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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2935-h.zip b/2935-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07f9468 --- /dev/null +++ b/2935-h.zip diff --git a/2935-h/2935-h.htm b/2935-h/2935-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c8aabb --- /dev/null +++ b/2935-h/2935-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1321 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + On the Study of Zoology, by Thomas H. Huxley + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Study of Zoology, by Thomas H. Huxley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Study of Zoology + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: January 6, 2009 [EBook #2935] +Last Updated: January 22, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Thomas H. Huxley + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>[1]</small></a> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + NATURAL HISTORY is the name familiarly applied to the study of the + properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the + sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects + are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinction to other + so-called "physical" sciences; and those who devote themselves especially + to the pursuit of such sciences have been and are commonly termed + "Naturalists." + </p> + <p> + Linnaeus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his 'Systema Naturae' + was a work upon natural history, in the broadest acceptation of the term; + in it, that great methodising spirit embodied all that was known in his + time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, and plants. But + the enormous stimulus which Linnaeus gave to the investigation of nature + soon rendered it impossible that any one man should write another 'Systema + Naturae,' and extremely difficult for any one to become even a naturalist + such as Linnaeus was. + </p> + <p> + Great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of science, + of old included under the title of natural history, there can be no doubt + that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater ratio than + mineralogy; and hence, as I suppose, the name of "natural history" has + gradually become more and more definitely attached to these prominent + divisions of the subject, and by "naturalist" people have meant more and + more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and function of living + beings. + </p> + <p> + However this may be, it is certain that the advance of knowledge has + gradually widened the distance between mineralogy and its old associates, + while it has drawn zoology and botany closer together; so that of late + years it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary) to associate the + sciences which deal with vitality and all its phenomena under the common + head of "biology"; and the biologists have come to repudiate any + blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, the mineralogists. + </p> + <p> + Certain broad laws have a general application throughout both the animal + and the vegetable worlds, but the ground common to these kingdoms of + nature is not of very wide extent, and the multiplicity of details is so + great, that the student of living beings finds himself obliged to devote + his attention exclusively either to the one or the other. If he elects to + study plants, under any aspect, we know at once what to call him. He is a + botanist, and his science is botany. But if the investigation of animal + life be his choice, the name generally applied to him will vary according + to the kind of animals he studies, or the particular phenomena of animal + life to which he confines his attention. If the study of man is his + object, he is called an anatomist, or a physiologist, or an ethnologist; + but if he dissects animals, or examines into the mode in which their + functions are performed, he is a comparative anatomist or comparative + physiologist. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + Employed in this sense, zoology, like botany, is divisible into three + great but subordinate sciences, morphology, physiology, and distribution, + each of which may, to a very great extent, be studied independently of the + other. + </p> + <p> + Zoological morphology is the doctrine of animal form or structure. Anatomy + is one of its branches; development is another; while classification is + the expression of the relations which different animals bear to one + another, in respect of their anatomy and their development. + </p> + <p> + Zoological distribution is the study of animals in relation to the + terrestrial conditions which obtain now, or have obtained at any previous + epoch of the earth's history. + </p> + <p> + Zoological physiology, lastly, is the doctrine of the functions or actions + of animals. It regards animal bodies as machines impelled by certain + forces, and performing an amount of work which can be expressed in terms + of the ordinary forces of nature. The final object of physiology is to + deduce the facts of morphology, on the one hand, and those of distribution + on the other, from the laws of the molecular forces of matter. + </p> + <p> + Such is the scope of zoology. But if I were to content myself with the + enunciation of these dry definitions, I should ill exemplify that method + of teaching this branch of physical science, which it is my chief business + to-night to recommend. Let us turn away then from abstract definitions. + Let us take some concrete living thing, some animal, the commoner the + better, and let us see how the application of common sense and common + logic to the obvious facts it presents, inevitably leads us into all these + branches of zoological science. + </p> + <p> + I have before me a lobster. When I examine it, what appears to be the most + striking character it presents? Why, I observe that this part which we + call the tail of the lobster, is made up of six distinct hard rings and a + seventh terminal piece. If I separate one of the middle rings, say the + third, I find it carries upon its under surface a pair of limbs or + appendages, each of which consists of a stalk and two terminal pieces. So + that I can represent a transverse section of the ring and its appendages + upon the diagram board in this way. + </p> + <p> + If I now take the fourth ring, I find it has the same structure, and so + have the fifth and the second; so that, in each of these divisions of the + tail, I find parts which correspond with one another, a ring and two + appendages; and in each appendage a stalk and two end pieces. These + corresponding parts are called, in the technical language of anatomy, + "homologous parts." The ring of the third division is the "homologue" of + the ring of the fifth, the appendage of the former is the homologue of the + appendage of the latter. And, as each division exhibits corresponding + parts in corresponding places, we say that all the divisions are + constructed upon the same plan. But now let us consider the sixth + division. It is similar to, and yet different from, the others. The ring + is essentially the same as in the other divisions; but the appendages look + at first as if they were very different; and yet when we regard them + closely, what do we find? A stalk and two terminal divisions, exactly as + in the others, but the stalk is very short and very thick, the terminal + divisions are very broad and flat, and one of them is divided into two + pieces. + </p> + <p> + I may say, therefore, that the sixth segment is like the others in plan, + but that it is modified in its details. + </p> + <p> + The first segment is like the others, so far as its ring is concerned, and + though its appendages differ from any of those yet examined in the + simplicity of their structure, parts corresponding with the stem and one + of the divisions of the appendages of the other segments can be readily + discerned in them. + </p> + <p> + Thus it appears that the