Zoology

“ One of the most interesting occupations which the wide field of Zoology offers to the naturalist, is the investigation of those remarkable adaptations of organs to functions, and of these again to the necessities and well-being of the entire animal. ”

“ It would constitute the framework of the entire science of zoology, for at the root of every problem in anatomy, embryology, physiology and paleontology is the question of origin. It would be a moving historic picture of evolution, exhibiting the successive stages of the process and the creative value of the accompanying conditions. ”

“ In the first place, it must always be remembered that Zoology is one of the most progressive of the sciences. Consequently many zoological observations which at the time they were made—say twenty years ago—were apt enough and of great value, have since become, by the natural growth of the study, of comparatively slight importance at the present day. ”

“ To furnish every possible link in the grand procession of organized life, is the aim of the science of zoology. Its professors have explored the wilds of Africa, and have penetrated far into the interior of South America; have endured the last extremities of hunger and thirst to catch some curious humming-bird; have been consumed by fevers to the very socket of life, in order to pin an unknown beetle, or to procure some rare and gorgeous-coloured fly. ”

“ Zoology (from Zoön, an animal) is, strictly speaking, that science which investigates the whole animal kingdom, comprehending man as well as the inferior animals. Zoology, therefore, in a wide sense, includes Ethnology, or so much of that science as considers the different varieties or races of men in a physical point of view, instituting comparisons between them, and carefully pointing out the differences or affinities which characterise the physical structure of various branches of the great human family. ”

“ Thus mysticism was finally banished from the domain of biology, and zoology became one of the physical sciences—the science which seeks to arrange and discuss the phenomena of animal life and form, as the outcome of the operation of the laws of physics and chemistry.
A subdivision of zoology which was at one time in favour is simply into morphology and physiology, the study of form and structure on the one hand, and the study of the activities and functions of the forms and structures on the other. ”

“ Among the most interesting phenomena of Zoology are those very numerous cases, in which some strongly marked peculiarities of structure or habit in one group are reproduced in another, widely removed from it in the totality of its organization. ”

“ Of these sciences systematic zoology, which has come to mean the classification, structure, relationship, distribution and habits, or natural history, is the pioneer in any region. Thus we find in our new country at the time of the founding of the Journal in 1818, only sixty years after the publication of Linnæus’ great work, the beginning of American zoology taking the form of the collection and description of our native animals. ”

“ In spite of the rapid progress which the science of zoology has made during the last twenty years, the study of living mammals in captivity remains a comparatively neglected branch of natural history, being almost entirely left to the learned members of zoological societies. The private individuals who have systematically taken up this most interesting work may almost be enumerated on the fingers of one hand—this neglect of so fascinating a pursuit being all the more remarkable considering the activity displayed by naturalists in other departments of the animal world. ”

“ The facts about the bodily make-up or structure of animals constitute that part of zoology called animal anatomy or morphology; the facts about the things animals do, or the functions of animals, compose animal physiology; the facts about the development of animals from young to adult condition are the facts of animal development; the knowledge of the different kinds of animals and their relationships to each other is called systematic zoology or animal classification ”

“ In extending its broad comparative studies into the field of complex and intricate human nature, zoology touches numerous other sciences that might seem at first sight to be entirely independent, or at the most only casually connected with it. I shall venture to point out where analysis within the field of zoology has produced results which have a high and immediate value for students of anthropology, psychology, sociology and ethics. ”

“ Now it is equally true that no one can discuss human nature scientifically without an acquaintance with zoology. It is Darwin and the naturalists who have opened up this new field of inquiry; and Comparative Zoological Nature has now become as needful a study to the playwright and novelist as Comparative Anatomy is to the physiologist. ”

“ A compact but complete treatment of elementary zoology, especially prepared for institutions of learning that prefer to find in a single book an ecological as well as morphological survey of the animal world. ”

“ If his purpose is to determine more accurately the racial characteristics, or to make more clear the interrelationships, of the animals with which he deals, the value of his work as systematic zoology, at least so far as it is reliable, can not be questioned. And should the day ever dawn when it can be fairly said that the purpose of systematic zoology, here formulated, has been attained, we shall have, not merely a complete catalogue, but a complete history of the animal kingdom. ”

“ One great advance in the study of zoology is emphasized by the object-lesson of the modern travelling naturalist. The general mise-en-scène of tropical forests and coral seas is now familiar to the ordinary tourist and the most cursory reader; while the pure and simple collector holds a subordinate place in the estimation of naturalists, for men now travel across the globe to study the life-history of one animal form. ”

“ Zoology treats of the various tribes of animals, marks their external forms, compares their various organs, describes their habits, discloses the laws which regulate their distribution over the continents and islands, arranges them into families according to principles deduced from their structure, and in general makes us acquainted with all that belongs to their history. ”

“ In zoology, the connection of peculiar modes of life and food, with peculiarities of structure, has given rise to systems of classification at once obvious and natural; and the great progress which has been made in comparative anatomy has enabled us to trace a graduated scale of organization almost through the whole chain of animal being; a scale not without its intervals, but which every successive discovery of animals heretofore unknown has tended to fill up. ”

