledge is more interesting than a contem-

recent state, the jaws must be constructed for devour-
ing prej; the claws for seizing and tearing it; the
teeth for lacerating and dividing its flesh; the whole
apparatus of moving powers for pursuing and over-
taking it ; the organs of sense for perceiving it at a
distance; — nature naust moreover implant in the brain
an impulse or instinct, leading such a creature to con-
ceal itself and lay in wait for its victims. Such are
the general conditions of the carnivorous regimen:
every flesh-devouring animal unites them necessarily;
for its species could not otherwise subsist. But, be-
sides these general conditions, there are subordinate
ones, relating to the size, the species, and the abode
of the prey; and each of these secondary conditions
gives rise to differences of detail in the forms which
result from the general laws. Hence, not only the
class, but the order, the genus, and even the species
are expressed in the form of each part.

" To give the jaw the power of seizing, a particular
form of condyle is necessary ; there must be a certain
relation between the position of the resistance, the

26 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

plation of the infinitely diversified organic
arrangements, by which animals are adapt-

moving power and the fulcrum ; a certain volume in
the temporal muscle, requiring a proportional capa-
city in the fossa which lodges it; and a proportionate
convexity in the Zygomatic arch, under which it
passes; this bony arch must also possess a certain
strength, to support the action of the masseter.

** In bearing away the prey, a certain force is re-
quired in the Tnuscles that raise the head; hence the
necessity of a determinate form in the vertebrse, whence
these muscles arise, and in the occiput, where they
are inserted.

" For dividing flesh, cutting teeth are required;
and they must be more or less cutting, in proportion
as they are more or less exclusively occupied in that
way. Their basis must be solid, if they are employed
in breaking and comminuting bones, particularly if the
bones are strong. These circumstances will influence
the development of all the parts employed in moving
the jaw.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 27

ed to their respective places in the creation.
In this way the researches of comparative

" Mobility of the toes, and strength of the nails
are necessary for seizing the prey ; hence arise deter-
minate forms of the phalanges and particular distri-
butions of muscles and tendons. There must be a
power of rotating the fore-arm, and consequently a
particular form of the bones composing it : and as the
latter are articulated to the humerus, any alterations
in them must modify its figure. Animals, which em-
ploy their fore-limbs in seizing, must have strong
shoulders; the scapulae and clavicles will therefore
exhibit certain modifications. The muscles must have
forms, size, and strength suitable to the actions, of
which the bones and joints just enumerated are ca-
pable; while their attachments and contractions im-
press particular figures on those solid organs.

" Similar conclusions may be drawn respecting the
posterior extremities, which contribute to the rapidity
of the general motions ; respecting the composition of
the trunk, and the form of the vertebrae, which in-
fluence the facility of those motions ; respecting the
bones of the nose, of the orbit, and the ear, which have

S8 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

anatomy furnish the only data, on which
we can proceed with security in the clas-

obvious relations to the degree of perfection in the
senses of smelling, seeing, and hearing. In a word,
the form of the tooth determines that of the condyle ;
the form of the scapula that of the nails; just as th®
equation of a curve indicates all its properties. As in
taking each property separately for the basis of a par-
ticular equation, we might arrive, not only at the
ordinary equation, but at all the other properties
whatever; so the nail, the scapula, the maxillary
condyle, the femurj and all the other bones taken se-
parately, would each indicate the kind of teeth, or
would indicate each other reciprocally ; and, beginning
with either separately, we might, according to the ra-
tional laws of the organic economy, construct the whole
animal."

Recherches sur les ossemenis fossiles de quadrupedes ;
discours preliminaire, p. 58, et suiv. The whole of
this very scientific and valuable work is a successful
and happy illustration of the principles just ex-
plained.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 29

sific arrangements of natural history; and
they lead always to that natural arrange-
ment of animals, which should be the chief
object of all classification.

The comparative anatomist discovers
that the whale tribe, although inhabiting
the ocean, agree in all the essential points of
their structure with mammiferous quadru-
peds, and therefore are not, properly speak-
ing, fishes. In the crab and lobster, and in
the inhabitants of the various marine shells,
he finds beings of the most different organi-
zation and habits, although confounded
under the common name of shell-fish, and
he finds both of these kinds of animals
altogether different in structure from
fishes.

Such being the importance of compa-
rative anatomy, to the physiologist, who

so OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

draws from it the facts, on which his
knowledge of the functions of animals is
grounded ; to the natural historian, who
finds in it a clue to guide his steps through
what appears at first the inextricable
labyrinth of animated nature ; to the phy-
sician and surgeon, whose pathological
reasonings can only be relied on, when
built on the broad foundation of general
physiology ; and to the natural theologian,
who discovers in the modifications of struc-
ture, according to situation and circum-
stances, and its constant relation to the
wants, habits, and powers of animals, the
strongest evidence of final purposes, and
therefore the strongest proof of an intel-
ligent first cause; we shall not wonder that
this subject has powerfully attracted at-
tention at all times, and has been prose-
cuted by some of the most considerable
geniuses.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 31

The first* of these is Aristotle, who is
not only the oldest author on comparative
anatomy, whose writings we possess, but
one of those who have displayed the
greatest genius in this branch of natural
history, and who offers the best model for
siFoh researches. His renown as a philo-
sopher, who exercised unlimited and un-
disputed sway over the minds of men for
two thousand years, and the just celebrity
of his writings on logic, criticism, ethics,

* Deraocritus of Abdera is said to have devoted
much of his time to the dissection of animals, and to
have investigated, among other subjects, the source
and passages of the bile, and the cause of madness.
But neither he, nor the femons Alexandrian anato-
niists, Herophilus and Erasistratus, who were rather
posterior to Aristotle, and who had noticed the lacteal
vessels in animals, left behind them any account of
their labours, which we therefore are onlj acquainted
with from their being incidentally mentioned by other
writers.

32 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

politics, have been unfavorable to his re-
putation as a natural historian, although
his work on the history of animals, -n-ipi
fwwK iropiag,* (which too is only an abridg-
ment of the original production), has not
been equalled, even to the present day, in
the magnitude of the field which it em-
braces ; and the number, variety, and ex-
tent of the original observations which it
contains. The noble patronage of his
pupil Alexander enabled the philosopher
to expend an enormous sum in drawing
together from all quarters the animals de-

* Aristotelis historia animaliutn, Grsece et Latine,
cum versione et commentariis J. C. Scaiig-eri, Tolosae,
1619, fol. I believe it has been lately republished in
Germany, with valuable notes and illustrations by
Schneider. There is a French translation by Camus,
who unfortunately was not so well versed, as could
have been wished, either in the knowledge of Greek,
or of natural history. Histoire des Animaux d'Aristote,
avec le texte en regard, 2 torn. 4;to. Paris, 1783. '

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 33

scribed in this immortal work. He not
only knew and dissected a great nmnber
of species, but he studied and described
them on a vast and luminous plan, to
which none of his successors has ap-
proached, ranging the facts, not accord-
ing to the species, but to the organs and
functions — the only means of arriving at
comparative results. - The modern works
of Blumenbach and Cuvier, are construct-
ed on the same principle, which was also
followed by Mr. Hunter in the arrange-
ment of his collection.

The chief divisions, which naturalists
follow at present in the animal kingdom,
were established by Aristotle ; and he has
indicated several, to which modern natural-
ists have recurred, after they had been
long Tuiwisely neglected. His great dis-
tribution of animals into those which have
blood, and those which have not, (the

34 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

former including mammalia, birds, reptiles,
and fishes ; the latter the mollusca, Crus-
tacea, testacea, and insects), is the same
with that proposed by the French natu-
ralists, and now universally adopted, al-
though the ground of the division, the
presence or absence of blood is not cor-
rect. Lamarck has drawn his character,
and his name for these two primary divi-
sions from the possession or want of the
vertebral column.

The four classes of insects, mollusca,
Crustacea, and testacea, which constitute
his second division, are a much more na-
tural and philosophic distribution than
that of Linneus, by whom they are crowd-
ed together into the two classes of Insects
and Vermes.

In many details he is more correct than
those who have followed him. For ex-

COMPARATIVE ANATOMT. 35

ample, he states that the crocodile moves
the upper jaw ; which, after being long
represented as a vulgar error, is now found
to be true by the report of the naturalists
who accompanied the French expedition
to Egypt. It is allowed by a very com-
petent judge (Cuvier), that Aristotle's ac-
count of the elephant is more accurate
than that of BuiFon.

It is to be regretted that the Romans had
not an Aristotle, as facilities existed, while
that wonderful people held the reins of em-
pire, for studying some parts of zoology,
which have not occurred again. The largest
and rarest animals brought from all parts
of the empire, were exhibited in the tri-
umphs, the public games, and the theatres,
to amuse the inhabitants of the imperial
city. They saw the hippopotamus, the two
horned rhinoceros, and the camelopard,
which have not been brought alive into

p 2

36 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

Europe since. Commodus exhibited five
hippopotami at one time, and ten came^
lopards were shewn by Gordian III. Other
foreign and remarkable animals were quite
common, as the lion, elephant, panther,
&c. Augustus shewed twenty-five living
crocodiles at once.*

Galen dissected animals and performed
numerous experiments on them, some of
which are of a nice and. rather difficult
kind^ as tying or dividing nerves, &c. His
anatomical descriptions are obviously
drawn from these sources, particularly from
the monkey tribe ;t to which he would
naturally be led by their acknowledged.

* See Cuvi6r sur les Ossemens Fossiles; Discours
preliminaire, and the chapters on the Osteology of the
Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus.

.Okiiii'i

+ This point is clearly established by Vesalius, iu
his Epistola de radicis Chinee usu ; and it is still more

COMPAHATIVE ANATOMY. 37

relationship to our species. It is doubtful
whether he ever dissected the human bodji
As a comparative anatomist, however,
Galen hardly deserves mention ; and cer-
tainly not in conjunction with Aristotle^
whose admirable work is followed by a
long and barren interval of many centuries,
in which this branch of natural knowledge
like all others, was not merely stationary,
but lamentably retrograde.

Among the restorers of anatomy, at the
revival of learning in the sixteenth cen-
tury, and particularly in the Italian school,
to which in this period' we are almost
entirely indebted for encouraging these
pursuits, and diffusing a taste for them

satisfactorily proved bj Camper; see his Remarks "sur
rOrang-utang, et quelques autres Especes de singes;"
Introduction, § 5. et suiv. in the CEuvres d'Histoire
Naturelle, &c. t. I.

38 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

over the rest of Europe, there were some
who cultivated the anatomy of animals,
and who have recorded the results of their
labours. In his Natural History of Birds,
Belon* has devoted a book to their ana-
tomy, and Rondelet, professor in the uni"
versity of Montpellier, illustrated the history
of fishes, and other marine animals in a
yery valuable work, -f- which abounds with
instructive details in comparative anatomy.
Goiter, of Groningen, who had studied
under Fallopius, Rondelet and Aldrobandi,
published some excellent plates on com-
parative Osteology..]: Ruini, a senator of

* L'histoire de la nature des oiseaux, avec leyr
descriptions et naifs Portraits ; en six livres. 1555.

+ De Piscibus marinis libri xviii; Lugdun. 1554.

Pars altera, in qua pisces aquae dulcis, ranae, tes-
tudines, lacertas et amphibia aliqua continentur ; 1555.

X Diversorum animalium sceletorum explicationes,

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 39

Bologna, described the anatomy of the
horse in a large work with plates.* Fa-
bricius, professor at Padua, and the in-
structor of Harvey, devoted a splendid
volume*!' to the formation of the foetus,
and among other subjects, explained the me-
chanism of animal motions. J His disciple,
Casserius investigated the structure of the
larynx, and of the organs of sense. § But

cum lectionibus. Gab. Fallopii de partibus similaribus
humani corporis. Norimb. 1575.

There are also manj observations relating to com-^
parative anatomy in his larger work ; Externarum et
internarum humani corporis parti urn tabulse, &c.
1573.

* Anatomia del Cavallo, infirmity, e suoi remedii.
Bologna, 1598. 4to.

t De formato fctu, Patavii, 1600. Fol.

■^ De motu animalium secundum totum, Patav. 1618,
4to.

§ De vocis auditusque organis, Ferrar. 1600. FoL

40 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

Aldrobandi of Bologna, or in his Latin
name, by which he is better known,. Al-
drovandus, deserves the first rank in these
times for his labom^s in the whole circle
of Zoology. He established a collection
of all objects that could illustrate his fa-
vourite pursuits, and paid considerable at-
tention to the structure of animals. Of
the numerous folios, vrhich bear his name,
the three* which are devoted to ornitho-
logy (the history of birds) .are all that were
published in his own life; and they are
the most valuable with reference to com-
parative anatomy.

In the first half of the seventeenth

Pentaestlieseion, h. e. de quinque sensibus liber,
Venet. 1609, fol.

* OinithologiaBjseu de avibus historiae libri. Bonon.
FoL. 1599—1603.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 41

century, when schools of anatomy were
not yet established, and great part of
Europe, particularly Germany, was deso-
lated by civil war, anatomical inquirers
turned their attention to animals : compa-
rative anatomy was now cultivated with
considerable ardour in most countries of
Europe, and numerous experiments were
made on living animals. If the human
subject was at this tim.e too much neg-
lected, a neglect caused more by the want
of opportunities than of zeal, many great
discoveries were made in animals, that
illustrated equally the human structure and
functions, and ultimately revolutionized
the whole fabric of physiology and pa-
thology. The discovery of the circulation*

* Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis
in animalibus; Francf. 1628, 4;to.

42 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

and of the process of generation * by
Harvey, of the lacteals by Aselhjf of the
thoracic duct by Pecquet,} and of the
lymphatics by Rudbek§ or Bartholin, [| are

* Exercitatione& de generatione animalium, quibus
accedunt quaedam de partu, de membranis et humo->
ribus, de conceptione, &c. Lond. 1631, ^to.

f Dissertatio de lacteis venis, quarto vasorum mesa-
raicorum g«nere, novo invento, &c. Mediolani, 1627.
ito.

f Experimenta nova anatomica, quibus incognituni
cliyli receptaculum, et ab eo per thoraeem in ramoi
usque subclavios vasa lactea deteguntur. Paris, 1651,
4to.

^ Diss, de Circulation© Sanguinis, Arosiae, 1652,
4to. Nova Exercitatio Anatomica, exhibens ductus
hepatis aquosos, et vasa gland ularura serosa, 1653,
ito. Published also in Haller's Disp. Anat. select.
See also Haller, Bibliotheca Anatomica, t. I. § 415.

[I Diss, de Lacteis Thoracicis in homine Brutisque
nuperrime Observatis ; Hafniae, 1852.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 43

some of the results for which we are in-
debted to the researches of that time in
comparative anatomy.

Many other valuable contributions to
our knowledge of the structure and func-
tions of animals were made about the
^ame time, and were most signally aided
by the two inventions of the microscope
and anatomical injections, which opened a
new world to the cultivators of anatomy
and natural history. These powerful in-
struments of research were very successfully
employed by Malpighi and Swammerdam.
The former described the silk-worm with
great minuteness and fidelity, leaving very

Yasa Ijraphatica nuper in animantibus inventa, et
hepatis Exsequiae; Hafn. 1653.