lobster's tail is composed of a series of + segments which are fundamentally similar, though each presents peculiar + modifications of the plan common to all. But when I turn to the forepart + of the body I see, at first, nothing but a great shield-like shell, called + technically the "carapace," ending in front in a sharp spine, on either + side of which are the curious compound eyes, set upon the ends of stout + movable stalks. Behind these, on the under side of the body, are two pairs + of long feelers, or antennae, followed by six pairs of jaws folded against + one another over the mouth, and five pairs of legs, the foremost of these + being the great pinchers, or claws, of the lobster. + </p> + <p> + It looks, at first, a little hopeless to attempt to find in this complex + mass a series of rings, each with its pair of appendages, such as I have + shown you in the abdomen, and yet it is not difficult to demonstrate their + existence. Strip off the legs, and you will find that each pair is + attached to a very definite segment of the under wall of the body; but + these segments, instead of being the lower parts of free rings, as in the + tail, are such parts of rings which are all solidly united and bound + together; and the like is true of the jaws, the feelers, and the + eye-stalks, every pair of which is borne upon its own special segment. + Thus the conclusion is gradually forced upon us, that the body of the + lobster is composed of as many rings as there are pairs of appendages, + namely, twenty in all, but that the six hindmost rings remain free and + movable, while the fourteen front rings become firmly soldered together, + their backs forming one continuous shield—the carapace. + </p> + <p> + Unity of plan, diversity in execution, is the lesson taught by the study + of the rings of the body, and the same instruction is given still more + emphatically by the appendages. If I examine the outermost jaw I find it + consists of three distinct portions, an inner, a middle, and an outer, + mounted upon a common stem; and if I compare this jaw with the legs behind + it, or the jaws in front of it, I find it quite easy to see, that, in the + legs, it is the part of the appendage which corresponds with the inner + division, which becomes modified into what we know familiarly as the + "leg," while the middle division disappears, and the outer division is + hidden under the carapace. Nor is it more difficult to discern that, in + the appendages of the tail, the middle division appears again and the + outer vanishes; while, on the other hand, in the foremost jaw, the + so-called mandible, the inner division only is left; and, in the same way, + the parts of the feelers and of the eye-stalks can be identified with + those of the legs and jaws. + </p> + <p> + But whither does all this tend? To the very remarkable conclusion that a + unity of plan, of the same kind as that discoverable in the tail or + abdomen of the lobster, pervades the whole organization of its skeleton, + so that I can return to the diagram representing any one of the rings of + the tail, which I drew upon the board, and by adding a third division to + each appendage, I can use it as a sort of scheme or plan of any ring of + the body. I can give names to all the parts of that figure, and then if I + take any segment of the body of the lobster, I can point out to you + exactly, what modification the general plan has undergone in that + particular segment; what part has remained movable, and what has become + fixed to another; what has been excessively developed and metamorphosed + and what has been suppressed. + </p> + <p> + But I imagine I hear the question, How is all this to be tested? No doubt + it is a pretty and ingenious way of looking at the structure of any + animal; but is it anything more? Does Nature acknowledge, in any deeper + way, this unity of plan we seem to trace? + </p> + <p> + The objection suggested by these questions is a very valid and important + one, and morphology was in an unsound state so long as it rested upon the + mere perception of the analogies which obtain between fully formed parts. + The unchecked ingenuity of speculative anatomists proved itself fully + competent to spin any number of contradictory hypotheses out of the same + facts, and endless morphological dreams threatened to supplant scientific + theory. + </p> + <p> + Happily, however, there is a criterion of morphological truth, and a sure + test of all homologies. Our lobster has not always been what we see it; it + was once an egg, a semifluid mass of yolk, not so big as a pin's head, + contained in a transparent membrane, and exhibiting not the least trace of + any one of those organs, whose multiplicity and complexity, in the adult, + are so surprising. After a time a delicate patch of cellular membrane + appeared upon one face of this yolk, and that patch was the foundation of + the whole creature, the clay out of which it would be moulded. Gradually + investing the yolk, it became subdivided by transverse constrictions into + segments, the forerunners of the rings of the body. Upon the ventral + surface of each of the rings thus sketched out, a pair of bud-like + prominences made their appearance—the rudiments of the appendages of + the ring. At first, all the appendages were alike, but, as they grew, most + of them became distinguished into a stem and two terminal divisions, to + which in the middle part of the body, was added a third outer division; + and it was only at a later period, that by the modification, or + absorption, of certain of these primitive constituents, the limbs acquired + their perfect form. + </p> + <p> + Thus the study of development proves that the doctrine of unity of plan is + not merely a fancy, that it is not merely one way of looking at the + matter, but that it is the expression of deep-seated natural facts. The + legs and jaws of the lobster may not merely be regarded as modifications + of a common type,—in fact and in nature they are so,—the leg + and the jaw of the young animal being, at first, indistinguishable. + </p> + <p> + These are wonderful truths, the more so because the zoologist finds them + to be of universal application. The investigation of a polype, of a snail, + of a fish, of a horse, or of a man, would have led us, though by a less + easy path, perhaps, to exactly the same point. Unity of plan everywhere + lies hidden under the mask of diversity of structure—the complex is + everywhere evolved out of the simple. Every animal has at first the form + of an egg, and every animal and every organic part, in reaching its adult + state, passes through conditions common to other animals and other adult + parts; and this leads me to another point. I have hitherto spoken as if + the lobster were alone in the world, but, as I need hardly remind you, + there are myriads of other animal organisms. Of these, some, such as men, + horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs, oysters, corals, and sponges, are + not in the least like the lobster. But other animals, though they may + differ a good deal from the lobster, are yet either very like it, or are + like something that is like it. The cray fish, the rock lobster, and the + prawn, and the shrimp, for example, however different, are yet so like + lobsters, that a child would group them as of the lobster kind, in + contradistinction to snails and slugs; and these last again would form a + kind by themselves, in contradistinction to cows, horses, and sheep, the + cattle kind. + </p> + <p> + But this spontaneous grouping into "kinds" is the first essay of the human + mind at classification, or the calling by a common name of those things + that are alike, and the arranging them in such a manner as best to suggest + the sum of their likenesses and unlikenesses to other things. + </p> + <p> + Those kinds which include no other subdivisions than the sexes, or various + breeds, are called, in technical language, species. The English lobster is + a species, our cray fish is another, our prawn is another. In