despotisms of the old world, as the physical features of Ame rica, her colossal mountains, her mighty rivers, her forests, and her lakes, exhibit in comparison with those of Europe. LECTURE II. INTRODUCTORY TO THE COURSE OF 1818. The Cultivation of Zoology and comparative Anatomy recommended as Branches of general Knowledge, and as an interesting Department of Philosophy ;— Their Relation to various Questions in general Philosophy exemplified in the Gradations of Organization, and the Doctrine of final Causes ;-Examples of the Aid they are capable of rendering to Geology and the physical History of the Globe;-Their importance to Physiology, and consequently to the scientific Study of Medicine;-Objects of Inquiry in the Animal Kingdom, and Mode of Investigation;-Anatomy ;-Physiology;-Pathology. Gentlemen!—Having the honour of appearing before you for the third time, as professor of anatomy and surgery, I deem it a proper opportunity to observe, that the comparative estimate I originally formed of the exigencies of this office, and of the means I could bring forward for the purpose of meeting them, which would, at all times, have deterred me from presenting myself as a candidate for such a trust, remains unaltered by my subsequent experience: or rather, that it has been confirmed by the nearer contemplation of a subject so arduous and ample, as to require the industrious devotion and undivided energies of an active and vigorous mind; and by the discovery of those deficiencies in knowledge, which the urgency of other avocations leaves me no hope of filling up. In pursuing the path which I have entered upon, I must, therefore, still rely on that indulgent consideration which I know that you are disposed to extend to all sincere efforts at promoting the grand objects entertained by the Court of this College;-I mean the diffusion throughout our body, and particularly among its rising members, of a taste for all the auxiliary pursuits which are capable of lending to our profession, either essential aid or graceful ornament; the cultivation of surgery as a science; and the securing for its honourable practitioners that rank in society and that public regard, which are the just meed of liberal pursuits directed to the attainment of useful public ends. As the riches of our collection are more calculated for the leisure and deliberate survey of a visit to the museum, than for the distant and hasty exhibitions of this theatre, I shall preface the demonstrative part of the lectures by some general dis courses, which will be devoted to illustrate the aim and utility of zoology in general, and of comparative anatomy in particular; their relations to physiology, and to the sciences more immediately connected with our practical pursuits; and the general principles, which are to be kept in view in cultivating these branches of knowledge. If, in this course, I should enter on topics, which have been already brought under your review this season, my apology must be, that my arrangements were made before my worthy colleague had begun his lectures, and that amputation or dislocation of the parts in question would have been troublesome, if not painful operations His interesting disquisitions on various parts of comparative anatomy were not felt by me in the light of invasion or encroachment. The manor of living nature is so ample, that all may be allowed to sport on it freely; the most jealous proprietor cannot entertain any apprehension that the game will be exhausted, or even perceptibly thinned: to introduce anything like the spirit of game-laws into science, would, if possible, exceed the oppressive cruelty and intolerable abuses of that iniquitous and execrable code. Having alluded to the course of lectures just finished, I should not do justice to my own feelings, nor to the merits of my esteemed coadjutor,* if I did not sincerely thank him for the information I have received-if I did not state, that, in listening to those luminous and eloquent discourses, I felt a satisfaction in belonging to a profession, which could boast such an associate, and express a wish that a series of lectures, so honourable to the author and to the profession, should receive that diffusion by the press, which must be both useful and gratifying to the public. I KNOW no branch of knowledge more interesting to mankind in general, including all ages and descriptions, than the history of living beings, or, as we commonly call it, the natural history of animals; of which comparative anatomy is the very life and essence. This pleasing subject occupies us at the very first dawn of reason, amusing our earliest infancy; and supplies a fund of solid instruction and rational entertainment to our riper years, and more developed faculties. In its boundless extent and variety are included matters within the comprehension of the slenderest and least cultivated understanding; and others, * Ant. Carlisle, Esq. to which the strongest minds and most enlarged science are not more than adequate. The resemblance, which animals bear to ourselves in frame and actions, naturally leads us to ascribe to them our own feel ings, to fancy that they are susceptible of our pleasures and pains, actuated by our desires and aversions, and impelled by the same motives or springs of action; and thus excites in the mind, even of the youngest and most unlearned, a sympathetic interest and a degree of curiosity, which are never felt in examining inorganic nature, or in contemplating its phenomena. None of the exhibitions in a fair are more crowded by young and old, the ignorant and the learned, than the collections of foreign and curious animals; no books are more generally read, than descriptions of the form, actions, habits, instincts, and character of living creatures. The knowledge of living nature, which is well worthy of cultivation, as a subject of mere amusement, at once innocent and rational, and therefore suited to all ages, presents other and higher claims to our attention. The multiplied relations, which animals bear to our own species; supplying our most urgent wants, aiding our greatest undertakings, and giving full effect to our faculties and exertions; and the important part they fill in the creation, animating and enlivening every scene, and often changing the very face of nature, can hardly escape the notice of the most unreflecting, and can only be neglected by those, who are contented to remain ignorant of the most striking phenomena around them. I do not speak at present of the importan bearings, which zoology has on the science of human organiza. tion and life, and consequently on the art of healing; but cor sider it merely as a branch of general knowledge. What a multitude of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes afford occupation, either