Vasa ]jmpbatica in homine nuper inventa; 1654;.
Haller's Bibliotheca Anatomica, t. 1. § 578.

44 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

little for future observers. ;* Swammerdam
executed his researches on the structure
and habits of insects, a wonderful monu-
ment of patient industry. -j- Leeuwen-

* Dissertatio Epistolica de Bombjce, Londin. 1669,
4to.

t Historia generalis insectorum, Leid. 1685, 4to.
This is a translation from the original Dutch; Alge-
meene Verhandeling van de Bloedeloose diertjensj
Utrecht. 1669.

But for the work, which will immortalize the name
of Swammerdam, we are partly indebted to the libe-
rality and love of science of Boerhaave, who purchased
the manuscripts and drawings, which the author bad
been compelled by poverty to part with before his
death, and had them published in the Dutch and Latin
languages, under the title Biblia Naturae, seu Historia
insectorum in certas Classes reducta, nee non Ex-
emplis et Anatomico variorum aniipalculorum examine
illustrata, &c. Leid. 1737, fol. This includes the
former work.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 45

hoeck,* Hookej-j- and Baker J employed
themselves very assiduously in micros-
copic researches, some of which relate to
the structure of the more minute classes
of living beings. Redi, whose works are
allowed by his countrymen to be excellent
models of pure Italian style, dissipated the
prevailing errors and prejudices concerning
the generation of insects, and illustrated
many parts of physiology and compara-
tive anatomy by dissections, experi-
ments, and observations. § His pupil, Lo-
renzini, published an excellent anatomy

* Opera omnia, Leid. 1722, 4to. 4 v.

+ Micrographia, Lond. fol. 1665, and numerous
papers in the early volumes of the Philosophical
Transactions.

I Microscope TOad€ easy, Lond. 1743. 8vo.
. Employment for the Microscope, 1753.

§ Osservazioni intorno alle vipere, Firenze, 1664.
Esperienze intorno alia generazione degi'insetti
1668.

46 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

of the torpedo.* Valisnieri employed
himself successfully in the investigation of
insects, and on other subjects. -f- Our
countryman Tyson has described several
animals with great accuracy, as the rattle-
snake, J the Tajassu,! the opossum, || the
porpoise, ^ and the orang utang. His ac-

Esperienze mtorno a diverse cose Naturali, &c.
1671.

Osservazioni intorno agli Animali viventi negli altri
Animali viventi, 1684.

His vi'orks were all published together, Naples, 1687,
3vo. or in a more complete collection, 1728, 4:to,

* Osservazioni intorno alle torpedini; Firenze, 1678,
4td.

t Opere Fisico-Matheraaticlie, Venez. 3 1. fol. 1733^.

I Philosophical Transactions, No. 144,
§ Ibid. No. 153.

j{ Carigueya, seu Marsupiale Americanum, or the
anatomy of an opossum dissected at Gresham College ;
Lond. 1698, 4to. and in the Philosophical Transactions,
No. 239.

H Phoecena, or the anatomj of ii porpess; 1680,
4to.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, 47

count of the latter under the title of Ana-
tomy of the Pigmy,* although encum-
bered with much useless learning, is as
perfect and satisfactory an anatomical
history as we possess of any animal to
the present time. The same observation
is equally applicable to the anatomy of
the turtle and tortoise published at Flo*
rence by Caldesi.-f- Lister paid great at-
tention to the anatomy of the mollusca,
and published several works on that sub-
ject. +

* Anatomy of a pigmy, compared with a monkey,
an ape, and a man; and a philological essay con-
cerning pigmies, cynocephali, satyrs, and sphynxes,
1699, 4to. Also 1751, with various papers of the
author from the Philosophical Transactions.

I Osservazioni Anatomiche intorno alle Tartarughe
maritime, d'aqua dolce, e terrestri, Firenze, 1687,
4to.

% Historis Animalium tres Tractatus, Lend. 1678,

48 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

The foundation of the Royal Society in
this country, and of the Royal Academy
of Sciences in Paris, constituted an era
very favourable to the advancement of
natural knowledge. The voluminous trans-
actions* of both these learned societies,
abound from their commencement with
valuable information on the structure and
functions of animals. Similar associations
formed sooner or later in all the principal
states of Europe, turned men^s minds to
the proper method of observation and ex-

4to. Exercitatio Anatomica de Cochleis et Limacibus,
1694. Exercitatio altera de Buccinis, 1695. Exercit.
Tertia Conchyliorum Bivalvium, 1696.
^* The Transactions of the French Academy, under
the title of Histoire et Memoires de I'Acad. Rojale
des Sciences, with the tables, &.c. from its establish-
ment in 1666 to its dissolution at the French revolu-
tion, constitute a series of 163 volumes, 4:to. The
Memoires de Tlnstitut form a continuation to the pre-
sent time.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 49

periment, diffused a general taste for natural
knowledge, and collected copious materials
for its advancement. The society of Naturae
Curiosi in Germany, * the academies of Pe-
tersburghj-f- Stockholm,.]: Berlin, § Goet-

* The papers published by this body occupy be-
tween 40 and 50 volumes, under the various titles of
Miscellanea, seu Ephemerides Medico-physici ; Ephe-
merid. seu obs. Medico-phys. j acta Physico-med.
and nova acta.

+ The Commentarii AcademiaB Scientiarium Impe-
rialis Petropolitanae, the Novi Commentarii, Acta,
Nova Acta, and Memoires, consist of 64 vols.4to. to the
year 1810.

I The Transactions of the Stockholm Academy are
published in Swedish, and translated into German,
under the title of Abhandlungen der Koniglichen Schwe-
dischen Akademie, &c. 8vo.

§ Miscellanea Berolinensia, and Histoire de I'Acad.
Royale des Sciences, avec les Memoires.

50 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

tingen,* and Bologna, *f are the most im-
portant of these ; but there have been
manj minor estabUshments. J

A very noble work was begun and pro-
secuted for some time bj the French aca-

* Commentarii, novi Commentarii, et Commenta-
tiones Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Goettingensis ;
4to.

+ Commentarii de Bononiensi Scientiarum et Ar-
tium institute atque Academia, 4:to.

:j! Two valuable but very rare volumes were pub-
lished hy a private association at Amsterdam, and
relate principally to comparative anatomy. Obser-
vationes Anatomicas selectiores Collegii privati Ara-
stelodanaensis, 1667 and 1673; 2t. 12mo.

Associations for the advancement of natural know-
ledge have also existed at Copenhagen, Upsal, Haer-
lem, Flushing, Rotterdam, Miinich, Turin, Verona,
Florence, Siena, &c. and have published their trans-
actions in various languages.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 51

demicians (principally Perrault* and Du-
verney ; t Mery J and Philip de la Hire were
also concerned) ; — a complete history of
animals, founded on original observations
and dissections, particularly of the rarer

* Besides the sbare which he had in the work men-
tioned above, Perrault discusses some points in the
structure of animals in his Essais de Physique, 4 t.
4to.

t Jos. Guichard Duverney, professor of anatomy at
Paris, spent nearly sixty years in dissection, and is the
author of a vast number of papers in the early Me-
moirs of the Academy of Sciences, relating to the
structure of animals, as well as of man. There is
also some comparative anatomy in the second volume
of his CEuvres Anatomiques, 1761, 2 t. 4to. a posthu-
mous work.

:}: Many papers on the anatomy of animals by this
industrious anatomist are found in the Memoirs of the
Academy of Sciences; among them an account of
transplanting the spur of a cock to the head, where it
adhered. Ann. 1688.

E 2

5£ OBJECTS AND HISTORY OJ

species, that were kept in the menageries
of Louis XIV. The descriptions were
first published separately, but were after->
wards collected into a magnificent fialio
volume under the title of Memoires pour
servir a THistoire Naturelle des Animaux.
1671 ; they were re-published with ad-
ditions in two volumes in I676. In this
work, which has been also printed in
quarto,* and translated into English and
Latin, we have excellent descriptions,
among other animals, of the elephant,
camel, beaver, bear, gazelle, lion, tiger,
panther, civette, of the crocodile and

* Paris, 1733. Amsterdam, 1758, 3 tom. under the
title " Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire Naturelle des
Animaux, dresses par Mr. Perrault." To the third
part is added the description of the viper by Charas,
and of the crocodile and some other foreign animals
by the Jesuit missionaries at Siam.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 53

camelion, of the bustard, stork, crane,
flamingo, and vulture.

The work of Blasius, entitled Anato-
mia Animalium iiguris variis illustrata, is
principally a collection of the contribu-
tions to comparative anatomy that ap-
peared in the seventeenth century. It
contains the dissections of numerous ani-
mals made by the best naturalists of those
times, and may still be deemed a useful
compilation. Collinses System of Anatomy
in two vols, folio, Lond. 1685, contains
numerous dissections and delineations of
the parts of animals, particularly of fishes
and birds.

The eighteenth century will be ever
memorable for the advancement, not only
of general civilization, but of all branches
of knowledge ; and the structure and func-
tions of animals have experienced their

54 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

full share of this progress. I can only
notice the more important contributors.
The formation of shells, * and of the hard
covering of the crustaceous animals, -j- as
the crab, lobster, &c. ; the anatomy and
habits of various testaceous mollusca, J or

* De la Formation et de I'accroissement des Co-
quilles, des Animaux, tant terrestres qu' aquatiques,
&c. Mem. de I'Acad. des Sciences, 1709,

Eclaircissement de quelques difficultes sur la forma-
tion et raccroissement des Coquilles ; ibid. 1716.

t Sur les diverses reproductions, qui se font dans
les ecrevisses, les omars, les crabes, &c. et entr'autres
sur celle de leurs jambes, et de leurs Ecailles. Ibid.
1719.

Additions aux Observations sur la muedes Ecrevisses
donnees dans les Mem. de 1712. Ibid, 1718.

There is also a memoir on the same subject, by
Mr. Geoffrey, Jun. ; Observations sur les Ecrevisses
de riviere. Ibid, 1709.

% Du. Mouvement progressif et de quelques autres

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 55

shell-fish as thej are called, and the history
of insects, * have been investigated with
great success, and most happily described
by Reaumur, t more generally known by

Moiivemens de diverges Especes de Coquillages, orties,
€t Etoiles de Mer. Ibid, 1710.

Des differentes Manieres, dont pliasieurs Especes
d'Animaux de mer s'attachent au sable, aux pierres, et
les uns aux autres. Ibid, 1711.

Observations sur le Mouvement progressif de quel-
ques Coquillages de mer, sur celui des herissons de
mer, &c. Ibid, 1712.

Observations sur le Coquillage appele Pinne Marine,
ou nacre de Perle. Ibid, 1717.

* Memoires pour servir a THistoire Naturelle des
Insectes; 6 t. 4to. 1734—1742.

f He also published some excellent experiments on
the digestion of birds in the Academy of Sciences, 1752^
and a work by no means destitute of physiological
interest, entitled, art de feire Eclorre et d'Eleyer en

56 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

the invention of the thermometer, which
bears his name. The works of Bonnet, *
Roesel,! De Geer,J Merian,§ and Sulzer,lj

toute saison des oiseaux domestiques, &c. 2 t. 12mo.
1749.

* Traite d'insectologie, 1745. Other parts of his
works relate to the structure and physiology of animals :
they were published in 8 vols. 4to. ; and 18 v. 8vo.
1779.

t Monatlich-herausgegebene Insecten-belustigun-
gen; with coloured plates; 4to. Nuremberg, with
a continuation by Kleeman ; forming together 4 vols.
4to. 1746 — 1761. The third volume contains an ac-
count of some Crustacea and a most interesting history
of the fresh water polypes.

if Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire Naturelle
des Insectes, 4to. ; Stockholm, 1752 — 1758.

§ De Generatione et Metamorphosibus insectorum
Surinamensium ; Hag. fol. 1726.

11 Geschichte der Insecten. Winterthur, 1775, 4to.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 57

contain much information on the structm'e
and functions, as well as the natural history
of insects ; and the anatomy of the larva
of the phalsena cossus by Lyonet, * is a
chef d'oeuvre both of anatomical research
and of the art of engraving. The recent
researches of Hubert on the bee and ant
have unfolded to us many surprising cir-
cumstances in the physiology and habits
of those insects.

In the hst of those, who have employed
themselves in observing the minuter parts
of the animal kingdom, we must not omit

the name of Trembley,} whose history of

* Traitd Anatomique de la Chenille, qui ronge le
bois de Saule, 4to. a la Haye, 1762.

+ Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles : trans-
lated into English, 12mo. 1806. Recherches sur les
mceurs des fourmis indigenes ; 1810.

$ Meraoire pour servir a I'Histoire d'un genre de
Poljpes, &c, Leid. 1744, 4to.

58 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

the fresh water polypes and their almost
miraculous properties, bj strongly inte-
resting the public attention, and exciting
a spirit of inquiry, may be considered as
forming an era in zoology. He made us
acquainted with animals, which propagate
by shoots, like those of the vegetable
kingdom, the young one budding out from
the body of its parent, expanding, and
separating when fully unfolded, and some-
times producing new shoots before it is
detached ; which, when cut into two or
more pieces, form quickly so many perfect
animals; of which tvvo, when cut and

See also Baker's Natural History of the Polype.
Lond. 1743, Svo,

Roesel Historie der Polypen in the Sd vol. of his

Insecten Belustigungen.

Schoeffer's Armpolypen in der Siissen Wassern um
Regensburg; 1754, 4to.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 59

applied to each other, grow together, form-
ing a single animal, with a head at each
end. When slit longitudinally through
half their length, each portion forms a
perfect head; by repeating this process,
a kind of hydra may be formed with many
heads joined to a single tail. It may be
turned inside out without injury ; and may
even be turned back again.

The Linnaean class Vermes has been
principally illustrated by Bohadsch, *
Pallas, t Miiller,J Forskaohl,§ and Po-

* De quibusdam Aninialibus marinis, &c. Dresd.
1761, 4to. De veris sepiarum ovis. Prag. 1752.

t Miscellanea Zoologica et Spicilegia Zoologica.

-^ Historia vermium terrestrium et Fluviatilium,
2 t. 4to. Havnise, 1773 and 1774.

Icones Zoologiae Danicae, ibid, 1777, et seq. fol.

Animalcula Infasoria fluviatilia et marina, &c. 4to.
HavniaB, 1786.

^ Icones rerum Naturalium, quasexitinere Oriental!
depingi Curavitj EdenteC. Niebuhr. Havnije, 1776, fol.

do OBJECTS AND HISTORY OT

li.* The mechanism of animal motionSj
already considered at great length, by
Borellijt has been further illustrated by
Barthez. J

In collecting the materials of the grand
work, which will immortalize the name of
BufFon,§ its eloquent author was assisted
by Daubenton, who had the charge of the
collection established at the Jardin des
Plantes, and who contributed the anato-
mical descriptions ; not the lej^st important
part of this noble undertaking. These

* Testacea utriusque SiciliaEj eorumque Historia et
Anatome, 1791. Parma, 2 v. fol.

i De motu Animalium, 2 v. 4to.

'^ Nouvelle mechanique desMouvemensderHomme
ct des Animaux, Carcassone, 1798, 4to.

§ SeeElogede BufFon par Condorcet; also by Vicq,
D'azyr, in his (Euvresj t. I.