other + countries, however, there are lobsters, cray fish, and prawns, very like + ours, and yet presenting sufficient differences to deserve distinction. + Naturalists, therefore, express this resemblance and this diversity by + grouping them as distinct species of the same "genus." But the lobster and + the cray fish, though belonging to distinct genera, have many features in + common, and hence are grouped together in an assemblage which is called a + family. More distant resemblances connect the lobster with the prawn and + the crab, which are expressed by putting all these into the same order. + Again, more remote, but still very definite, resemblances unite the + lobster with the woodlouse, the king crab, the water flea, and the + barnacle, and separate them from all other animals; whence they + collectively constitute the larger group, or class, 'Crustacea'. But the + 'Crustacea' exhibit many peculiar features in common with insects, + spiders, and centipedes, so that these are grouped into the still larger + assemblage or "province" 'Articulata'; and, finally, the relations which + these have to worms and other lower animals, are expressed by combining + the whole vast aggregate into the sub-kingdom of 'Annulosa'. + </p> + <p> + If I had worked my way from a sponge instead of a lobster, I should have + found it associated, by like ties, with a great number of other animals + into the sub-kingdom 'Protozoa'; if I had selected a fresh-water polype or + a coral, the members of what naturalists term the sub-kingdom + 'Coelenterata', would have grouped themselves around my type; had a snail + been chosen, the inhabitants of all univalve and bivalve, land and water, + shells, the lamp shells, the squids, and the sea-mat would have gradually + linked themselves on to it as members of the same sub-kingdom of + 'Mollusca'; and finally, starting from man, I should have been compelled + to admit first, the ape, the rat, the horse, the dog, into the same class; + and then the bird, the crocodile, the turtle, the frog, and the fish, into + the same sub-kingdom of 'Vertebrata'. + </p> + <p> + And if I had followed out all these various lines of classification fully, + I should discover in the end that there was no animal, either recent or + fossil, which did not at once fall into one or other of these + sub-kingdoms. In other words, every animal is organized upon one or other + of the five, or more, plans, whose existence renders our classification + possible. And so definitely and precisely marked is the structure of each + animal, that, in the present state of our knowledge, there is not the + least evidence to prove that a form, in the slightest degree transitional + between any of the two groups 'Vertebrata', 'Annulosa', 'Mollusca', and + 'Coelenterata', either exists, or has existed, during that period of the + earth's history which is recorded by the geologist. Nevertheless, you must + not for a moment suppose, because no such transitional forms are known, + that the members of the sub-kingdoms are disconnected from, or independent + of, one another. On the contrary, in their earliest condition they are all + alike, and the primordial germs of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, + a snail, and a polype are, in no essential structural respects, + distinguishable. + </p> + <p> + In this broad sense, it may with truth be said, that all living animals, + and all those dead creations which geology reveals, are bound together by + an all-pervading unity of organization, of the same character, though not + equal in degree, to that which enables us to discern one and the same plan + amidst the twenty different segments of a lobster's body. Truly it has + been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a window through which + the Infinite may be seen. + </p> + <p> + Turning from these purely morphological considerations, let us now examine + into the manner in which the attentive study of the lobster impels us into + other lines of research. + </p> + <p> + Lobsters are found in all the European seas; but on the opposite shores of + the Atlantic and in the seas of the southern hemisphere they do not exist. + They are, however, represented in these regions by very closely allied, + but distinct forms—the 'Homarus Americanus' and the 'Homarus + Capensis': so that we may say that the European has one species of + 'Homarus'; the American, another; the African, another; and thus the + remarkable facts of geographical distribution begin to dawn upon us. + </p> + <p> + Again, if we examine the contents of the earth's crust, we shall find in + the latter of those deposits, which have served as the great burying + grounds of past ages, numberless lobster-like animals, but none so similar + to our living lobster as to make zoologists sure that they belonged even + to the same genus. If we go still further back in time, we discover, in + the oldest rocks of all, the remains of animals, constructed on the same + general plan as the lobster, and belonging to the same great group of + 'Crustacea'; but for the most part totally different from the lobster, and + indeed from any other living form of crustacean; and thus we gain a notion + of that successive change of the animal population of the globe, in past + ages, which is the most striking fact revealed by geology. + </p> + <p> + Consider, now, where our inquiries have led us. 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + But you will observe one remarkable circumstance, that, up to this point, + the question of the life of these organisms has not come under + consideration. Morphology and distribution might be studied almost as + well, if animals and plants were a peculiar kind of crystals, and + possessed none of those functions which distinguish living beings so + remarkably. But the facts of morphology and distribution have to be + accounted for, and the science, whose aim it is to account for them, is + Physiology. + </p> + <p> + Let us return to our lobster once more. If we watched the creature in its + native element, we should see it climbing actively the submerged rocks, + among which it delights to live, by means of its strong legs; or swimming + by powerful strokes of its great tail, the appendages of whose sixth joint + are spread out into a broad fan-like propeller: seize it, and it will show + you that its great claws are no mean weapons of offence; suspend a piece + of carrion among its haunts, and it will greedily devour it, tearing and + crushing the flesh by means of its multitudinous jaws. + </p> + <p> + Suppose that we had known nothing of the lobster but as an inert mass, an + organic crystal, if I may use the phrase, and that we could suddenly see + it exerting all these powers, what wonderful new ideas and new questions + would arise in our minds! The great new question would be, "How does all + this take place?" the chief new idea would be, the idea of adaptation to + purpose,—the notion, that the constituents of animal bodies are not + mere unconnected parts, but organs working together to an end. Let us + consider the tail of the lobster again from this point of view. Morphology + has taught us that it is a series of segments composed of homologous + parts, which undergo various modifications—beneath and through which + a common plan of formation is discernible. But if I look at the same part + physiologically, I see that it is a most beautifully constructed organ of + locomotion, by means of which the animal can swiftly propel itself either + backwards or forwards. + </p> + <p> + But how is this remarkable propulsive machine made to perform its + functions? If I were suddenly to kill one of these animals and to take out + all the soft parts, I should find the shell to be perfectly inert, to have + no more power of moving itself than is possessed by the machinery of a + mill when disconnected from its steam-engine or water-wheel. But if I were + to open it, and take out the viscera only, leaving the white flesh, I + should perceive that the lobster could bend and extend its tail as well as + before. If I were to cut off the tail, I should cease to find any + spontaneous motion in it; but on pinching any portion of the flesh, I + should observe that it underwent a very curious change—each fibre + becoming shorter and thicker. By this act of contraction, as it is termed, + the parts to which the ends of the fibre are attached are, of course, + approximated; and according to the relations of their points of attachment + to the centres of motions of the different rings, the bending or the + extension of the tail results. Close observation of the newly-opened + lobster would soon show that all its movements are due to the same cause—the + shortening and thickening of these fleshy fibres, which are technically + called muscles. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to + muscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and not + at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the lobster + wishes to extend his tail, and another group when he desires to bend it? + What is it originates, directs, and controls the motive power? + </p> + <p> + Experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in + physical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the lobster + there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known as nervous + substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of the lobster, + directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these communicating + cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of exerting what we + call voluntary motion in the parts below the section is destroyed; and on + the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the brain mass be + destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost. Whence the + inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these motions + resides in the brain, and is propagated along the nervous cords. + </p> + <p> + In the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have + been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides + in the nerves has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the + electrical state of their molecules. + </p> + <p> + If we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; if we + could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by determining + the quantity of electricity, or of heat, of which it is the equivalent; if + we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other condition of the + molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous and muscular + energies depends (and doubtless science will some day or other ascertain + these points), physiologists would have attained their ultimate goal in + this direction; they would have determined the relation of the motive + force of animals to the other forms of force found in nature; and if the + same process had been successfully performed for all the operations which + are carried on in, and by, the animal frame, physiology would be perfect, + and the facts of morphology and distribution would be deducible from the + laws which physiologists had established, combined with those determining + the condition of the surrounding universe. + </p> + <p> + There is not a fragment of the organism of this humble animal whose study + would not lead us into regions of thought as large as those which I have + briefly opened up to you; but what I have been saying, I trust, has not + only enabled you to form a conception of the scope and purport of zoology, + but has given you an imperfect example of the manner in which, in my + opinion, that science, or indeed any physical science, may be best taught. + The great matter is, to make teaching real and practical, by fixing the + attention of the student on particular facts; but at the same time it + should be rendered broad and comprehensive, by constant reference to the + generalizations of which all particular facts are illustrations. The + lobster has served as a type of the whole animal kingdom, and its anatomy + and physiology have illustrated for us some of the greatest truths of + biology. The student who has once seen for himself the facts which I have + described, has had their relations explained to him, and has clearly + comprehended them, has, so far, a knowledge of zoology, which is real and + genuine, however limited it may be, and which is worth more than all the + mere reading knowledge of the science he could ever acquire. His + zoological information is, so far, knowledge and not mere hear-say. + </p> + <p> + And if it were my business to fit you for the certificate in zoological + science granted by this department, I should pursue a course precisely + similar in principle to that which I have taken to-night. I should select + a fresh-water sponge, a fresh-water polype or a 'Cyanaea', a fresh-water + mussel, a lobster, a fowl, as types of the five primary divisions of the + animal kingdom. I should explain their structure very fully, and show how + each illustrated the great principles of zoology. Having gone very + carefully and fully over this ground, I should feel that you had a safe + foundation, and I should then take you in the same way, but less minutely, + over similarly selected illustrative types of the classes; and then I + should direct your attention to the special forms enumerated under the + head of types, in this syllabus, and to the other facts there mentioned. + </p> + <p> + That would, speaking generally, be my plan. But I have undertaken to + explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge of + zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and + precise account of the manner in which I should propose to furnish you + with the information I refer to. + </p> + <p> + My own impression is, that the best model for all kinds of training in + physical science is that afforded by the method of teaching anatomy, in + use in the medical schools. This method consists of three elements—lectures, + demonstrations, and examinations. + </p> + <p> + The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention and + excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may be effected + to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by the personal + influence of a respected teacher than in any other way. Secondly, lectures + have the double use of guiding the student to the salient points of a + subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend to the whole of it, + and not merely to that part which takes his fancy. And lastly, lectures + afford the student the opportunity of seeking explanations of those + difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, arise in the course of his + studies. + </p> + <p> + But for a student to derive the utmost possible value from lectures, + several precautions are needful. + </p> + <p> + I have a strong impression that the better a discourse is, as an oration, + the worse it is as a lecture. The flow of the discourse carries you on + without proper attention to its sense; you drop a word or a phrase, you + lose the exact meaning for a moment, and while you strive to recover + yourself, the speaker has passed on to something else. + </p> + <p> + The practice I have adopted of late years, in lecturing to students, is to + condense the substance of the hour's discourse into a few dry + propositions, which are read slowly and taken down from dictation; the + reading of each being followed by a free commentary expanding and + illustrating the proposition, explaining terms, and removing any + difficulties that may be attackable in that way, by diagrams made roughly, + and seen to grow under the lecturer's hand. In this manner you, at any + rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain extent. He + cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking of notes is + enforced; and a student must be preternaturally dull and mechanical, if he + can take notes and hear them properly explained, and yet learn nothing. + </p> + <p> + What books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to + the teacher. My reply usually is, "None: write your notes out carefully + and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the + explanation of anything you cannot understand; and I would rather you did + not distract your mind by reading." A properly composed course of lectures + ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can assimilate in the + time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should always recollect + that his business is to feed, and not to cram the intellect. Indeed, I + believe that a student who gains from a course of lectures the simple + habit of concentrating his attention upon a definitely limited series of + facts, until they are thoroughly mastered, has made a step of immeasurable + importance. + </p> + <p> + But, however good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of + reading by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the + great instrument of scientific teaching—demonstration. If I insist + unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as + an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science, if + properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other + means of education. I have the greatest respect and love for literature; + nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than a + very prominent branch of education: indeed, I wish that real literary + discipline were far more attended to than it is; but I cannot shut my eyes + to the fact, that there is a vast difference between men who have had a + purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific, training. + </p> + <p> + Seeking for the cause of this difference, I imagine I can find it in the + fact that, in the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and + books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning and + knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the + source of the latter. + </p> + <p> + All that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by + practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate + when I say, that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by these + means. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific education + bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent upon the extent + to which the mind of the student is brought into immediate contact with + facts—upon the degree to which he learns the habit of appealing + directly to Nature, and of acquiring through his senses concrete images of + those properties of things, which are, and always will be, but + approximatively expressed in human language. Our way of looking at Nature, + and of speaking about her, varies from year to year; but a fact once seen, + a relation of cause and effect, once demonstratively apprehended, are + possessions which neither change nor pass away, but, on the contrary, form + fixed centres, about which other truths aggregate by natural affinity. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint the + fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words upon the + mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye, and ear, and touch of the + student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or law enunciated, + should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular structural, or + other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the law, or the + illustration of the term. + </p> + <p> + Now this important operation can only be achieved by constant + demonstration, which may take place to a certain imperfect extent during a + lecture, but which ought also to be carried on independently, and which + should be addressed to each individual student, the teacher endeavouring, + not so much to show a thing to the learner, as to make him see it for + himself. + </p> + <p> + I am well aware that there are great practical difficulties in the way of + effectual zoological demonstrations. The dissection of animals is not + altogether pleasant, and requires much time; nor is it easy to secure an + adequate supply of the needful specimens. The botanist has here a great + advantage; his specimens are easily obtained, are clean and wholesome, and + can be dissected in a private house as well as anywhere else; and hence, I + believe, the fact, that botany is so much more readily and better taught + than its sister science. But, be it difficult or be it easy, if zoological + science is to be properly studied, demonstration, and, consequently, + dissection, must be had. Without it, no man can have a really sound + knowledge of animal organization. + </p> + <p> + A good deal may be done, however, without actual dissection on the + student's part, by demonstration upon specimens and preparations; and in + all probability it would not be very difficult, were the demand + sufficient, to organize collections of such objects, sufficient for all + the purposes of elementary teaching, at a comparatively cheap rate. Even + without these, much might be effected, if the zoological collections, + which are open to the public, were arranged according to what has been + termed the "typical principle"; that is to say, if the specimens exposed + to public view were so selected that the public could learn something from + them, instead of being, as at present, merely confused by their + multiplicity. For example, the grand ornithological gallery at the British + Museum contains between two and three thousand species of birds, and + sometimes five or six specimens of a species. They are very pretty to look + at, and some of the cases are, indeed, splendid; but I will undertake to + say, that no man but a professed ornithologist has ever gathered much + information from the collection. Certainly, no one of the tens of + thousands of the general public who have walked through that gallery ever + knew more about the essential peculiarities of birds when he left the + gallery than when he entered it. But if, somewhere in that vast hall, + there were a few preparations, exemplifying the leading structural + peculiarities and the mode of development of a common fowl; if the types + of the genera, the leading modifications in the skeleton, in the plumage + at various ages, in the mode of nidification, and the like, among birds, + were displayed; and if the other specimens were put away in a place where + the men of science, to whom they are alone useful, could have free access + to them, I can conceive that this collection might become a great + instrument of scientific education. + </p> + <p> + The last implement of the teacher to which I have adverted is examination—a + means of education now so thoroughly understood that I need hardly enlarge + upon it. I hold that both written and oral examinations are indispensable, + and, by requiring the description of specimens, they may be made to + supplement demonstration. + </p> + <p> + Such is the fullest reply the time at my disposal will allow me to give to + the question—how may a knowledge of zoology be best acquired and + communicated? + </p> + <p> + But there is a previous question which may be moved, and which, in fact, I + know many are inclined to move. It is the question, why should training + masters be encouraged to acquire a knowledge of this, or any other branch + of physical science? What is the use, it is said, of attempting to make + physical science a branch of primary education? Is it not probable that + teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led astray from the + acquirement of more important but less attractive knowledge? And, even if + they can learn something of science without prejudice to their usefulness, + what is the good of their attempting to instil that knowledge into boys + whose real business is the acquisition of reading, writing, and + arithmetic? + </p> + <p> + These questions are, and will be, very commonly asked, for they arise from + that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical + science, which infests the minds of the most highly educated and + intelligent