“ They are, however, intensively studied in an endeavor to teach the fundamental principles of Zoölogy in a way that is not possible when a superficial examination of types from all the phyla is made. Furthermore, morphology is not specially emphasized, but is coördinated with physiology, ecology, and behavior, and serves to illustrate by a comparative study the probable course of evolution. The animals are not treated as inert objects for dissection, but as living organisms whose activities are of fundamental importance. ”

“ As we glance through these resumes of thought and work going on as it were beneath the surface of our own arena, the question arises whether we do not now only constitute the remnant of the "Old Guard," and that the Zoology of the future will be an edifice of which our hardly wrought bricks will form but the foundation. We welcome the appearance of the first volume of this excellent contribution to a knowledge of current Biology, and trust the work may annually increase its usefulness. ”

“ The writings of travellers, the discovery of the microscope, and civil and religious liberty, caused the rise of zoology, and the classifications gradually began to include the past or extinct kinds of animals with those which are now existing in a great scheme, which indicates the succession of living things upon the earth. ”

“ Zoology, once a playmate for the curious, a reference for the collector, and the strength of a popular museum, is fast becoming one of the most serious of sciences. The anatomy and physiology of animals is too often neglected ”

“ The tertiary beds present all but an entirely new set of animals, and as we ascend in the series, we find more and more of these identical with species still existing upon earth, as if we had now reached the dawn of the present state of the zoology of our planet. ”

“ We can only remark that if such scanty attention was paid to this volume, the result would still be an acquaintance with one of the most interesting general essays on British Zoology that has been written for a long time. We are too apt to seek biological phenomena in other zoological regions, and to ignore the lessons to be learned in our own islands. ”

“ Man's place in Zoology is still, as Huxley described it, "the question of questions for mankind"; and if that remark was true in 1863, it is still more pressing to-day, when, as the author most truly observes: "At the end of the nineteenth century, the age of 'natural science,' the department of knowledge that has made most progress is zoology." The position of man in the animal world is now considered with calmness and discussed with urbanity. ”

“ From the group of the natural sciences there emerges into prominent place the princely science of zoology. As was said before, it is the central subject in all that advance in the knowledge of organic nature to which reference has been made. It is best fitted, it seems to me, to give to the students in our colleges and universities an idea of the results of the activity of the nature seekers. Its sister science, botany, which runs parallel to it, deals with similar phenomena in plants. Still, it is only among animals that we find nervous responses tolerably well developed. ”

“ If he turns his attention to fossil animals, he is a palaeontologist. If his mind is more particularly directed to the specific description, discrimination, classification, and distribution of animals, he is termed a zoologist.
For the purpose of the present discourse, however, I shall recognise none of these titles save the last, which I shall employ as the equivalent of botanist, and I shall use the term zoology as denoting the whole doctrine of animal life, in contradistinction to botany, which signifies the whole doctrine of vegetable life. ”

“ It gave a tremendous impetus to every branch of biological investigation and started a new era. Systematic zoology, morphology, physiology and experimental zoology all attracted able investigators who studied them with feverish activity. ”

“ References to species of animals described or noticed in the Journal, though to some extent distributed through the Index, are systematically catalogued under the word Zoology. The same plan is followed with Botany. ”

“ It is one of the greatest benefits arising from the evolutionary method in the proper study of Zoology, that both Embryology and Palæontology are now considered of primary importance if we wish to understand the problem of present animal existence. ”

“ We studied our type morphologically, when we determined its anatomy and its development, and when comparing it, in these respects, with other animals, we made out its place in a system of classification. If we were to examine every animal in a similar manner, we should establish a complete body of zoological morphology.
Again, we investigated the distribution of our type in space and in time, and, if the like had been done with every animal, the sciences of geographical and geological distribution would have attained their limit. ”

“ It is only within the present epoch, that physiology and chemistry have reached the point at which they could offer a scientific foundation to agriculture; and it is only within the present epoch, that zoology and physiology have yielded any very great aid to pathology and hygiene. But within that time, they have already rendered highly important services by the exploration of the phenomena of parasitism. ”

“ In the wary and patient hunting for prey by the carnivora, in the gregarious and altruistic habits of the herding hoofed mammals, in the highly developed and affectionate care of the young shown by most mammals, and in the loyal friendship and self-sacrifice of dogs and horses in their relations to man, we see the culmination among animals of the development of the functions of the nervous system. ”

“ In reality, notwithstanding the prodigious speculations of learned anatomists, no truly good arrangement of the Mammalia has yet been arrived at; the deficiency arising from the fact that, as yet, no true zoologist has had the opportunity of a sufficiently extended observation of the natural habits of animals. ”

“ Corals, starfishes, worms, clams, crabs, insects, fishes, frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals, all the various kinds of animals in which the body is composed of organs and tissues, agree in the multicellular character of the body, and may be grouped together and called the many-celled animals in contrast to the one-celled animals. ”

“ It must be granted, however, that both lines of work are essential to the sound development of zoological science, for experimental investigations in which the accurate diagnosis of species is ignored always result in confusion.
Ecology.—The marvelous modifications in structure and instincts by which the various animals are adapted to their surroundings now forms a special topic in biological research and one of the most fascinating. The adaptations in habitat, time, behavior, appearance and even in structure are found capable of a certain individual modification when studied experimentally. ”