COMPARATIVE AKATOMY. 61

are found onlj in the original quarto
edition;* thej are omitted at least in the
greatest part of the numerous subsequent
editions. Vicq d'Azjr was formed by the
instructions and example of Daubenton,
and displayed that ardent love of science,
that patience in research, and those phi-
losophic views, which qualified him to have
carried comparative anatomy to its highest
pitch of perfection. Although he was cut
off in the flower of his age by a premature
death, he has left behind him sufficient

* Histoire Naturelle generale et particuliere, avec
la Description du Cabinet du roi, Paris, 4to. 1730 et
suiv. I

There are also several papers by Daubenton in the
Memoires de I'Acad. des Sciences, from 1751 to 1760.

See Discours sur la vie et les Ouvrages, &c. de Dau-
benton, a I'ouverture des cours d'Histoire Naturelle
au Museum, I'an 8, par Lacepede ; et Notice sur la
vie et les Ouvrages de Daubenton par Cuvier.

62 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

proofs that this eulogy is not exagge-
rated *.

The talents and the merits of Camper
and Pallas are universally recognised :
their works are copious sources of informa-
tion on the most important and interesting
parts of comparative anatomy. Those of
the former, which have relation to our pre-
sent subject, are collected in a French
edition, in 3 volumes, 8vo. with folio
plates f. The principal productions of
Pallas are his Miscellanea Zoologica, Spici-
legia Zoologiae, and Novae Species Quad-
rupedum. He has, besides, contributed

* CEuvres, recueillies, par J. Moreau de la Sarthe,
5 torn. 8vo. avec un Atlas, in 4to. 1805.

+ QEuvres de P. Camper, qui ont pour t)bjet
I'Histoire naturelle, la Phjsiologie, et rAnatomie
comparee. Paris, 1803.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 63

several zoological papers to the Petersburg
transactions, and has scattered much in-
formation on detached points through the
instructive narratives of his travels in the
various provinces of the Russian empire.

In the immortal work of Haller, the
Elementa Phjsiologiae, which, from the
extensive field it embraces, its copious ma-
terials, both of original research- and eru-
dition ; its luminous arrangement, and
perspicuous style; as well as the sound
judgment and acute reasoning displayed
throughout, we can have no difficulty in
characterizing as by far the most valuable
book in medical science: there is a com-
plete collection of all the facts ascertained
previously to his time concerning the struc-
ture and functions of animals, with several
additions from his own observation. I
earnestly recommend this work to the at-
tentive perusal of my younger hearers — not

64 OBJECTS AND HISTOEY OF

only as an inexhaustible mine of physiolo-
gical information, but on account of the
ardent love of science, and the philosophic
spirit which animate every page.

Blumenbach, who succeeded him in
the school of Gottingen, has exhibited in
the cultivation of zoology great industry,
acutenes, and sound judgment, and has
enriched his favourite science with excel-
lent elementary works. In his admirable
Treatise* on the varieties of the human
species, he has touched on several inter-
esting points of comparative structure and
physiology. The same remark is appli-
cable to his Essay on Generation*f , and to

* De generis huraani varietate nativa; Gotting.
1775; 3d edition, 1795.

t Ueber den Bildungstrieb, 12mo. Getting. 1791.
Translated into English b^' Dr. Crichton.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 65

his description of the bones*. He has
not only published an admirable manual
of natural history t, particularly valuable
for the anatomical and physiological infor-
mation with which it abounds, but has
annually delivered, for many years a full

* Geschichte und Beschreibung der Knochen des
Menschlichen Korpers, Gutting-. 1786.

f Handbuch der Naturgeschiclite, 6th edition,
Gotting. J 799. There is, I believe, a more recent
edition. It has been translated into French, under
the title of Manuel d'Histoire Naturelle ; and it is to
be regretted that we have not an English version of
this concise and perspicuous, yet comprehensive and
philosophic work. It is by far the best introduction to
natural history in any language. The Abbildungen
Natur-historischer Gegenstande, Gott. 8vo. 1796—
1810, contains a well selected and valuable series of
engravings of interesting subjects in natural history.
Ten parts are published, containing each ten engrav-
inffs.

66 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

course of lectures on comparative anatomy
in the University of Gbttingen. His
compendium of Comparative Anatomy *
was principally designed as a text book for
those lectures ; and it contains, on every
point, copious references to the best sources
of information. His tract, entitled, Spe-
cimen Physiologiae comparatse inter ani-
malia calidi et frigidi sanguinis; Gott.
4to. 1789? is an interesting essay on the
physiology of reptiles.

The Treatise of Scarpa on the Organs of
Smelling and Hearingt, and the great work

* A second edition of the Handbuch der Verglei-
chenden Anatomic was published in 1815.

+ Disquisitiones Anatomicaj de Auditu & Olfactu,
fol. 2d edition, Milan, 1795. See also his work, De
Structura fenestras rotundas auris. There is another
work on the same subject by an Italian anatomist,*

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 6?

of Poll already noticed, on the testaceous
animals of the two Sicilies, deserve our
highest praise for their anatomical accu-
racy, and for the singular beauty of their
numerous engravings.

Their countryman Spallanzani devoted
himself with enthusiastic ardour to the
cultivation of natural history ; not to
a barren and wearisome science of no-
menclature and external forms; but to
the philosophic investigation, by observa-
tion and experiment, of the origin, func-
tions, and habits of living beings. The
generation of animals and of plants, the
circulation of the blood, respiration, diges-
tion, the reproduction of parts in certain
classes, seminal animalcula, and the ani-

Comparetti Observationes Anatomic^ 4© aure ^ntern^
comparata ; 4to, Patav. 1789.

F 2

68 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

mals of infusions, were the subjects of an
almost incredible number of researches
and experiments. His writings * afford

* Saggio di Osservazioni Microscopiche concer-
nente il Sistema della Generazione dei S. Needham e
BufFon, 1765.

Dei fenomeni della Circolazione, &c. Modena,
1773.

Prodrome di un opera da iraprimersi sopra le Ri-
produzioni Animali. 1768.

Opuscoli de fisica Animale e Vegetabile, t. I and 2,
1776 ; t. 3 and 4, 1780.

Lettera sopra il sospetto d'un nuovo senso nei Pipis-
trelli.

Memoires sur la Respiration, traduites en Francois
d'apres les MSS. inedits de I'auteur. Par J. Senne-
bier. 8\o. Geneva.

Rapports de I'air avec les etres Organises, tires des
Journaux de Spallanzani, &c. Par J. Sennebier. Ge-
neva, 1807. 3 vols. Of the foregoing vt^orks, the 2d,
4th, and 6th, have been translated into English. An
interesting account of the author's life is prefixed
to the Mem. sur la Respiration.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 69

abundant original information on all these
points, and amply justify the expressive
eulogium of Haller, " summus naturae in
minimis indagator." Founded entirely on
actual observation, dictated merely by the
desire to unfold the operations of nature,
and executed with clearness and simplicity,
they interest the reader very powerfully;
while thev are not less valuable as sources
of useful information. They have accord-
ingly been translated into almost all the
modern European languages.

The works of Pallas*, Blochf, GoezeJ,

* De infestis viventibus intra viventia. Leid.
1760, 4to.

+ Traite de la Generation des vers Intestins, &c.
Strasburg, 1788, 8vo. The original was published in
German. Berlin, 1782, 4to.

I Versuch Einer Naturgeschichte der Eingeweide-

70 OBJECTS ANJ) HISTORY OF

Zeder*, Werner f, and RudolphiJ, have
nearly completed the anatomy and natural
history of internal worms.

Sulzer has given us an excellent account
of a single animal, the hamster §, (Mar-

wurmer thierischer Korper; Blankenburg, 1782, 4:to.
mit 44 Kupfern.

Erster Nachtrag zur Naturgeschichte der Einge-
weidevvUrmer, Von J. A. Goeze, mit Zusatzen und
bemerkungen herausg^egeben, Von J. G. H. Zeder;
Leipsic, 1800.

* Anleitung zur Naturgeschichte der Eingeweide-
Tviirmer. Von J. G. H. Zeder. Bamberg, 1803, 8vo.

+ Vermiura intestinalium, praesertira taeniae hu-
mancB, brevis Expositio; Lips. 1782, 8vo. and con-
tinuation in three parts, 1782 et seq.

i Entozoorum seu Vermium Intestinalium Historia
iSaturalis. 2 t. 8vo. Amsterd. 1808 and 9.

§ Versuch einer Naturgeschichto des Hamsters:
Gbtting. 1774. 8vo.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 71

mota Cricetus, Linn.): and Roesel* has
devoted a folio volume in the Latin an4
German languages to the anatomy and
natural history of the frog and toad kind.

* Historia Naturalis Ranarum nostratiura ; Nurew
berg, 1758, fol. with a preface b)' Haller. See also, on
subjects nearly connected with this, Mr. Hunter's
Anatomy of the Siren Lacertina from Carolina. Philos-
Transact, v. 56, p. 307 et seq.

Schreiber's Anatomy and Natural History of th©
Proteus Ang'uinus from Carniola, ibid. 1801, p. 2.

And a masterly account by Cuvier, not only of the
two animals just mentioned (the Siren and Proteus),
but also of the tadpoles of different frogs and salamaii"
ders, drawn up with his accustomed accuracy and
acuteness ; Recherches Anatomiques sur les Reptiles
regardes encore comme douteux par les Naturalistes,
faites a I'occasion de I'axolotl rapporte par M. de
Humboldt da Mexique, 1807, 4:to. It forms part of
the Recueil d'Observations^ de Zoologie & d'Ana-
tomie comparee of Humboldt,

72 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

which subjects he has prosecuted with the
greatest accuracy and minuteness, and illus-
trated with a vast number of beautiful co-
loured plates.

The Jardin des Plantes, and its superb
Zoological cabinet, have been employed
by the French naturalists in a manner that
shews them worthy of the treasure — wor-
thy of succeeding to BufFon, Daubenton,
and Vicq D'Azyr. Their zeal and exer-
tions, abundantly evinced in the twenty
volumes of Annals of the Museum of Na-
tural History, which have been completed
within a few years, and constitute one of
the most valuable accessions, that zoo-
logy has ever received, have given an im-
pulse to the cultivation of natural know-
ledge, which will form a most important
iiera in its history. To estimate its effect,
it will be sufficient to recount the names,

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 73

and to recall the instructive works of La-
cepede *, Latreille f? Lamarck %, GeofFroy
St. Hilaire§, Daudin|l, Brongniart, Peron^,

* Histoire Naturelle des Cetaces, 1 t. 4to. Hist.
Nat. des Quadrupedes ovipares et des Serpens, 2 t.
4to. ; and Hist. Nat. des Poissons, 4; t. 4to. published
as a continuation of Buffon.

f Hist. Nat. des Insectes ; des Salamandres de
France, &c.

J Sjsteme des Animaux sans vertebres.

^ Various papers in the Annales du Museum.

II Hist. Nat. des Reptiles.

5 Voyage aux terres Australes; enriched with copi-
ous zoological remarks, and beautiful coloured plates,
Sur le genre Pyrosoma; Annales du Museum, t. 4,
p. 437.

Sur les Meduses du genre Equoree; ibid. t. 15,
Sur la Famille des mollusques pteropodes. Ibid. Sur
I'Habitation des animaux marins, et des Phoques.
Ibid. The very extraordinary zeal and activity dis-
played by Peron in the pursuit of zoology, and parti-

74 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OP

Dumeril*, Cuvier f. Every part of the
wide field of Zoology has been survey-

cularly his unremitting and severe labours in the
vojage of discovery sent by the French government to
New Holland and the adjacent countries, in which he
procured himself a commission by his scientific ardour
and importunity, after the full complement of na-
turalists had been already named, and from which he
brought back, in conjunction with his associate Le
Sueur, above 100,000 specimens of the animal king-
dom, and more than 2500 new species, lead us to
deplore his early death as a severe loss to science.
See Notice Historique sur M. Peron, par M. Deleuze;
Annales du Mus. t. 17, p. 352, et seq.

Also, Eloge de Peron, par Alard, in the Societe
Medicale d'Emulation, t. 7.

* Zoologie Analytique, 8vo. Paris, 1806.

+ Much valuable information on comparative ana-
tomy may be derived from the following French col-
lections, viz.: Menagerie du Museum National, fol.
Bulletin des Sciences. Memoires de la Societe d'Histo
Naturelle de Paris.

Comparative anatomy. 75

ed by the latter enlighteoed and zealous
inquirer, and no corner has escaped his
penetrating glance. Equal to BufFon in
enlarged views and comprehensive grasp
of mind, and much superior to him in
patient research, minute observation, and
learned inquiry, he presents a rare union
of all the great requisites for promoting
natural knowledge. He has been not less
fortunate in his situation, than in his qua-
lifications j devoting his whole time to
science, and surrounded by numerous able
assistants, he could avail himself, to their
full extent, of those hberal institutions for
the advancement of natural knowledge, and
that uniform encouragement of talent, for
which science will ever be indebted to the
late French government. Accordingly his
progress has been every where marked by
improvement and discovery. I select one
or two principal points from the multitude

% M

76 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

of his researches *. In a lono; series of
papers f, printed in the Annals of the Na-

* His interesting labours on the larjnx of birds
ought not however to pass unnoticed. See Magazin
Encyclopedique ; an. 1, t. 2, and an. 4, t. 2.

See also, on the subject of the vocal organs, Girardi
in Memorie della Societa Italiana, t. 2, p. 2.

Herissant in Mem. de I'Acad. des Sciences, 1753.

M. J. Busch Diss, de Mechanismo Organi Vocis,
Groning. 1770, 4to.

Vicq d'Azjr in the Acad, des Sciences, 1779. Wolff
Diss. Anatomica de Organo Vocis Mammalium;
3erolini, 1812, 4to.

Latham in Transactions of the Linnasan Society,
vol. 4.

+ Sur I'Animal de la Lingule (Lingula Anatina.
Lamarck). Annales du Mus. Nat. de I'Hist. Natu-
relle, t. 1. p. 69.

Sur la BuUeea Aperta (Lamarck), Bulla Aperta
(Linn.) ibid. p. 156.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 77

tional Museum of Natural History, and
presenting models of clear and precise de-

Sur le clio Borealis ; ib. 242.

Sur le genre Tritonia, avec la Description et I'Anat.
d'un genre nouvelle, Tritonia Hombergii ; ib. 480.

Sur le genre Aplysia, Vulgairement nomme lievre
marin ; sur son Anatoraie, et quelques unes de ses
especes ; t. 2, p. 287.

Sur I'Aniraal de I'Hyale, sur un nouveau genre de
MoUusques nus, intermediaire entre I'hyale et le clio,
&c.; t. 4. p. 223.

Sur les Thalides (Thalia Brown.) et sur les Bi-
phores (Salpa Forskaohl.) t. 4. p. 360.

Sur le genre Doris ; ib. 447.

Sur rOnchidie, genre de MoUusques nus voisin des
limaces, et sur une espece nouvelle, onchidium Pe-
ronii ■ t. 5, p. 37.

Sur la Phyllidie, et le Pleurobranche, deux nou-
veaux genres de mollusques de la Famille des gaste-
ropodes, dont I'un est nu, et dont I'autre porte une
coquille moile ; ibid. 5, 266.