classes of the community. But if I did not feel well assured + that they are capable of being easily and satisfactorily answered; that + they have been answered over and over again; and that the time will come + when men of liberal education will blush to raise such questions,—I + should be ashamed of my position here to-night. Without doubt, it is your + great and very important function to carry out elementary education; + without question, anything that should interfere with the faithful + fulfilment of that duty on your part would be a great evil; and if I + thought that your acquirement of the elements of physical science, and + your communication of those elements to your pupils, involved any sort of + interference with your proper duties, I should be the first person to + protest against your being encouraged to do anything of the kind. + </p> + <p> + But is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of science as is + proposed, and the communication of that knowledge, are calculated to + weaken your usefulness? Or may I not rather ask, is it possible for you to + discharge your functions properly without these aids? + </p> + <p> + What is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend that + its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools wherewith + men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of phenomena which + pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to inform them of + the fundamental laws which have been found by experience to govern the + course of things, so that they may not be turned out into the world naked, + defenceless, and a prey to the events they might control. + </p> + <p> + A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he may + have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever be + opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to write, + that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be + indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge + he acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics, that he may understand + all those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of + men, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may have + some practice in deductive reasoning. + </p> + <p> + All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, are intellectual + tools, whose use should, before all things, be learned, and learned + thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life that which + it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in wisdom. + </p> + <p> + But, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a + certain equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws of + morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as will + tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they are, and + how they have become what they are. + </p> + <p> + Without doubt all these are most fitting and excellent things to teach a + boy; I should be very sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of primary + intellectual education. The system is excellent, so far as it goes. + </p> + <p> + But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection arises. I suppose that, + fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen was + taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own, and, + perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and the religion, + morality, history, and geography current in his time. Furthermore, I do + not think I err in affirming, that, if such a Christian Roman boy, who had + finished his education, could be transplanted into one of our public + schools, and pass through its course of instruction, he would not meet + with a single unfamiliar line of thought; amidst all the new facts he + would have to learn, not one would suggest a different mode of regarding + the universe from that current in his own time. + </p> + <p> + And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilization of + the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between the + intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and this? + </p> + <p> + And what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly—The + prodigious development of physical science within the last two centuries. + </p> + <p> + Modern civilization rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to + our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the world + is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only, that makes + intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force. + </p> + <p> + The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way + into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who + affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with + her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe + that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now + slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that the + ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority; + she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a + firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical + laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an + intelligent being. + </p> + <p> + But of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note. + Physical science, its methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will + meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a + manner that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence of the + methods and facts of science as the day he was born. The modern world is + full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in it, + equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. + </p> + <p> + Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state + of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will + cry shame on us. + </p> + <p> + It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is, to make the + elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I have + endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of science + which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I should look + upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land was a centre of + genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as an epoch in the + history of the country. + </p> + <p> + But let me entreat you to remember my last words. Addressing myself to + you, as teachers, I would say, mere book learning in physical science is a + sham and a delusion—what you teach, unless you wish to be impostors, + that you must first know; and real knowledge in science means personal + acquaintance with the facts, be they few or many. <a href="#linknote-2" + name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ A Lecture delivered at the + South Kensington Museum in 1861.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ It has been suggested to me + that these words may be taken to imply a discouragement on my part of any + sort of scientific instruction which does not give an acquaintance with + the facts at first hand. But this is not my meaning. The ideal of + scientific teaching is, no doubt, a system by which the scholar sees every + fact for himself, and the teacher supplies only the explanations. + Circumstances, however, do not often allow of the attainment of that + ideal, and we must put up with the next best system—one in which the + scholar takes a good deal on trust from a teacher, who, knowing the facts + by his own knowledge, can describe them with so much vividness as to + enable his audience to form competent ideas concerning them. The system + which I repudiate is that which allows teachers who have not come into + direct contact with the leading facts of a science to pass their + second-hand information on. The scientific virus, like vaccine lymph, if + passed through too long a succession of organisms, will lose all its + effect in protecting the young against the intellectual epidemics to which + they are exposed.