Lectures on physiology, zoology, and the natural history of man : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons / by W. Lawrence.

  • Sir William Lawrence, 1st Baronet
Date:
1828
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on physiology, zoology, and the natural history of man : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons / by W. Lawrence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    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 es- sence. This pleasing subject occupies us at the first dawn of rea- son, amusing our earliest infancy ; and supplies a fund of solid instruction and rational entertainment to our riper years and morr developed faculties. In its boundless extent and variety are in- cluded matters within the comprehension of the slenderest and least cultivated understanding; and others, to which the strong- est 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 feelings, to fancy that they are susceptible of our pleasures and pains, actua- ted by our desires and aversions, and impelled by the same mo- tives 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 exhi- bitions in a fair are more crowded, by young and old, the ignor- ant 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 crea- tures. The knowledge of living nature, which is well worthy of culti- vation, as a subject of mere amusement, at once innocent and ra- tional, 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 con- tented to remain ignorant of the most striking phenomena around them. I do not speak at present of the important bearings which