78 OBJECTS AND HISTORY 0^

scription, he has perfected the anatomy of
the mollusca, hitherto hardly begun, illusr

Sur la Dolabelle, la Testacelle, et un nouveau
genre de Moilusques a coquille cachee, norame Par-
macelie; ibid. 435.

Sur la Scjllee, I'Eolide, et le Glaucus, avec des
Additions au Memoire sur la Tritonie, t. 6, p. 416.

Sur le limace, et le coiimacon, t. 7. 140.

Sur le limnee (helix stagnalis, Linn.) etle planorbe,
(hel. cornea, Linn.) ibid. 185.

Sur rianthine et la phasianelle de Mr. Lamarck;
t. 11. p. 121.

Sur la vivipare d'eau douce (cjclostoma viviparum
Draparnaud ; Helix vivip. Linn.) ; sur quelques es-
pece voisines, &c. ibid. 170.

Sur le grand buccin de nos cotes, (buccinum unda-
tum, Linn.) ainsi que sur les buccins, les murex, les
strombus, et en general sur les gasteropodes pectines
a svpbon; ibid. 447.

Sur le genre Tethysj et son Anatoraie ; t. 12, ^57.

Comparative anatomy. 79

trating them by a vast number of most
beautiful and expressive figures engraved
from his own drawings, and clearing away
the confusion in which the species and
genera had been hitherto involved. His
examination of fossil bones presents a sin-
gular combination of most extensiv^e, labo-
rious, and minute investigation, with grand
and astonishing results. Having collected
a vast number of specimens, mostly muti-
lated, he examined them carefully, com-
pared them with each other, and drew

Sur les Aceres, ou gasteropodes sans tentacules
apparens; t. 16, p. 1.

Sur les Ascidies, et sur leur Anatomie ; Memoires
du Museum d'Hist. Nat. t. 2, p. 10.

Sur les Animaux des anatifes et des balanes LaiUo
(Lepas. Linn.), et sur leur Anatomie, ibid. p. 85.

All these papers are illustrated with numerous most
expressive and beautiful engravings from Cuvier's
drawings.

80 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

them. He studied minutely the corres-
px)nding bones of the analogous known
species of animals. From these compari-
sons he was enabled to decide that the
fossil bones are for the most part different
from those of any existing creatures, and
consequently that they belonged to races
of animals that have disappeared from our
globe ; or at least of whose existence in
the living state neither history nor tradi-
tion afford any traces.

" Engaged/' says he, " in antiquarian
researches of a new kind, I have been
obliged to learn the art of decyphering and
restoring these monuments, of recognising
and replacing in their primitive arrange-
ment the scattered and mutilated fragments
of which they consist ; of reconstructing
those ancient beings, to which they be-
longed; of exhibiting their proportions and
characters ; and lastly, of comparing them

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 81

to those, which are found at this moment
on the surface of the globe: an art ahnost
unknown, and presupposing the existence
of a science hitherto almost untouched, I
mean the laws of co-existence, which re-
gulate the forms of the various parts of
organized beings. I could only prepare,
myself for these researches by much longer
researches on existing animals. It was
necessary to review ahnost the whole of
the present creation in order to give the
force of demonstration to my conclusions
respecting this extinct creation. This re-
view produced numerous rules and rela-
tions of a character not less demonstrative;
and I thus discovered new laws applicable
to the whole animal kingdom, on occasion
of this inquiry into a small part of the
theory of the earth.*"

* Surles Ossemens Fossiles; Discours Preliaiinaire.

G

82 OBJECTS AND HISTOllY OF

He has succeeded in distinguishing the
fossil remains of seventj-eight species of
animals, many of them of the largest sizcc
Forty-nine of these are certainly unknown
to naturalists to the present time: eleven
or twelve resemble known species so close-
ly, that we cannot doubt their identity.
The sixteen or eighteen that remain are
still exposed to some doubt ; so that it is
not yet determined whether or no they
are the same with any present species.
These researches, originally published in
detached papers in the Annals of the Mu-
seum of Natural History, have since been
collected in 4 vols. 4to. which not only
contain the grandest and most striking
discovery yet made in Comparative Ana-
tomy, or in Geology, but offer the most
unexceptionable model for the manner in
which the inquiry has been conducted,
the cautious philosophic reasoning dis-
played in every branch of it, and the

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 83

satisfactory clearness with which the con-
clusions are estabUshed.

Thus the same objects, which when
viewed in an isolated manner, and super-
ficially examined, had given rise to the
behef in the former existence of giants and
monsters, afforded in the hands of a phi-
losopher who contemplated them with all
the auxiliary lights of modern science, the
means of dissipating many absurd fables,
and of establishing a conclusion not only
the most important hitherto made, con-
cerning the construction of the globe which
we inhabit, but equally valuable as an in-
strument of criticism in estimating the hypo-
theses of geology, and in weighing the pro-
bability of the traditions that relate to the
early history and past condition of our
earth. " The latter subject, which is the
ultimate term of all these researches, is one
of the most curious that can engage our

G 2

84 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

attention. If we feel an interest in follow-
ing, through the infancy of our specieSj
the almost eifaced traces of so many ex-
tinct nations, we shall be at least equally
gratified in exploring, amid the darkness
that involves the early ages of the earth,
the remains of revolutions anterior to the
existence of all nations." *

That geology should have derived its
most important accession from compara-
tive anatomy — that the history of the globe
should have been elucidated by the ex-
amination of some fragments of bones, is
a striking illustration of the connexion be-
tween the different sciences, and of the aid
which they are capable of affording each
other. It shews us that little can be ex-
pected from the exclusive prosecution of

* Ibid.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 85

one ; and that a man who wishes to succeed
signally in any branch of knowledge,
should have his mind fortified by the pos-
session of many branches.

In his capacity of professor of the ana-
tomy of animals, Cuvier has for many
years delivered lectures at the Jardin des
Plantes, where the number of his audience
(often exceeding a thousand) sufficiently
proves the ability of the teacher, and the
interest inspired by the subject. His lec-
tures, collected by some of his young
assistants, and revised by himself, consti-
tute the most comprehensive and philoso-
phic production that has yet appeared on
comparative anatomy : I might say on
zoology. But these five volumes are only
an epitome or rather prospectus of a much
more extensive labour on the same subject;
in which the acknowledged genius and in-
dustry, not less than the vast acquirements
and the splendid performances of the au-

86 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OP

thor, lead ns to expect, that the founda-
tions of zoology will be so firmlj laid in
the materials derived from comparative
anatomy and physiology, that the edifice
will be secure from time and accident, and
perpetuate the fame of Cuvier as equal, if
not superior to any zoologist that has
hitherto appeared.

I ought not to omit mentioning to you
his Tableau Elementaire d^Histoire Natu-
relle, as a very useful compendium of
natural history.

Having noticed the public establish-
ments, in a neighbouring nation, devoted
to the cultivation of natural history ; hav-
ing observed the powerful impulse which
they have given to that department of
knowledge, and paid the just tribute of
gratitude to the French zoologists ;— I re-
turn to our own country, and am ashamed
to find, that although her colonies and

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 87

commercial establishments are found in
every region and every climate, while every
sea is covered and every coast is visited by
her ships, these great facilities have been
as greatly neglected. We have no na-
tional collection of living animals, no mu-
seum of natural history, no public institu-
tion for teaching natural science.

" Pudet haec opprobria nobis,
£t dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli."

That the monastic institutions of a bar-
barous age should contain no provisions
for teaching natural science, will not be a
matter of wonder, because natural science
did not then exist : these establishments
were at least calculated for teaching ac-
cording to the measure of knowledge at
the period of their institution. But what
excuse shall we find for the modern uni-
Dersities as they are called, of a nation

8% OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

which fancies itself the most enUghtened in
Europe? univej^sities, which totally neglect
natural history and all its connected pur-
suits, as if they were no part of universal
knowledge.

The necessary consequence is, that Zoolo-
gical pursuits have languished in England
during great part of the past century. Yet
we can justly claim the merit of some im-
portant discoveries. Mr. Hewson*, the
surgeon, demonstrated the lymphatics in
birds, fishes, and reptiles; thus completing
the great physiological doctrine of the
absorbing system, w hich had been already
fully established in the human subject,
by his illustrious master, William liunter,
also a member of the corporation of Sur-

* Philosophical Transactions, v. 58 and 59. Also,
Experimental Inquiries on the Blood, p. 1 and 2.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 89

geons. Ellis proved that the Zoophytes,
hitherto regarded as plants, belong to the
animal king-dom ; and shewed the minute
animals which form or inhabit these pro^
d actions*.

The excellent work and the beautiful
plates of Stubbs, on the Anatomy of the
Horse, should not be omitted ; nor the en-
gravings, which he was publibhing just
before his death, containing a comparative
view of the human structure with those of
the cock and tiger.

Although they belong more to natural
history than to comparative anatomy, I

* Natural History of Corallines, London, 1755, 4to.
Natural History of many curious and uncommon
Zoophytes, &c. arranged by Dr. Solander, 1786, 4to.
See also, on the same subject, Fil. Cavolini, Memorie
per servire alia Storia de' polipi marini, Nap. 1785,
4to.

90 OBJECTS AND HISTORY 0¥

am unwilling to omit mentioning the very
ingenious and interesting researches of Mr.
Bracy Clark^ on the Genus CEstrus, first
pubhshed in the third volume of the
Linnaean Transactions, p. 289 et seq. as
" Observations on the Genus CEstrus ;'*
and separately republished, with additions,
in the present year, with the title, " On
the Bots of Horses," in 4to. The very
extraordinary history of a singular tribe of
insects is satisfactorily made out from
actual observation, in this Essay ; and the
confusion, in which most of the species
were involved is dispelled.

Monro's Structure and Physiology of
Fishes (fol. Edinb. 1785) deserves re-
mark, as almost the only contribution
to comparative anatomy from the north-
ern part of this island. Although in re^
presenting scientific objects, the execu-
tion of engravino-s is subordinate to their
fidelity, there can be no sufficient reason

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. Ql

for the sing-nlar coarseness of those which
accompany this volume, forming a contras
to the highly beautiful specimens exhibited
in the works of Soemmerring and Scarpa,
not very honourable to the arts of this
country,

Mr. Carlisle's papers, in the Philoso-
phical Transactions*, display a degree of
ingenuity and talent, which make us regret
that his contributions have not been more
numerous ; and that science has lost the
benefit of those acquisitions, which must
have resulted, had he employed his acute
mind on some subjects of suitable import-
ance in comparative anatomy or physio-
logy-

* On a peculiar distribution of the Arteries of the
Extremities in Slow-moving Animals, 1 800. On the
Stapes, 1805. On the Arrangement and Mechanical
Action of the Muscles of Fishes, 1806.

92 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OP

But Mr. Hunter is the glory of England
in this century. In vigour and originality
of genius, in comprehension and depth of
thought, in unwearied industry, he has been
surpassed by none. He was one of the
men who give a character to the age in
which they live — whose names are associat-
ed to the great seras of science — and who
do honour to the country which produces
them. Occupied by a laborious profes-
sion, and defraying from its hard earnings
the expences of his multifarious inquiries,
he accomplished what appears almost in-
credible. What might he not have done,
Lad his time been devoted exclusively to
his favourite pursuits, and had they been
aided by that pecuniary assistance and
fostering support, which the rulers of man-
kind so seldom and so unwillingly spare
from their schemes of war and conquest.
He surveyed anatomy and physiology
with the eye of a philosopher ; proceeding

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 93

constantly, with the aid of dissection and
experiment, to ascertain the structure of
animals, and to determine the nature of
their functions. There is scarcely a
branch of physiology, which he has not
illustrated by some original researches ;
while he has examined each organ in every
animal that he could procure*. His Mu-
seum is arranged on this truly philosophic
principle ; a plan followed by Aristotle,
and to be completed, I hope, by Cuvier.
His equal or even greater merits in the
elucidation of disease do not belong to

* The Hunterian collection contains abundant me-
morials of these labours. Besides what has been given
to the public in his posthumous work on the Blood,
and in the collection of papers on the Animal Economy,
there is an account of the electrical Organs of the
Torpedo in the Philos. Trans, for 1773; of the Silurus
Electricus in the Trans. 1775 ; and of the Anatomy of
Whales in the same work, 1787.

94 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

the present subject ; and it is the less ne*
cessarj to mention them, as they have
been so recently enforced and illustrated
in this theatre by a kindred genius.

The bust of Hunter could not have
been more appropriately placed, than in
the collection, which is the pride and boast
of this College, and universally allowed to
be unrivalled for the number, beauty, and
value of its specimens. The surrounding
labour of his own hands forms the most
suitable memorial of that great man ; were
an inscription required to characterize him,
I would borrow the short but expressive
one from the tomb of a great artist, placed
in one of his principal works ;

" Si monumentum quasras, circumspice."

Sir Everard Plume, to whom we are not
less indebted for upholding the scientific

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 95

character of our profession, than for raising
and maintaining its rank in society, and
who first dehvered lectures on comparative
anatomy in this Theatre, enjoyed the rare
advantage of being initiated in anatomy
and physiology under the guidance of
Hunter. Though he has directed his pur-
suits to various parts of comparative ana-
tomy, the results of which are contained in
numerous interesting papers * pubhshed in
the Philosophical Transactions, his principal

* Anatomy of the sea otter, Phil. Trans. 1796, p. 2.

Anatomy of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, and
hystrix; ibid, 1800, p. 2; 1802, p. 1 and 2,

On the mode of generation of the kanguroo ; ib:d,
1795, p. 2.

On the expansion of the skin of the neck in the
cobra de capello ; ibid, 1804, p. 2,

On the progressive motion of snakes; ibid, 18i2,
p. 1.

Q6 objects and history of
attention has been bestowed on the teeth,*

Account of some peculiarities in the anatomical
structure of the wombat; with observations on the
female organs of generation ; 1808, p. 2.

On the mode of breeding of the ovoviviparous shark,
and on the aeration of the foetal blood in different
classes of animals ; 1810, p. 2.

On the fossil remains of an animal allied to fishes j
i8i4> p. 2. .

On the organs of respiration in some fishes and
vermes ; 1815, p. 2.

On the organs of generation of the lamprey and
Diyxine; ibid.

* Observations on the teeth of graminivorous qua-
drupeds, particularly those of the elephant and su&
aethiopicus. Philos. Trans. 1799, p. 2.

Observations on the structure and mode of growth
of the teeth of the wild boar and animal incognitum ;
ibid, 1801, p. 2.

See also on the same subject;

COMPARATIVE AIS^ATOMY. 97

the stomach, * and the rest of the
ahmentarj canal. The lectures, *i-- which

Mr. Corse's observations on the different species of
Asiatic elephants, and their mode of dentition; ibid,
1799, p. 2.

Blake's Essay on the structure and forttiation of the
teeth in man, and various animals; Dublin, 8yo. 1801.

Tenon sur une methode particuliere d'etudier I'ana-
tomie ; Mem. de I'lnstitut National, t. 1, an. 6. On
the teeth of the horse.

Cuvier in the Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des
Quadrupedes, t. 2, p. 67, et seq. for an admirable ac-
count of the dentition of the elephant. It was first pub-
lished in his Memoire sur les especes d'Elephans vi-
vantes et fossiles, in the Memoires de I'lnstitut. an. 7.