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's On the Study of Zoology, by Thomas H. Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY *** + +***** This file should be named 2935-h.htm or 2935-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/2935/ + +Produced by Amy E. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Study of Zoology + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Posting Date: January 6, 2009 [EBook #2935] +Release Date: November, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY *** + + + + +Produced by Amy E. Zelmer + + + + + +ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY + +by Thomas H. Huxley + +[1] + + +NATURAL HISTORY is the name familiarly applied to the study of the +properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the +sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects +are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinction to other +so-called "physical" sciences; and those who devote themselves +especially to the pursuit of such sciences have been and are commonly +termed "Naturalists." + +Linnaeus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his 'Systema Naturae' +was a work upon natural history, in the broadest acceptation of the +term; in it, that great methodising spirit embodied all that was known +in his time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, +and plants. But the enormous stimulus which Linnaeus gave to the +investigation of nature soon rendered it impossible that any one man +should write another 'Systema Naturae,' and extremely difficult for any +one to become even a naturalist such as Linnaeus was. + +Great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of +science, of old included under the title of natural history, there can +be no doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater +ratio than mineralogy; and hence, as I suppose, the name of "natural +history" has gradually become more and more definitely attached to these +prominent divisions of the subject, and by "naturalist" people have +meant more and more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and +function of living beings. + +However this may be, it is certain that the advance of knowledge +has gradually widened the distance between mineralogy and its old +associates, while it has drawn zoology and botany closer together; so +that of late years it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary) +to associate the sciences which deal with vitality and all its phenomena +under the common head of "biology"; and the biologists have come +to repudiate any blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, the +mineralogists. + +Certain broad laws have a general application throughout both the animal +and the vegetable worlds, but the ground common to these kingdoms of +nature is not of very wide extent, and the multiplicity of details is so +great, that the student of living beings finds himself obliged to devote +his attention exclusively either to the one or the other. If he elects +to study plants, under any aspect, we know at once what to call him. He +is a botanist, and his science is botany. But if the investigation of +animal life be his choice, the name generally applied to him will vary +according to the kind of animals he studies, or the particular phenomena +of animal life to which he confines his attention. If the study of +man is his object, he is called an anatomist, or a physiologist, or an +ethnologist; but if he dissects animals, or examines into the mode in +which their functions are performed, he is a comparative anatomist or +comparative physiologist. 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. + +Employed in this sense, zoology, like botany, is divisible into +three great but subordinate sciences, morphology, physiology, and +distribution, each of which may, to a very great extent, be studied +independently of the other. + +Zoological morphology is the doctrine of animal form or structure. +Anatomy is one of its branches; development is another; while +classification is the expression of the relations which different +animals bear to one another, in respect of their anatomy and their +development. + +Zoological distribution is the study of animals in relation to the +terrestrial conditions which obtain now, or have obtained at any +previous epoch of the earth's history. + +Zoological physiology, lastly, is the doctrine of the functions or +actions of animals. It regards animal bodies as machines impelled by +certain forces, and performing an amount of work which can be expressed +in terms of the ordinary forces of nature. The final object of +physiology is to deduce the facts of morphology, on the one hand, and +those of distribution on the other, from the laws of the molecular +forces of matter. + +Such is the scope of zoology. But if I were to content myself with the +enunciation of these dry definitions, I should ill exemplify that +method of teaching this branch of physical science, which it is my chief +business to-night to recommend. Let us turn away then from abstract +definitions. Let us take some concrete living thing, some animal, the +commoner the better, and let us see how the application of common sense +and common logic to the obvious facts it presents, inevitably leads us +into all these branches of zoological science. + +I have before me a lobster. When I examine it, what appears to be the +most striking character it presents? Why, I observe that this part which +we call the tail of the lobster, is made up of six distinct hard rings +and a seventh terminal piece. If I separate one of the middle rings, say +the third, I find it carries upon its under surface a pair of limbs or +appendages, each of which consists of a stalk and two terminal pieces. +So that I can represent a transverse section of the ring and its +appendages upon the diagram board in this way. + +If I now take the fourth ring, I find it has the same structure, and so +have the fifth and the second; so that, in each of these divisions of +the tail, I find parts which correspond with one another, a ring and +two appendages; and in each appendage a stalk and two end pieces. These +corresponding parts are called, in the technical language of anatomy, +"homologous parts." The ring of the third division is the "homologue" of +the ring of the fifth, the appendage of the former is the homologue +of the appendage of the latter. And, as each division exhibits +corresponding parts in corresponding places, we say that all the +divisions are constructed upon the same plan. But now let us consider +the sixth division. It is similar to, and yet different from, the +others. The ring is essentially the same as in the other divisions; but +the appendages look at first as if they were very different; and yet +when we regard them closely, what do we find? A stalk and two terminal +divisions, exactly as in the others, but the stalk is very short and +very thick, the terminal divisions are very broad and flat, and one of +them is divided into two pieces. + +I may say, therefore, that the sixth segment is like the others in plan, +but that it is modified in its details. + +The first segment is like the others, so far as its ring is concerned, +and though its appendages differ from any of those yet examined in the +simplicity of their structure, parts corresponding with the stem and one +of the divisions of the appendages of the other segments can be readily +discerned in them. + +Thus it appears that the lobster's tail is composed of a series of +segments which are fundamentally similar, though each presents peculiar +modifications of the plan common to all. But when I turn to the forepart +of the body I see, at first, nothing but a great shield-like shell, +called technically the "carapace," ending in front in a sharp spine, on +either side of which are the curious compound eyes, set upon the ends of +stout movable stalks. Behind these, on the under side of the body, are +two pairs of long feelers, or antennae, followed by six pairs of jaws +folded against one