directly or indirectly, to the many savage tribes, who live almost entirely on the produce of the chase or the fishery, or to the sportsman, who seeks in these pursuits merely a healthy recreation! What an interest is felt in observing and investigating the habits of these various beings, in comparing and contrasting their diversified endowments; in watching the force and activity of some, the address, the stratagems, and the cunning of others, the wonderful instincts of all, and the curious relation between their habits and the respective situations they occupy! What a number of the inhabitants of the earth, air, and waters, are sacrificed to furnish us with food! while from the same source, we derive a still larger portion of our clothing. The number of living creatures, whether beasts, birds, and fishes, or even reptiles, worms, and insects, consumed for food in the various regions of the earth, is prodigious. None, even the most disgusting, as locusts, beetles, maggots, spiders, entirely escape. When we add to these what are destroyed to supply us with clothing, particularly with wool, silk, leather, fur, feathers; with the means of procuring light, as oil, spermaceti, wax, tallow; with various articles of medicine, as hartshorn, musk, castor, Spanish flies; with the materials of numerous useful and elegant arts, as cochineal, parchment, glue, isinglass, catgut, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, hair, bristles, whalebone, horn ;and what are killed for our sport and amusement, or through abuse, wantonness, and cruelty; the catalogue will be of immense length; and will amply justify Dr. SPURZHEIM in having marked out so considerable a tract, in his map of the human brain, for the abode of destructiveness, and its near neighbour and close ally, combativeness :-to say nothing of that circumstance, which is almost peculiar to our species, viz. their killing each other ;*-a practice so essentially characteristic of human nature, that it prevails in every region and climate, in every variety of man, and in every state of society, from the rudest tribe of savages to the most highly civilized empire; except, indeed, among the Quakers, and one or two equally inconsiderable sects, whose singular and narrow-minded refusal to follow the way of the world in so innocent a particular, has been treated with suitable scorn and ridicule by their more enlightened fellow Christians.† Besides war, "the game," our poet calls it," which, were their subjects wise, kings should not play at," but which, unluckily, subjects enjoy almost as much as kings, I may refer to the human sacrifices, which either have been or are still practised in most parts of the world; and to cannibalism, which, having been much doubted and questioned, is now clearly proved to be still prevalent in many places. + In complimenting the Quakers for not having followed the warlike and destructive example set before them by the rest of mankind, I ought not to have conveyed my praise in the ironical form of blame, because irony is often misunderstood, even where we may think such a mistake almost impossible, as in the case of the good bishop, who declared himself highly pleased with Gulliver's Travels, but added, that the book contained some things which he had a difficulty in believing. To obviate the possibility of further misunderstanding, I lay aside irony, and state most seriously and sincerely, that, whether I regard them as a religious sect, or as a body of citizens ;-whether I look to their private or public conduct, I hold the Quakers in the highest respect. As Christians they entertain no unintelligible articles of faith; they waste no time in splitting the hairs of theological controversy; their singular and honourable distinction is practical Christianity, evinced in blameless lives, in renouncing all force and violence, in endeavouring to fulfil literally the Gospel precepts of peace and goodwill, in active benevolence, in unremitted There are instances, in which whole tribes of human beings depend, for the supply of all their wants, on one or two species of animals. The Greenlander, and the Esquimaux of Labrador, placed in a region of almost constant snow and ice, where intense cold renders the soil incapable of producing any articles of human sustenance, are fed, clothed, and lodged from the seal. They pursue, indeed, the rein-deer, other land animals, and birds; but seal-hunting is their grand occupation. The flesh and blood of the seal are their food; the blubber or subcutaneous stratum of fat, affords them the means of procuring light and heat; the bones and teeth are converted into weapons, instruments, and various ornaments; the skin not only supplies them with clothing, but with the coverings of their huts and canoes. The stomach, intestines, and bladder, when dried, are turned to many and various uses in their nearly transparent dry state, they supply the place of glass in the windows; they form bladders for their harpoons, arrows, nets, &c. ; when sewed together they make under garments, curtains, &c. ; and are employed in place of linen on many occasions. Thus every part of the animal is converted, by a kind of domestic anatomy, to useful purposes, even to the tendons, which, when split and dried, form excellent threads. To the pursuit of the seal, the canoes, instruments, weapons, clothing, education, and whole manner of life of the Greenlanders are adapted. As a plentiful supply of these animals enables them to dispense with every thing else, and as without these they could procure neither dwellings, clothes, nor food, it naturally follows that the great aim of education is to make the boys expert seal-hunters; and that dexterity in this pursuit is the greatest praise that can be bestowed on the man." The Laplanders and the Tungooses of north-eastern Asia, are equally indebted to the rein-deer; the Tschutski, the north-west Americans, the Aleutians, and other neighbouring islanders, to the whale and walrus. The latter, as well as the Greenlanders, seem to have anticipated modern anatomists in accurately distinguishing the several anatomical textures, and ascertaining what BICHAT calls their "propriétés de tissue," or properties resultpersonal as well as pecuniary co-operation in all measures calculated to diminish the amount of human misery and suffering, and to improve the condition of their fellow-creatures. These truly Christian merits would redeem much heavier sins than an adherence to the plain and simple garb, and the unceremonious language of George Fox and William Penn. * See the interesting account of the Greenlanders in Crantz, Geschichte von Gronland; also Egede, Description of Greenland; Lond. 1818; of the Esquimaux, in Ellis's Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 137, and following. |