Broussonet memoire sur les dents de I'homme, et
des autres animaux compares entr'eux; Mem, de
I'Acad. des Sciences, 1787.

* Different papers on this subject, which first ap-
peared in the Philosophical Transactions, ares reprinted
in the lectures mentioned below.

+ Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, in which are
illustrated the preparations in the Hunterian collection;

H

QS OBJECTS AITD HISTORY OF

he delivered in this chair, and has since
pubhshed at the request of the curators
of the Museum, are arranged on the best
principles of philosophical zoology, and
illustrated by an extremely valuable series
of figures engraved from the expressive and
beautiful drawings of Mr. Clift.

To my immediate predecessor, this col-
lege tmd the public are indebted for the
zeal and industry with which he executed
his task, and the great mass of original
materials, with which he illustrated his
lectures. I am grateful to him for the
instruction I received ; although, if I yield-
ed to selfish feelings, I might fear that the

2 V. 4to. London, 1814, with 132 plates. They contain
the substance of many of the author's papers in the
Philosophical Transactions, but also much new matter,
.particularly on the intestinal canal.

COMPAEATIVE ANATOMY. 99

riches then displayed will render my po-
verty more conspicuous.

I cannot conclude this review, without
noticing the labours of my friend Dr.
Macartney, lately chosen professor of ana-
tomy in Trinity College, Dublin, by the
fellows of that college: — an appointment
equally honourable to the givers and the
receiver, having been bestowed on him, a
perfect stranger, solely on the ground of
his distinguished talents and acquirements.
He pursued comparative anatomy with
great ardour, and lectured on it for many
years, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He
is the author of a very interesting paper
in the Philosophical Transactions,* on
luminous animals, and of the articles Clas-
sification, Birds, Fishes, and Mam-

* 1810,
H 2

100 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

MA LI A, in Dr. Rees's Cyclopoedia; to
which I can refer you for very excellent
descriptions of the structure and functions
of those classes. *

In the preceding short sketch I have
endeavoured to point out to you the best
sources of information on comparative
anatomy, and, at the same time, by shew-
ing you that men of the most powerful
minds and great acquirements have found
. it an interesting as well as instructive field
of inquiry, to excite you to follow their
example. In enumerating their published

* That this gentleman may not lose credit bj having
the work of an inferior hand ascribed to him, I take
the liberty of adding that the articles Insects, Rep-
tiles, and Yermes, were furnished by myself at a
very short notice, in consequence of Dr. Macartney,
from whom they had been expected, being prevented
from writing them by other occupations.

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 101

works, I do not wish that you should
confine yourself to their perusal ; — I rather
exhort you to do as they have done, to
study the book of nature, which you can-
not resort to without receiving knowledge
and gratification. At the same time, in a
science which includes inquiries so various,
and details so endless, you cannot know
without reading what has been done al-
ready, and what remains to be effected.
You cannot examine all parts for your-
selves ; and must therefore depend in many
points on the reports of others. " The
Man,'' says Dr. Johnson,* " whose genius
qualifies him for great undertakings, must
at least be content to learn from books the
present state of human knowledge; that
he may not ascribe to himself the invention
of arts generally known ; weary his at-

* Rambler.

102 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

tention with experiments, of which the
event has been long registered ; and waste
in attempts, which have already succeeded
or miscarried, that time, which might have
been spent with usefulness and honour
upon new undertakings."

The present age will undoubtedly be
regarded as the most brilliant era in the
history of comparative anatomy. The
noble collection, both of living and dead
animals at the Jardin des Plantes, the zeal
and the scientific views of the able men to
whom these treasures are entrusted, the
valuable Museum that adorns this College,
and the lectures which in all parts of
Europe are now devoted to the extension
and diifusion of comparative anatomy,
convince us sufficiently that it has attained
its proper rank in public estimation ; we
may rest assured that the real value of the
pursuit in reference to physiology, to the

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 103

illustration of human structure, and to the
advancement of zoology, a science inferior
to none for the instruction it affords
and the interest it inspires, will henceforth
secure to it its due degree of attention and
cultivation. *

* At no period has Comparative AnatoQij been so
zealously pursued in Germany as in the end of the last^
and the beginningof the present century. Besides the
respected names of Blumenbach, Soemmerring, Schnei-
der, Kielraejer, Rudolphi (Bejtrage, Berlin, 1812),
Albers (Beytrage zur Vergleichenden Anatomie; 4to.
Bremen), Treviranus (Biologie, 3 t.) Reil, and Auten-
rieth, the following are some of those, who either
have been, or still continue engaged in cultivating it,
and who have communicated to the public the results
of their inquiries.

Meckel (Beytrage zur vergleich. Anat. 2 t. Ab-
handlungen aus der menschlichen und vergleich.
Anat.)

Wiedemann (Archiv fur Zoologie und Zootomie.)

104 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

In the lectures, which I shall have the
honour of delivering to you, I shall attempt

Metzger (Opusc. Anat. et Physiol. Goth. 1790.)

Joseph! (Anatomie der Saiigethiere.)
Froriep (Bibliothek der Vergleich. Anat.)
Merrem (Vermischte Abhandlungen.)

Fischer (Ueber die Schwimmblase der Fische : lib.
die Verschiedne form der intermaxillar-knochens ;
Anatomie der Maki : Naturhistorische Fragmente.)

Oken und Kieser(Bejtragezur Zoologie, Vergleich.
Anat. und Physiologie ; 1806 et seq.)

Posselt (Beytrage zur Anatomie der Insecten.)

Spix (Cephalogenesis, fol. I'Anatomie de Tactinia
coriacea, et de I'asterie rouge in Annales du Mus. Nat.
d'Hist. Nat. t. 13.)

Ebel (Obs. Neurolog. ex Anatome Comparata.)

J. et C. Wenzel (de Structura cerebri humani et
brutorura, fol. Tubingen, 1812.

flosenthal (de Organo Olfactus quorundum Ani-
malium : Ichthyotomische tafeln, Berlin, 4to. 1812.

COMPARATIVE AN^ATOMY. 104

to exhibit a general view of the structure
and functions of animals, describing each

Kieser (de Anamorphosi Oculi; Goett. 1814, 4to.)

Succow (Specimen Mjologias insectorum ; Heidelb.
4to. 1813.)

Nitsch (Osteographische Bejtrage zur Naturges-
chichte der Vogel ; Lips. 181 1, 8vo.)

Lorenz (de pelvi Reptilium ; Hal. 1807, 8vo.)

Tiedemann (Anatomic des Fischherzens, Landshut,
1809, 4to.)

Tilesius (de respiratione sepiae Officinalis ; iiber die
sogenannte Seemaiise, oder hornartige Fischeyer.)

Sorg (disquisitio phjsiologica circa Respirationem
insectorum et vermium Rudolstadt, 1805, 8vo.)

Hausmann (Commentatio de Animalium exsan-
guium respiratione. Hanov. 1803, 4to.)

Neergaard (Vergleichende Anatomie der Verdau-
ungswerkzeuge.)

Ramdohr (Verdauungswerkzeuge der Insecten, Hal.
1811.)

106 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

part, so far at least as my own information;,
and the means of illustration afforded by

Stosch (de oraentis Mammalium, partibusque illis
similibus. Berol. 1807, 8vo.)

Jorg (Uber das Gebarorgan des Menschen, und der
Saiigethiere, in Schwangern und nichtschwangern
Zustande ; Leipz. 1808, fol.)

Tannenberg (Mannliche Zeugungstheile der Vogel.
Gott. 1789, 4to.)

Tredern (ovi avium et Incubationis Historiae pro-
dromus ; Jena, 1808, 4to.)

Spangenberg (disquisitio circa partes genitales fae-
mineas avium, Goett. 1813, 4to.)

Cavolini(von der Erzeugung der Fische und Krebse.
mit Zusatzen von Zimmermann. Berlin, 1792, 8vo.)

Bonn (Anatome Castoris Lugd. Bat. 1806.)

Breyer (Obs. Anat. circa fabricam ranae Pipas,
Berol, 1812, 4to.)

See also the collections published by the Natural
History Society of Berlin (Gesellschaft der Naturfor-

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 107

the Museum extend, in all classes of the
animal kingdom. The plan of the course

schender Freunde), by the Academy of Munich (Denk-
schriften der Konigl. Academie der Wissenschaften) ;
Voigts Magazin fur das neueste aus der Physik, &c.
&c.

In Italy we may recite the names of Comparetti,
Poll, Malacarne (Encefalotomia di alcuni Quadrupedi,
1793.) '

Mangili (de Systemate nerveo hirudinis, lumbrici
terrestris, aliorumque Vermium, 1795; Sopra alcune
Specie di Conchiglie bivalvi, 1804.)

Penada (Osservazioni e Memorie Anatomiche; Sagg.
2. Padua, 1800, 4to.)

Moreschi (della Milza in tutti gli Animali Yerte-
brali ; Milan, 1803.)

Brugnone, Girardi, Rossi, &c. &c. whose contri-
butions will be found in the Coramentarii Instituti
Bononiensis ; in the Atti di Siena; the Memorie della
Societa Italiana j the Memoires de I'Acad. de Turin,
&c. &c.

lOS OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

therefore will be physiological; the order
depending on the arrangement, which may
be adopted, of the organs or functions. In
natural history, where the object is to bring
us acquainted with each animal, with its
external form, its habits and structure, the
species are described separately : this plan
however is altogether unsuited to our pre-
sent purpose, as it would be attended with
endless repetitions, and would exhibit the
facts in so detached and insulated a form,
that very little use could be made of them
for the purpose of general physiology.
What a confused medley of uninteresting
particulars would be found in lectures, in
which the animals should be taken in suc-
cession, and all the parts of each be de-
scribed one after the other. The analogies,
the comparisons, the gradual deviations
connected with changes of habit and cir-
cumstances, every thing in short, that in-
fuses life and interest into the subject,

COMPARATIVE AITATOMY. 109

would be lost. The physiological plan has
the further advantage of being that on
which the Hunterian collection is arranged,
and which has been followed in the works
of Blumenbach and Cuvier.

I sa}'^ that I shall attempt to follow each
organ through the whole series of living
beings. That our knowledge of general
anatomy, even with all the accessions it
has derived from the labours of the zoolo-
gists already alluded to in this lecture, is
far from sufficient to allow such a plan to
be perfectly executed, in any organ, you
must be well aware. Consider the multi-
tude of animals, and the labour necessary
to know any one perfectly, and you will
be at no loss to account for the numerous
deficiences in any series of structures, that
can be submitted to your view. Haller, a
most competent judge of such a subject,
declares that twenty years are not sufficient

110 OBJECTS AIS^D HISTORY OF

for acquiring a perfect knowledge of human
anatomy. Now the species of animals,
hitherto ascertained, in all the classes taken
-together, amount to many thousands.

Before however we begin to describe
the structure of animals, their arrangement
must be understood. Comparative ana-
tomy and natural history cannot be se-
parated without great mutual injury. It
will be necessary for me to explain to you
the principles on which the distribution of
the animal kingdom has been regulated,
and to detail to you the divisions now
generally adopted. The lectures would be
unintelligible without this ; as the names
of classes, orders, and genera will be per-
petually occurring. The use of these terms
is a most convenient method of abridging
our descriptions : the name of a class,
order, or genus, saves us the trouble of
enumerating specifically all the animals

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. Ill

which it comprehends. The anatomical
and physiological description will of course
be preceded by a view of the classific ar-
rangements of the animal kingdom : I think
it will also be found advantageous, before
entering on the latter subject, to give you
a general notion of the structure and
functions of animals, that you may form
some idea of the diversities, which the
organs exhibit in the various classes.

I shall begin then by a sketch of the
functions exercised by living bodies, and
of the principal differences presented by
their organs : this will be followed by a
review of the animal kingdom according
to the divisions generally adopted by na-
turalists ; and I shall proceed, in the last
place, to consider the particular organs
and functions, tracing each through all
the classes.

112 OBJECTS AND HISTORY OF

I have endeavoured to shew you that
the subject of these Lectures, as laying the
ground-work of general physiology, is es-
sentially interwoven with the very funda-
mental studies of our profession ; and con-
sequently that it has the strongest claim
on the attention of every liberal man, who
makes the healing art an object of scientific
investigation. The contemplation of na-
ture, however, is not recommended to you
solely by its reference to intellectual ob-
jects ; it exerts a beneficial and important
influence on the moral dispositions. The
tranquil occupation, which it supplies to
the mind, is a salutary contrast to the
restless agitation of aA'^arice and ambition.
Its innocent pleasures are well calculated
to detach us from the frivolous and de-
structive pursuits of dissipation or de-
bauchery, and to lead us to estimate at
their true value the ordinary objects of

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 113

human exertion; on which we may then
look down with the calm indifference so
well pourtrajed by the philosophic poet :

Sed nil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
Edita doctrina sapientura templa serena ;
Despicere unde queas alios, passimque videre
Errare, atque viam palantes quaerere vitae ;
Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate :
Noctes atque dies niti praBstante labore
Ad sumiuas eraergere opes, rerumque potiri.
O miseras hominum mentes, O pectora csca I

;: K.\

LECTURE II.

ON LIFE*

A HE structure and functions of animals
— -their organization and life — are the sub-
jects of two sciences; anatomy and phy^
siology. Although the functions are the
offspring of the structure— or the life is the
result of the organization — and the two
are consequently connected, as cause and
effect, they might undoubtedly be treated
distinctly. It would be quite possible to
describe an animal body, to enumerate all
its organs, to detail the size, figure, con-
nexions, and various sensible properties

I 2

116 O:^ LIFE-

of each, without saying one word of the
living powers with which thev are en-
dowed, the uses to which they are sub-
servient, or the sympathies and mutual
influences by which they are bound to-
gether for the great purposes of their
creation. We might certainly describe the
heart, measure the size of its cavities, and
detail their various openings and conTmu-
nications, without once speaking of the
blood, or its course, — without mentioning
the contracting power of the organ, or the
order and succession of its movements.
But who would undertake the wearisome
task of such a dry and uninteresting de-
tail? or what patience could sustain the
attention of the hearer ? What would you
think of the person who should describe to
you a watch or a steam engine in this
way? who should exhibit to you all the
parts, and shew their position, without any
explanation of their uses, without any re-

ON LIFE. 117

ference to that nice adjustment, and mu-
tual action, which render the one subser-
vient to the important purpose of marking
the division of time, and enable us, by the
other, to execute the most stupendous
monuments of human labour, or to pro-
duce the most striking results of human
ingenuity? As I cannot for my own part
discern what purpose of utility, much less
what end of interest or amusement, could
be answered by such a merely anatomical
detail, and as the separation of the science
of organization from that of life seems to
me most violent and unnatural, I shall not
disjoin anatomy and physiology.

Our object being to take a survey of
Structm^e, and of the functions which it
executes, through the whole animal king-
dom, I shall inquire first, what we are to
understand by an animal, and what idea
we are to attach to life.

118 ox LIFE.

On this and all other occasions I shall
endeavour to convey to you clear notions
of the subjects which I propose for your
attention ; I will therefore carefully ex-,
plain to you the sense of the terms em^
ployed, and avoid all those which have an
equivocal meaning,

I exhort you to be particularly on your
guard against loose and indefinite ex^
pressions : they are the bane of all science;
and have been remarkably injurious in the
different departments of our own.

Equal caution is necessary in verifying
facts ; the authenticity of which should
always undergo a close examination. They
are the foundation of our physiological
reasonings ; if they are insecure, the whole
structure erected on them is at every mo-*
ment hable to fall. So long as we attend
. to these two points, the scrutiny of facts

ON LIFE. 119

and the definition of terms, our progress,
though slow, will be sure. On subjects
not sufficiently examined, it is better to con-
fess our ignorance, than to attempt to hide
it by arbitrary assumption and vague lan-
guage. We thus mark out objects for
further investigation. Most of the phy-
sical sciences afford us excellent models
for the method of pi-oceeding. Unfortu-
nately the various branches of medical
science abound with examples of all abuses;
of facts loosely admitted, of words vaguely
employed, of reasonings most incorrect
iind inconclusive.

I shall not be anxious to attract your
attention by novelty, nor by multitude of
details ; but shall rather attempt to exhibit
the various parts of the subject in their
natural connexion and order ; to lead you
to a correct mode of reasoning; and ta

120 ON LIFE.

the best method of investigating and cul-
tivating the science.

Organization means the pecuhar com-
position, which distinguishes hving bodies ;
in this point of view thej are contrasted
with inorganic, inert, or dead bodies,
vital properties, such as sensibility and
irritabihty, are the means, by which orga-
nization is capable of executing its pur-
poses ; the vital properties of living bodies
correspond to the physical properties of
inorganic bodies ; such as cohesion, elas-
ticity, &c. Functions are the purposes,
which any organ or system of organs ex-
ecutes in the animal frame; there is of
course nothing corresponding to them in
inorganic matter. Life is the assemblage
of all the functions, and the general result
of their exercise. Thus organization, vital
properties, functions, and life are expres-

ON LIFE. 121

sions related to each other ; in which or-
ganization is the instrument, vital proper-
ties the acting power, function the mode
of action, and life the result.

The matter that surrounds ns is divided
into two great classes, living and dead;
the latter is governed by physical laws,
such as attraction, gravitation, chemical
affinity ; and it exhibits physical proper-
ties, such as cohesion, elasticity, divisibihty,
&c. Living matter also exhibits these
properties, and is subject in great measure
to physical laws. But living bodies are
endowed moreover with a set of properties
altogether different from these, and con-
trasting with them very remarkably. These
are the vital properties or forces, which
animate living matter, so long as it con-
tinues alive, are the source of the various
phenomena, which constitute the functions

122t ON^ LIFE.

of the living animal body, and distinguish
its historj from that of dead matter.

It is justly observed by Cuvier that the
idea of life is one of those general and
obscuro notions produced in us by ob-
serving a certain series of phenomena,
possessing mutual relations, and succeeding
each other in a constant order. We know
not the nature of the link, that unites these
phenomena, though we are sensible that a
connexion must exist ; and this conviction
is sufficient to induce us to give it a name,,
which the vulgar regard as the sign of a
particular principle, though in fact that
name can only indicate the assemblage of
the phenomena, which have occasioned its
formation. Thus, as the bodies of animals
appear to resist, during a certain time, the
laws which govern inanimate bodies, and
even to act on ail around them in a man^

ON LIFE/ 123

iier entirely contrary to those laws, we
employ the term life to designate what is
at least an apparent exception to general
laws. It is by determining exactlj^, in
what the exceptions consist, that we shall
fix the meaning of the term. For this pur-
pose it is necessary to consider living
bodies in their various relations with the
rest of nature ; and to contrast them care-
fully with inert substances; as it is only
from the result of such a comparison that
we can expect to derive a clear notion of
life.

In reviewing the characters of organized
bodies, this very name will lead us to con-
sider, in the first place, the nature of their
composition, and the points in which it
differs from that of inorganic substances.
Organization then, by the meaning of the
term, denotes the possession of organs,
or instruments for accomphshing certain

124 ON LIFE.

purposes. The character of an inorganic
substance is to be found in the properties
of its integral particles ; the mass, which
they may compose, whether solid, fluid,
or gaseous, is unlimited; but its extent,
whether great or small, neither adds nor
takes away any thing that can change the
nature of the body; that nature residing
completely in each of the particles of
which the whole is an aggregate. Thus a
single grain of marble has the same cha^
racters as an entire mountain. A living
body, on the contrary, derives its character
from the whole mass, from the assemblage
of all the parts. This character, which is
more simple or complicated according to
the place which the body occupies in the
scale of being, is altogether different from
that of its component particles. Even in
so simple a creature as the polype, the
individuality of the whole animal is quite
different from that of its component atoms;

ON LIFE. 125

but this difference is much more striking
when we ascend in the scale, as for in-
stance in a quadruped.

Inorganic bodies are for the most part
homogeneous in their composition ; but
they may be heterogeneous. This depends
on the accidental circumstances, under
which the aggregation has taken place.
All living bodies, however simple in their
organization, are necessarily heterogeneous,
or composed of dissimilar particles.

An inert substance may present a per-
fectly solid, fluid, or gaseous mass ; but all
bodies possessing life exhibit in their struc-
ture both solid and fluid parts. We find
in no inert body that fibrous and cellular
texture, nor that multiplicity of volatile
elements which form the characters of or-
ganized bodies, whether in those that ar®
alive, or in those that have lived.

1^6 ON LIFE.

The nmsses of dead matter have no form
peculiar to the species; even where they
are crystalhzed, the form of the mass is
not constantly the same. Living bodies
however have always a form characterizing
the species to which they belong, and not
capable of change without producing a
new race.

The component atoms of an inert body
are all independent of each other : whether
the mass they form be a solid, liquid or
gas, each particle exists by itself, and de-
rives its character from the number, pro-
perties, and state of combination of its
principles, borrowing or deriving nothing
from the similar or dissimilar atoms which
are near it. On the contrary, the particles
which make up a living body are depend-
ent on each other ; they are ail subject to
the influence of a cause which animates
them. This cause makes them all concur

ON LIPE. 127

ill the production of a common purpose,
either in each organ, or in the individual :
and its variations produce corresponding
changes in the state of the particles or
organs.

• - •

• Hitherto I have considered organized
bodies in respect to their composition, to
what we may call their passive condition,
or state of rest. But it is from a different
order of phenomena that the most impres-
sive notions of life will be derived. We
must view them in activity ; we must ob-
serve them, surrounded by chemical agents,
yet preserved from chemical action; main-
taining a composition apparently constant
and identical, yet keeping up an incessant
motion and change of their particles, in
which the old materials are discharged and
new ones converted into their own sub-
stance; producing new bodies, the scat, of
similar active powers with themselves, y^et

128 OHJ LIFE.

terminating their own existence by the
very action of the principle that has so
long preserved them.

You well know what happens to the
body after death : its heat is lost, and it;
soon reaches the temperature of the sur-
rounding medium : the eyes become dim,
the lips and cheeks livid ; the hue of the
skin is altered : the fluids contained in the
vessels, or cavities, and the substances
lodged in the viscera of the body, penetrate
their receptacles, and tinge all the sur-
rounding parts. The flesh soon turns green
or livid, diffuses ammoniacal effluvia or
noxious exhalations in the atmosphere, or
melts away into an offensive ichor. Such
are the effects produced by the chemical
action of the solids and fluids of the body
on each other, and by the affinities of the
surrounding agents air, moisture and heat
to both. Yet the animal solids and fluids.

ON LIFEi 129

iand the visceral contents were in mutual
contact during life; and the body was
surrounded by the same external agents.
But the vital forces were superior to these
chemical affinities, and superseded their
action : the destructive power of these
agents was suspended by the preservative
power of life. So striking an operation
could not fail to attract observation ; and
life has been even defined by Stahl and his
followers, from this exemplification of its
effects, that which prevents decomposition,
putredini contrarium; now, although this
is too limited a view of the subject, inas-
much as the phenomenon in question is
only one out of several included under our
notion of vitality, yet it belongs to the
very essence of it, as we could not con-
ceive life to last a moment if this power
were withdrawn.

The regulation of animal temperature is

K

130 ON LIFE.

a remarkable illustration of the operation
of vital powers : it attracted the notice of
Mr. Hunter, and was made by him the
subject of numerous and highly interesting
experiments*. You know how soon heat
becomes equally diffused through all sur-
rounding inert bodies, the temperature of
any one, that is either higher or lower than
those around it, being speedily reduced or
exalted to a level with them. Animals
however maintain a certain standard tem-
perature under all circumstances. The
human body has one and the same heat in
the intense colds f* of Siberia, Spitzbergen,

* Observations on the Animal Economy.

f Captain Cartwright experienced a cold of —25'
on the coast of Labrador, (Journal of a Residence,.
Sic.) ; and Latrobe — SO" on the same coast, (Philoso-
phical Transactions, 1783.) The cold at Petersburg
and Moscow, has been from — 30° to — 39°, (Com-

ON LIFE. 131

and Greenland, where mercury freezes in
the open air ; and in the parched atmos-

ment. Acad. Petrop.) Mr. Patrin suffered — 35° in
Siberia, and quicksilver froze, (Journal de Physique,
ITDl, p. 88.) Mercury has frozen at Prince of Wales's
Fort, Hudson's Bay, and Albany Fort, (Philos. 'Trans.
1783 1 Experiments for ascertaining the point of Mer-
curial Congelation, by T. Hutchins; and History of
Mercurial Congelation, by Dr. Blagden.)

But the greatest natufal cold which has been ascer-
tained by thermometrical measurement, was that ex-
perienced by the elder Gmelin, in January 1735, at
Jeniseik, in 58° north latitude. The mercury fell to
— 126", (Flora Sibirica; pref.) The sparrows and
jays were killed. When Pallas was at Krasnaiarsk, in
Siberia, situated in 56" north lat. the thermometer
fell on the 7th of December, 1772, to - 80° : as the
scale did not reach lower, the quicksilver receded into
the bulb and froze. A large ihass of pure quicksilver
exposed in the open air was rendered completely solid,
(Reisen durch Russland, 3'' th. p. 118). Our coun-
trymen experienced a degree of cold apparently as
severe, although it was not measured, ou the Churchill

132 ON LIFE.

phere of equinoctial Africa or America,
where the thermometer has exceeded

River, in Hudson's Bay, (Philos. Trans. No. 465,
p. 157.) Brandy was frozen in the rooms where they
had fires.

Although it is doubtful whether we can rely im-
plicitly on the above statements, respecting the exact
degree of cold, because mercury about the time of
freezing, undergoes a remarkable reduction of bulk,
so as to make it sink through a space equivalent to
some hundreds of degrees, (Cavendish's Observations
on Mr, Hutchins's Experiments, Philos. Trans. 1783,
and Blagden's History of Mercurial Congelation, ibid.)
Yet the other effects of such a reduced temperature
die sufficient to illustrate the point in question. The
Canadian savages and the Eskimos go to the ehase in
such temperatures; and the inhabitants of the coun-
tries visited by Gmelin and Pallas cannot remain con-
stantly in their houses during the winters. Even
Europeans, accustomed to warmer climates, can un-
dergo the cold already mentioned, and escape unhurt,
if they take exercise enough. The Danish settlement
ofNoogsack, in Greenland, is in 7£° north lat. and
some Dutchmen wintered, in 1597, under Heemskerk,

ON LIFE. 133

1^0°*; in the heated rooms of experi-
menters, where it has stood at 260°; and

in 76° north lat. on Spitzbergen. Some of them
perished, but those who moved enough, and were in
sound health at first, withstood the dreadful cold,
which the polar bear, (ursus maritimus) apparently
born for these climes, seems to have been incapable of
supporting. For the journal expressly states, that as
soon as the sun sinks below the horizon, the cold be-
comes so intense, that the bears are no longer seen,
and the white fox (canis lagopus) alone braves the
weather. (Voyages de la Corapagniedes Indes; pt. 1.)
Three Russians lived for six or seven years in 78° north
lat. (Dr. Aikin's account of attempts to winter in high
northern latitudes, in the Manchester Society's Me-
moirs, vol. i.) Cranz too particularly observes, that
the Greenlander will expose himself to the piercing
cold of his climate with uncovered head and neck, and,
very slender clothing,

* The power of the human body to withstand ex-
treme cold will appear in a more remarkable light,
when we observe in a contrasted view what heat it is

134 ON LIFE.

in the stoves used for drying grain, where
it has been as high as 290°, and where a

capable of bearing'. Boerhaave thought that a heat of
from 96° to 100° would be fatal to the human species.
Now much greater degrees of natural heat have been
observed. Even in Sicily, when the Sirocco blows,
the thermometer rises to 1I^°, according to Brjdone,
(Vojage to Sicily and Malta.) Dr. Chalmers observed
a heat of 1 15° in the shade in Carolina, (on the Weather
and Diseases of South Carolina.) Humboldt expe-
rienced a heat from 110° to 115° in the Llanos or
deserts near the Orinoco, in South America, (Tableau
Physique des Kegions Equatoriales.) Adanson saw
the thermometer in the shade at 108|° at Senegal, in
17° north lat. Probably the country to the west of the
great desert is still hotter, from the effect of the winds
which have blown over the whole tract of its burninjr
sands. Bruce observed it at 114° in Sennaar, and
119° at Chendi; Browne at 116°, (Travels in Syria
and Egypt.) In the cabin of a vessel off the coast of
Africa, Adanson saw it at 133% which is the greatest
heat observed in the shade, (Histoire Naturelle du
Senegal, p. 81.)

ON LIIE. 135

heat of 270* was borne for a quarter of an
hour*.

* These curious facts were ascertained by accident,
Messrs. Duhamel and Tillet being employed in 1760
and 1761, in researches concerning the destruction of
grain by an insect, exposed it to the heat of an oven
in order to destroy the animal. Being desirous of
ascertaining the exact temperature, they introduced a
thermometer, but found it lowered when withdrawn,
before they could note the precise degree. A girl
employed in attending the oven, observing the diffi-
culty, offered to go in with the instrument and mark
the point, to which the spirit should rise, with a pencil.
At the end of a few minutes she did this, and it was
found to be 100° Reaum. =; 225° Fah. She staid ten
minutes longer, when it had reached 130° R. = 292|°
r« On coming out her countenance was red, but
respiration was not hurried or laborious, and she did
not appear on the whole more incommoded than per-
sons are by the greatest summer heat.

These facts appeared so surprising, and so much at
variance with the notions entertained by philosophers

136 ON LIFE,

In continuing our investigation we soon
find that the force, which binds together

on this subject, that the experiments were carefully
repeated ; when it was satisfactorily ascertained, that
the girls accustomed to the service of the ovens, can
bear a heat of 115° R. = 258f F. or 120° R. = 270° F,
for fourteen or fifteen minutes ; tliat they can stay ten
minutes at the height of 130° R, = 292f F. and that
when it reaches 14P R. r= 315 F, th^y cannot support
it more than five minuteso

It is to be regretted that a quicksilver thermometer
was iiot employed in these experiments, as it seems
that alcohol expands irregularly in the higher tempera-
tures, so that perhaps the above numbers require some
diminution. It may be observed, however, that meat
and fruit were baking by the side of the girls whp un^?
derwent these experiments,

Tillet, Memoire sur les Degres Extraprdinaires d?
Chaleur auxquels les hommes et les Animaux sont
capables de resister ; Acad. Royale des Sciencesj

1764,

ON LIFE. 137

the particles of a living body, does not
eonfine its operation to this passive result.

See also Dubamel de Monceau Suppl(5ment au traite
de la Conservation des Grains.

On the same subject some very accurate and inte-
resting experiments were made in England, in which it
was found that persons could stay for some minutes in
a room heated to 260° Fah. ; in which the breath of the
experimenter impelled on the bulb of the thermometer
reduced it rapidly^ and the heat of the internal parts
as shewn by the thermometer under the tongue, and
by the urine, did not exceed the natural standard of
9S° or 100%

Experiments and Observations in a heated room, hj
C. Blagdeii, M. D. Phiios. Transact. 1775, pt. 1,
art. 12,

And further Experiments, &c. ibid. pt. ii. art. 47.

Experiments in a heated room, by M. Dobson, M.D,
jbid, art. 45,

13S Oir LIFE.

We see at least that living bodies can act
on other matter ; that they can convert it
into their own substance, and thus augment
the number of their component particles.
We find this operation as constant as the
exertion of that force, by which they resist
decomposition. For the absorption of
alimentary matter, its conversion into nu-
tritive fluid, and the subsequent transmis-
sion of that fluid to all parts of the body,
experience no interruption : and, in plants
at least, there seems to be a constant ab-
sorption from the external surface.

Since however living bodies cannot in-
crease indefinitely, but are confined in each
case within certain limits, they must lose
on one side what they gain on the other.
Accordingly we find, besides the immense
loss by transpiration, that there are con-
stant movements of the internal parts,
changes in their condition, and losses of

ON LIFE, 139

substance connected with these alterations;
thus we arrive at a very different view from
that which we took at first ; instead of a
constant union among the component par-
ticles, we see a continued change, so that
the body cannot be called the same in any
two successive instants. We see a kind of
circulation established, in which the old
and useless elements are thrown out, and
their place is supplied by new materials.
The latter are deposited in the interstices
of the particles already existing ; or, tech«
Bically speaking, they grow by introSus-
ception.

In all these points there is a strong con-
trast in inorganic bodies ; they are exposed
to the action of all surrounding media : in-
stead of exhibiting a constant motion,
they can only remain unchanged in a state
of rest ] for, when any motion of the par-
ticles is excited, the body loses its form

140 ON LIFE.

and consistence, if the agent be mecha-
nical, its very nature, if it be chemical :
their increase in volume is unlimited, and
dependent on accidental circumstances ; it
is effected by juxtaposition, that is, by the
addition of new particles on the outside of
the old ones.

Having thus proceeded, as far as we
can, in ascertaining the nature of life by
the observation of its effects, we are natu-
rally anxious to investigate its origin, to
see how it is produced, and to inquire how
it is communicated to the beings in which
we find it. We endeavour therefore to
observe living bodies in the moment of
their formation, to watch the time, when
matter may be supposed to receive the
stamp of life, and the inert mass to be
quickened. Hitherto, however, physiolor
gists have not been able to catch nature in
the fact. Living bodies have never been

ON LIFE. 141

observed otherwise than completely form-
ed, enjoying already that vital force and
producing those internal movements, the
first cause of which we are desirous of
knowing. However minute and feeble the
parts of an embryo may be, when we are
first capable of perceiving them, they then
enjoy a real life, and possess the germ of
all the phenomena, which that life may
afterwards develop. These observations,
extended to all the classes of living crea-
tures, lead to this general fact, that there
are none, which have not heretofore formed
part of others similar to themselves, from
which they have been detached. All have
participated in the existence of other living
beings, before they exercised the functions
of life themselves. Thus we find that the
motion proper to hving bodies, or in one
word, Life, has its origin in that of their
parents. From these parents they have
received the vital impulse ; and hence it is

14£ ON LIFE.

evident, that in the present state of things^
life proceeds only from life ; and there
exists no other but that, which has been
transmitted from one living body to an-
other, by an uninterrupted succession*

Inoro;anic bodies and their masses o-row
up from the accidental union of particles^
or combination of elements ; that is, they
are formed in obedience to chemical and
physical laws, of which we do not notice
the action.

Foiled in our attempts to ascend to the
origin of organized beings, we seek to in-
form ourselves concerning the real nature
of the powers, which animate them, by
examining their composition, by investi-
gating their texture, and the union of their
elements. In them only can the vital im-
pulse have its source and foundation. Iri
this branch of the inquiry nothing has been

ON LIFE. 143

neglected ; all the animal organs have been
most closely scrutinized, examined in their
mass and in detail, and analized into their
constituent textures ; each of which has
been exposed to every variety of anato-
mical, chemical, and microscopic research.
The animal fluids have been subjected, in
like manner, to all the inquiries that the
advanced state of modern chemical science
could suggest, or its zealous cultivators
execute. The result of all these inquiries,
I have no hesitation in affirming, to be,
that no connexion has been established, in
any one case, between the organic texture
and its vital power ; that there is nothing,
either in the nature of the tissue, or in the
combination of the elements, of any animal
structure, that could enable us to deter-
mine beforehand what kind of living phe-
nomena it will exhibit : and consequently
that this, like all other branches of human
knowledge, consists simply in an observa-

144 - ON LIFEli

tion of the succession of events. Would
the mere examination of muscular fibresj
without any observation of their living
action, have ever enabled you to determine
that they possess the power of contraction?
Would a comparison of the fibres of the
deltoid, the heart and the diaphragm have
shewn you that the former will contract in
obedience to the will : that the second are
uninfluenced by the will, and that the
third act both spontaneously and volun-
tarily ? Would any length of contempla-
tion have led you to discover, that medul-
lary substance is capable of sensation and
of thought? Could you have known from
the structure of the stomach that it digests,
or from that of the liver that it secretes ?

These, and all the other particulars we
know about the nature of living properties
and functions, are simply the result of ob-
servation : consequently our labours on

ON LIFE, 145

the organic economy must be confined to
its history.

Lastly, the destruction of living beings
is effected in a peculiar and characteristic
manner. The very nature of life is to pro-
duce, after a time, which varies in the
different species, a state of the organs in-
compatible with the continuance of their
functions ; this mode of termination, by
death, is therefore one of the laws, to
which organized beings are subject.

To these considerations I might add
others, tending to establish still further the
difference between physical and vital laws,
and consequently between physical and
vital phenomena : but it is sufficient to
have proved, as I shall now recapitulate,
that inert solids are composed only of si-
milar particles, which attract each other,
and never move except to separate : that

L

146 ON LIFE.

they are resolvable into a very small num-
ber of elementary substances: that they
are formed by chance, as we term it, or by
the combination of those substances, and
the juxta-position of new particles : that
they grow only by the juxta-position of
nevv particles, the strata of which envelope
the preceding mass : and that they are
destroyed, only by some mechanical agent
separating their particles, or some chemi-
cal agent, altering their combinations.
While, on the contrary, organized bodies,
made up of fibres and laminse, having their
interstices filled with fluids, and resolvable
almost entirely into volatile products, are
produced by a determinate function,^ that
of generation ; growing on bodies similar
to themselves, from which they do not se-
parate, until they are sufficiently developed
to act by their own powers : that they ex-
hibit a constant internal movement of com-
position and decomposition, assimilating to

ON^ LIFE. 147

their own substance foreign matters, which
they deposit between their own particles :
that they grow by an internal power, and
finally perish by that internal principle, or
by the effect of life itself, exhibiting, in
their natural destruction or death, a phe-
nomenon as constant, as that of their first
production.

We may establish then, as the general
and common characteristics of all organ-
ized bodies, that they are produced by
GENERATION, that they grow by nutri-
tion, and that they end by death.
Such are the particular notions included
under the term life, when we employ
that word in its widest acceptation. This
description applies to vegetables, as well
as animals. But if there are many living
beings that exhibit only the degree of life
just described, there are many others, i?i

L 2

148 ON I^IFE.

\vhom the process is much more compli-
cated; in whom there are numerous organs,
executing appropriate functions. Our idea
of life must therefore be modified accord-
ing to what we have learned by observation
in each instance. Thus the life of a quad-
ruped will be very different from that of
an insect or worm.

In the study of the physical sciences,
we observe the succession of events, ascer-
tain their series and order, and refer the
phenomena ultimately to those general
properties or principles, of which the name
does not indicate any independent exist-
ence, but is to be regarded merely as the
generalized expression of the facts. Thus
the chemist traces all the mutual actions
between the component particles of bodies
to their elective attractions or chemical
affinities ; the natural philosopher sees

ON LIFE. 149

every where the exertion of gravity, elasti-
city, &c. These words denote w^hat we
call the properties of matter, and what are
said to be the causes of the phenomena
in question. ■ Experience does not shew us
in what the essential action of any of these
causes whatever consists, nor how any of
the effects are produced : for example (to
take a most common occurrence) we know
not how motion is produced in a body by
impulse. Experience can only exhibit the
order and rule of succession of the pheno-
mena, which indicate the action of the
cause. When one event is observed con-
stantly to precede another, the first of
these is called cause, and the latter effect ;
and we believe that the preceding event
has a power of producing that which suc-
ceeds ; although, in reality, we know only
the fact of succession. Hence, in natural
philosophy, we only know the general

150 ON LIFE.

causes bj those laivs which experience has
established in the succession of the pheno-
iriena. These general causes, which have
been called experimental, inasmuch as thej
are only known through the medium of
experience, have been termed indifferently
principles, powers, forces, faculties.

Jn our examination of the phenomena
exhibited by living beings, we follow a
method analogous to that pursued in the
physical sciences. We trace the succes-
sion of events as far as observation and
experiment will enable us to pursue them,
and we refer them ultimately to a peculiar
order of properties or forces, called vital,
as their cause s. These vital properties are
the causes of vital functions in the same
way as chemical affinity is the cause of the
ecVnibinations and decompositions exer-
cised among the component particles of

ON LIFE. 151

bodies, or as attraction is the cause of the
motions that occur among the great masses
of matter.

Whatever we see in astronomy, hydrau-
lics, mechanics, &c. must be ultimately re-
ferred, through the concatenation of causes,
to gravity, elasticity, &c. In the same
way the vital properties are the main
spring at which we arrive, whatever phe-
nomena we may be contemplating in re-
spiration, digestion, secretion, aad inflam-
mation.

Among the most remarkable of these
vital properties are sensibihty and irrita-
bility— the power of perceiving or feeling,
and that of contracting. To such proper-
ties we refer, in our ultimate analysis of
the functions, as the mechanician does to
elasticity, when he is explaining the mo-

152 ON LIFE.

tions of a watch, or the astronomer to
gravitation, in accounting for the course of
the heavenly bodies.

But are these the only vital properties ?
will they account for all the phenomena
exhibited by organized beings? Probably
not, probably the analysis is not yet com-
plete, or at least the powers, which obser-
vation has led us to discover, are not yet
sufficiently distinguished. Sensibiht}'' im-
plies consciousness; it is equivalent to the
power of feeling; there is not only the
capability of receiving an impression, but
the additional power of referring that im-
pression to a common centre; and this
sense of the word is so strongly fixed by
universal consent and long use, that its
application to the vital acts, which are not
attended with consciousness, strikes u^ at
once not only as improper, but as contra-

ON LIFE. 153

dictory. We cannot however avoid recog-
nising that an impression is made, in va-
rious cases, on the animal organs, when no
perception takes places. The blood excites
the heart to contract — it excites the capil-
laries of the glands to those motions, which
produce secretion, and the capillaries of
the various organs to those operations,
which constitute nutrition, yet we have no
word in physiology to denote the impres-
sions made in these cases, unless we em-
ploy, with a late acute and most promising
-physiologist, whose premature death I
cannot but regard as a very great loss to
our science, sensibility ; to which I have
already stated my objections. Irritability
again, more particularly as it has been
consecrated by long custom to that species
of motion, which is exhibited by the mus-
cular fibres, is not well calculated to denote
the invisible operations of capillary circu-

154 ON LIFE.

iation, secretion, &c. which are known only
by their effects.

If we cast a comparative glance along
the series of Hving beings, we shall observe
the vital properties, either the fewest, or
the least active at the lower end of the
scale, and gradually increasing in energy
to the upper. Vegetables are traversed by
fluids, which circulate in innumerable ca-
pillary tubes, which ascend and descend,
and afford the materials of growth and of
various secretions. All parts of the vege-
table must be acted on by these fluids, and
the vessels must react on tliem to produce
the various effects, of vegetable circulation,
of secretion, absorption and exhalation^
Their vitality resembles that of the bones
and some other parts in animals. In the
commencement of the animal kingdom, as
in the zoophytes, there is a digestive

ON LIFE. ioJ

cavity, alternately distended and emptied;
here then the \ ital processes are attended
with obvious motion. Hitherto organized
bodies are fitted for supporting a mere
existence : but, as we ascend, they begin
to ex 1 libit relations to surrounding objects;
the senses and voluntary motion gradually
make their appearance in worms, insects,
and moUusca ; the vital properties neces-
sary to the exercise of these functions being
added to what they possessed before. As
we ascend through reptiles, fishes, birds,
and quadrupeds, the powers of sensation
and motion become much more energetic,
much more active, and the internal life is at
the same time more and more developed.
Pinally, the cerebral functions, which
are much more numerous and diversified
in the higher orders of the mammalia, than
in any of the preceding divisions of the
animal kingdom, receive their last deve-
lopment in man ; where they produce all

156 ON LITE.

the phenomena of intellectj all those ^v^on-
derful processes of thought, known under
the names of memory, reflexion, associa-
tion, judgment, reasoning, imagination,
which so far transcend any analogous ap-
pearance in animals, that we almost feel a
repugnance to refer them to the same prin-
ciple.

If therefore we were to follow strictly
the great series of living bodies through its
whole extent, we should see the vital pro-
perties gradually increased in number and
energy from the last of plants — the mosses
or the algae — to the first of animals —
Man.

I have pointed out to you the numerous
and pbvious differences between organized
and inert bodies in their composition, and
in the history of the phenomena which they
exhibit. The vital properties of the for-

ON LIFE. 157

iiier present an equally strong contrast to
the physical powers of the latter.

The vital properties, constantly variable
in their intensity, often pass with the
greatest rapidity from the lowest to the
highest degree of energy, are successively
exalted and weakened in the different
organs, and assume, under the influence of
the slightest causes, a thousand different
modifications. Compare the muscular
energy of the same individual, when faint-
ing, with that which he can display in a fit
of rage, or in a paroxysm of mania. The
physical powers, on the contrary, con-
stantly the same at all times, give rise to a
series of phenomena always uniform. Con-
trast sensibility and attraction ; the latter
is always in proportion to the mass of the
body, in which it is observed, while the
former is constantly changing in the same
ofgan, in the s^me mass of matter.

158 ON LIFE.

The invariable nature of the laws, which
preside over physical phenomena, enables
us to submit to calculation all the facts in
those sciences ; but the application of the
mathematics to vital action can only lead
to very general formulae, both because the
different data are uncertain quantities, and
because we cannot be sure that we have
taken them all into consideration. The
resistance experienced by a fluid in pass-
ing through a dead tube, the velocity of a
projectile, the rate at which a body falls
through the air, may be easily reduced to
a fixed law ; but to calculate the power of
a muscle, the velocity of the blood, or thq
action of the stomach, is, to use the com-
parison of Bichat, like buiMing on a mov-
ing sand an edifice, which is solid in itself,
but which quickly falls from the insecurity
of its foundation.

From the circumstances just explained,

ON LIFE. 159

the vital and physical phenomena derive,
respectively, the characters of irregularity
and uniformity. Inert fluids are known,
when they have once beea accurately
analyzed ; but one or even many exami-
nations do not inform us of the nature of
the living fluids. Chemical analysis gives
us a kind of anatomy of them ; but their
physiology consists in a knowledge of the
innumerable varieties they exhibit accord-
ing to the condition of their respective
organs, or of the system in general ; and
to the mutual influences, which connecting
the organs to each other, produce most
important modifications of their functions.
The urine differs as it is voided after a
meal or after sleep; that is, according to
the state of the digestive organs, and of
the blood : in winter and in summer, or in
proportion to the greater or less activity
of the cutaneous capillaries, the mere pas-
sage from a warm tp a cold.temperate«

16'0 ON LIFE.

alters its compositi5n. It is not tlie same
in the child, the adult, and the old man ;
in the male and in the female ; in a quiet
state of the mind, and in the agitation of
the passions. Add to these differences
the innumerable alterations produced by
disease, and you will be immediately sen-
sible that the mere analysis of common
urine constitutes a very inconsiderable
share of the physiological history of th-at
fluid.

The science of organized bodies should
therefore be treated in a manner entirely
different from those, which have inorganic
matter for their object. We should em-
ploy a different language, since words
transposed from the physical sciences to
the animal and vegetable economy, con-
stantly recal to us ideas of an order al-
together difterent from those which are
suggested by the phenomena last men-

ON LIFE. 161

tioned. Although organized bodies are
subjected in many respects to physical
laws, their own peculiar phenomena pre-
sent no analogy to those which are treated
in chemistry, mechanics, and other phy-
sical sciences : the reference therefore to
gravity, to attraction, to chemical affinity,
to electricity or galvanism, can only serve
to perpetuate false notions in physiology,
and to draw us away from the proper
point of view, in which the nature of
living phenomena and the properties of
living beings ought to be contemplated.
We might just as rationally introduce
the language of physiology into physical
science ; explain the facts of chemistry by
irritability, or employ sensibility and sym-
pathy to account for the phenomena of
electricity and magnetism, or for the
motions of the planetary system.

The application of physical science to

M

162 ON LIFE.'

physiology was begun when the latter was
in its infancy ; when organization had been
little studied, and its phenomena still less
observed. The successful employment of
the just method of philosophizing, exhi-
bited in the stupendous discoveries of
Newton, did not advance the science of
life. On the contrary, dazzled by the
brilliancy of his progress, physiologists
were even led by it into the error of seek-
ing every where in the animal economy
for attraction and impulse, and of sub-
jecting all the functions to mathematical
calculations. To Haller principally we
must ascribe the merit of placing physi-
ology on its proper basis, as a peculiar and
mdependent science, by his unwearied in-
dustry in dissection, and more particularly
by his numerous researches, in living
animals, on all the parts of their vital
economy.

The same means were pursued by Mr.

ON LIFEi 163

Hunter to a much greater extent, and with
superior success. He did not attempt to
explain life by barren a priori specula-
tions, or by the illusory analogies of other
sciences ; but he sought to discover its
nature in the only way, which can possibly
lead to any useful and satisfactory result ;
that is, by a patient examination of the
fabric, and a close observation of the ac^
tions of living creatures. He surveyed the
whole system of organized beings, from
plants to man ; he developed their struc-
ture by numberless dissections, of which
the evidences are contained in the ad-
joining collection ; and he discovered their
functions by patient observation and well
contrived experiments, of which you have
the results recorded in his works. He thus
not only strengthened and secured the
foundations laid by Haller, but supplied
many deficiencies, rectified several incon-
sistencies, and gave to the whole structure
M 2

164 ON LIFE.

an unity of character and solidity, that
will ensure its duration.

Such is the path, difficult and tedious,
but the only one, by which we can arrive
at a knowledge of vitality : to frame an
hypothesis, or even many, is a much shorter
and easier business. To represent that
Mr. Hunter is the first or the only inquirer,
who saw the subject in a right point of
view, and prosecuted it on the right prin-
ciples, who contemplated physiology as a
distinct science, that must be cultivated by
itself, embracing a peculiar order of phe-
nomena, not to be elucidated by electri-
city, attraction, or what not, would be an
act of injustice to many enlightened in-
quirers. But his labours, more than those
of any one man, embraced so wide a field
of inquiry into the composition and vital
phenomena of animals, that we might deduce
from them a rational explanation of many of

ON LIFE. 165

the actions of living beings, and thus lay
the foundation for a general theory of
life, that would not disgrace the name of
Hunter.

In the science of physiology we proceed
on the observation of facts, of their order
and connexion ; we notice the analogies
between them; and deduce the general
laws, to which they are subject. We are
thus led to admit the vital properties,
already spoken of, as causes of the various
phenomena ; in the same way as attraction
is recognised for the cause of various phy-
sical events. We do not profess to explain
how the living forces in one case, or attrac-
tion in the other, exert their agency. But
some are not content to stop at this
point; they wish to draw aside the veil
from nature, to display the very essence
of the vital properties, and penetrate to
their first causes ; to shew, independently

166 ON LIFE.

of the phenomena, what is life, and how
irritability and sensibility execute those
purposes, which so justly excite our ad-
miration. They endeavour to give a phy-
sical explanation of the contraction of a
muscle, and to teach us how a nerve feels.
They suppose the structure of the body
to contain an invisible matter or principle,
by which it is put in motion. Such is the
ivopfASiv or impetum faciens of Hippocrates,
the Archeus of Van Helmont, the Anima
of Stahl, Materia Vitse of Hunter, the cali-
dum innatum, the vital principle, the subtle
and mobile matter of others; — there are
many names for it, as each successive
speculator seems to have fancied that he
should establish his own claim to the off-
spring by baptizing it anew. Either of
the names, and either of the explanations
may be taken as a sample: they are all
equally valuable, and equally illustra-
tive.

ON LITE.

167

Most of them indeed have long lain in
cold obstruction amongst the rubbish of
past ages ; and the more modern ones are
hastening after their predecessors to the
vault of all the Capulets.

The object of explanation is to make a
thing more intelligible. Explaining a phe-
nomenon consists in shewing that the facts,
which it presents, follow each other in an
order analogous to that which is observed
in the succession of other more familiar
facts. In shewing that the motions of the
heavenly bodies follow the same law as the
descent of a heavy substance to the earth
does, Newton explained the fact. The
opinion under our review is not an ex-
planation of that kind ; unless indeed you
find, what I am not sensible of, that you
understand muscular contraction better by
being told that an Archeus, or a subtle
and mobile matter sets the fibres at wx)rk.

168 ON LIFE.

This pretended explanation, in short, is
a reference, not to any thing that we un-
derstand better, than the object to be ex-
plained ; but to something, that we do
not understand at all — to something which
cannot be received as a deduction of
science, but must be accepted as an object
of faith.

If animals want such an aid for exe-
cuting their functions, how is it that ve-
getables proceed without the same assist-
ance? The J perform vital motions, and
exhibit some of the most important func-
tions : do they accomplish them without
an Archeus or a vital principle? have they
no subtle fluid of life ?

If the properties of living matter are to
be explained in this way,'why should not
we adopt the same plan with physical pro-
perties, and account for gravitation or

ON LIFE. 169

chemical affinity by the supposition of
appropriate subtle fluids ? Why does the
irritabihty of a muscle need such an ex-
planation, if explanation it can be called,
more than the elective attraction of a
salt ?

To make the matter more intelhgible,
this vital principle is compared to mag-
netism, to electricity, and to galvanism ;
or it is roundly stated to be oxygen. "Tis
like a camel, or like a whale, or like what
you please. You have only to grant that
the phenomena of the sciences just alluded
to depend on extremely fine and invisible
fluids, superadded to the matters in which
they are exhibited ; and to allow further
that life and magnetic, galvanic and elec-
tric phenomena, correspond perfectly : the
existence of a subtle matter of life will
then be a very probable inference. On
this illustration you will naturally remark,

170 ON LIFE.

that the existence of the magnetic, electric,
and galvanic fluids, which is offered as a
proof of the existence of a vital fluid, is as
much a matter of doubt, as that of the vital
fluid itself. It is singular also that the
vital principle should be like both mag-
netism and electricity, when these two are
not like each other.

It would have been interesting to have
had this illustration prosecuted a little fur-
ther. We should have been pleased to
learn whether the human body is more
like a loadstone, a voltaic pile, or an elec-
trical machine: whether the organs are
to be regarded as Leyden jars, magnetic
needles, or batteries.

The truth is, there is no resemblance, no
analogy between electricity and life: the
two orders of phenomena are completely
distinct ; they are incommensurable. Elec*

ON LIFE. 171

tricity illustrates life do more than life il-
lustrates electricity. We might just as well
s'dy that an electrical machine operates by
means of a vital fluid, as that the nerves
and muscles of an animal perform sensa-
tion and contraction by virtue of an electric
fluid. By selecting one or two minor
points, to the neglect of all the important
features, a distant similarity may be made
out; and this is only in appearance. In
the same way life might be shewn to be
like any thing else whatever, or any thing
else to be like life.

Identity or similarity of cause can only
be inferred from identity or resemblance
of effect. Which electric operation is like
sensation, digestion, absorption, nutrition,
generation ? which vital phenomenon re-
sembles the attraction of bodies dissimi-
larly electrified, or the repulsion of those
in similar states of electricity ? what func-

172 ON LIFE.

tion resembles the ignition of metals, and
the firing of gases; the decomposition of
water, and the subversion of the strongest
chemical affinities ?

Another assertion, which has been em-
ployed to prove the existence of an inde-
pendent living principle, superadded to the
structure of animal bodies, is, that the
various beings composing the animal king-
dom, and differing from each other so
remarkably as they do, nevertheless ex-
hibit the same functions. This argument,
which has been adduced on other occa-
sions, and for other purposes, is completely
ungrounded. The fact is just the reverse.
Comparative anatomy affords the strongest
and most numerous proofs of the depend-
ance of function on structure. Every
variation in the construction of an organ
is accompanied with a corresponding mo-
dification of function ; and whenever an

ON LIFE. 173

organ ceases to exist altogether, its office
also ceases. The stomach indeed is very
different in a man, a cow, a fish, a worm,
and each of these different stomachs di-
gests— but it digests after its own manner.
If any organ can execute any function,
why may not the urinary bladder digest,
or the lungs form urine ; why should not
one organ execute all purposes. Were it
indeed otherwise, all the interest and all
the utiHty of the science would be at an
end. All our praises of the wise adapta-
tion of structure to situation and habits,
of the modification of organs according to
their uses, presuppose the truth I have just
asserted. If this were not so, what end
would it answer to classify animals ac-
cording to their structure? How would
this lead us to a natural arrangement, in
which the place occupied by the anin^al
indicates its construction, economy, and
way of life ? However, to cut the matter

174 ON Lli'E.

short by an example or two, is the vital
economy of an insect the same as that of
a fish ? or does that of either resemble the
physiology of a quadruped ? Do the very
different teeth, jaws, muscles, stomach,
and intestines of a cow and a lion perform
the same offices ? The visible fabric of the
brain differs most widely in quadrupeds,
birds, fishes, insects : is there not an equal
difference in their intellectual phenomena,
appetites, and instincts ?

It seems to me that this hypothesis or
fiction of a subtle invisible matter, ani-
mating the visible textures of animal
bodies, and directing their motions, is only
an example of that propensity in the human
mind, w^hich has led men at all times to
account for those phenomena, of which the
causes are not obvious, by the mysterious
aid of higher and imaginary beings. Thus
in the earlier ages of the world, and in less

ON LIFE. 175

advanced states of civilization, all the ap-
pearances of nature, which the progress
of science enables us to explain by means
of natural causes, have been referred to
the immediate operation of the divinity

The storm was the work of Jupiter, who
is sculptured with the thunderbolt in one
hand, and grasping the lightning with the
other : Eolus produced the winds ; Nep-
tune agitated the ocean ; Vulcan and Pluto
shook the globe with volcanos and earth-
quakes. So far was this belief in invisible
agencies carried, that each grove and each
tree, each fountain and each river, was
regarded as the abode of its peculiar
deity ; — the fawns, the dryads, the nymphs
of the elegant Grecian mythology; the
sprites, the elves, the fairies of more modern
credulity. Poetry, which speaks the lan-
guage of the people, and appeals to their

176 C^ LIFE.

common feelings, is full of illustrations of
this observation. Personification is its
most common figure ; and, so strong is our
disposition to clothe all surrounding objects
with our own sentiments and passions, to
animate the dead matter around us with
human intellect and expression, that the
boldest examples of this figure do not
shock us. In his sublime description of a
tempest, Virgil not only makes the monarch
of Olympus " ride in the whirlwind and
direct the storm,^' but brings him before
our eyes in the very act of hurling the
lightning, and casting down mountains
with the bolt.

Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca
I Fulmina molitur dextra : quo maxuma motu
Terra tremit ; f ugere ferae, et mortalia corda
Per gentes hurailis stravit pavor : ille flagranti
Aut Athoj aut Rhodopen, aut alta Cerania telo
Dejicit,

ON LITE. 177

Thus we find at last that the philosopher
with his archeus, his aiiima, or his subtle
and mobile vital fluid, is about on a level,
in respect to the mental process, by which
he has arrived at it, with the

" Poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind,

Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind."

It may appear unnecessary to disturb
those, who are inclined to indulge them-
selves in these harmless reveries. The
belief in them, as in sorcery and witch-
craft, is not grounded in reasoning, and
therefore has nothing to fear from argu-
ment. I only oppose such hypotheses,
when they are adduced with the array of
philosophical deduction, because they in-
volve suppositions without any ground in
observation or experience, the only sources
of our information on these subjects. I

178 ON LIFE.

repeat to you that the science of physio-
logy, in its proper acceptation, is made up
of the facts, which we learn by observation
and experiment on living beings, or on
those which have lived ; of the comparison
of these with each other ; of the analogies
which such comparison may discover, and
the general laws to which it may lead.
So long as we proceed in this path, every
step is secure ; when we endeavour to ad-
vance beyond its termination, we wander
without any guide or direction, and are
liable to be bewildered at every moment.
To say, that we can never arrive at the
first cause of the vital phenomena, would
be presumptuous ; but it is most true, that
all the efforts to penetrate its nature have
been equally unsuccessful, from the com-
mencement of the world to the present
time. Their complete failure in every in-
stance has now led almost universally to

OF LIFE. 179

their abandonment, and may induce ns to
acquiesce on this point in the observations
of Lucretius on a parallel subject ;

Ignoratur enim quae sit natura animai ;
Nata sit, an contra, nascentibus insinuetur,
Et siraul intereat nobiscum morte direrapta,
An tenebras orci visat, vastasque lacunas.

THE END.

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