another over the mouth, and five pairs of legs, the +foremost of these being the great pinchers, or claws, of the lobster. + +It looks, at first, a little hopeless to attempt to find in this complex +mass a series of rings, each with its pair of appendages, such as I have +shown you in the abdomen, and yet it is not difficult to demonstrate +their existence. Strip off the legs, and you will find that each pair is +attached to a very definite segment of the under wall of the body; but +these segments, instead of being the lower parts of free rings, as in +the tail, are such parts of rings which are all solidly united and +bound together; and the like is true of the jaws, the feelers, and the +eye-stalks, every pair of which is borne upon its own special segment. +Thus the conclusion is gradually forced upon us, that the body of the +lobster is composed of as many rings as there are pairs of appendages, +namely, twenty in all, but that the six hindmost rings remain free and +movable, while the fourteen front rings become firmly soldered together, +their backs forming one continuous shield--the carapace. + +Unity of plan, diversity in execution, is the lesson taught by the study +of the rings of the body, and the same instruction is given still more +emphatically by the appendages. If I examine the outermost jaw I find it +consists of three distinct portions, an inner, a middle, and an outer, +mounted upon a common stem; and if I compare this jaw with the legs +behind it, or the jaws in front of it, I find it quite easy to see, +that, in the legs, it is the part of the appendage which corresponds +with the inner division, which becomes modified into what we know +familiarly as the "leg," while the middle division disappears, and the +outer division is hidden under the carapace. Nor is it more difficult to +discern that, in the appendages of the tail, the middle division appears +again and the outer vanishes; while, on the other hand, in the foremost +jaw, the so-called mandible, the inner division only is left; and, in +the same way, the parts of the feelers and of the eye-stalks can be +identified with those of the legs and jaws. + +But whither does all this tend? To the very remarkable conclusion that +a unity of plan, of the same kind as that discoverable in the tail or +abdomen of the lobster, pervades the whole organization of its skeleton, +so that I can return to the diagram representing any one of the rings of +the tail, which I drew upon the board, and by adding a third division to +each appendage, I can use it as a sort of scheme or plan of any ring of +the body. I can give names to all the parts of that figure, and then if +I take any segment of the body of the lobster, I can point out to +you exactly, what modification the general plan has undergone in that +particular segment; what part has remained movable, and what has become +fixed to another; what has been excessively developed and metamorphosed +and what has been suppressed. + +But I imagine I hear the question, How is all this to be tested? No +doubt it is a pretty and ingenious way of looking at the structure of +any animal; but is it anything more? Does Nature acknowledge, in any +deeper way, this unity of plan we seem to trace? + +The objection suggested by these questions is a very valid and important +one, and morphology was in an unsound state so long as it rested upon +the mere perception of the analogies which obtain between fully formed +parts. The unchecked ingenuity of speculative anatomists proved itself +fully competent to spin any number of contradictory hypotheses out of +the same facts, and endless morphological dreams threatened to supplant +scientific theory. + +Happily, however, there is a criterion of morphological truth, and a +sure test of all homologies. Our lobster has not always been what we see +it; it was once an egg, a semifluid mass of yolk, not so big as a pin's +head, contained in a transparent membrane, and exhibiting not the least +trace of any one of those organs, whose multiplicity and complexity, in +the adult, are so surprising. After a time a delicate patch of cellular +membrane appeared upon one face of this yolk, and that patch was the +foundation of the whole creature, the clay out of which it would +be moulded. Gradually investing the yolk, it became subdivided by +transverse constrictions into segments, the forerunners of the rings of +the body. Upon the ventral surface of each of the rings thus sketched +out, a pair of bud-like prominences made their appearance--the rudiments +of the appendages of the ring. At first, all the appendages were alike, +but, as they grew, most of them became distinguished into a stem and two +terminal divisions, to which in the middle part of the body, was added +a third outer division; and it was only at a later period, that by the +modification, or absorption, of certain of these primitive constituents, +the limbs acquired their perfect form. + +Thus the study of development proves that the doctrine of unity of plan +is not merely a fancy, that it is not merely one way of looking at the +matter, but that it is the expression of deep-seated natural facts. The +legs and jaws of the lobster may not merely be regarded as modifications +of a common type,--in fact and in nature they are so,--the leg and the +jaw of the young animal being, at first, indistinguishable. + +These are wonderful truths, the more so because the zoologist finds +them to be of universal application. The investigation of a polype, of a +snail, of a fish, of a horse, or of a man, would have led us, though +by a less easy path, perhaps, to exactly the same point. Unity of plan +everywhere lies hidden under the mask of diversity of structure--the +complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple. Every animal has at +first the form of an egg, and every animal and every organic part, in +reaching its adult state, passes through conditions common to other +animals and other adult parts; and this leads me to another point. I +have hitherto spoken as if the lobster were alone in the world, but, as +I need hardly remind you, there are myriads of other animal organisms. +Of these, some, such as men, horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs, +oysters, corals, and sponges, are not in the least like the lobster. But +other animals, though they may differ a good deal from the lobster, are +yet either very like it, or are like something that is like it. The +cray fish, the rock lobster, and the prawn, and the shrimp, for example, +however different, are yet so like lobsters, that a child would group +them as of the lobster kind, in contradistinction to snails and +slugs; and these last again would form a kind by themselves, in +contradistinction to cows, horses, and sheep, the cattle kind. + +But this spontaneous grouping into "kinds" is the first essay of the +human mind at classification, or the calling by a common name of those +things that are alike, and the arranging them in such a manner as best +to suggest the sum of their likenesses and unlikenesses to other things. + +Those kinds which include no other subdivisions than the sexes, or +various breeds, are called, in technical language, species. The English +lobster is a species, our cray fish is another, our prawn is another. +In other countries, however, there are lobsters, cray fish, and prawns, +very like ours, and yet presenting sufficient differences to deserve +distinction. Naturalists, therefore, express this resemblance and this +diversity by grouping them as distinct species of the same "genus." But +the lobster and the cray fish, though belonging to distinct genera, have +many features in common, and hence are grouped together in an assemblage +which is called a family. More distant resemblances connect the lobster +with the prawn and the crab, which are expressed by putting all these +into the same order. Again, more remote, but still very definite, +resemblances unite the lobster with the woodlouse, the king crab, the +water flea, and the barnacle, and separate them from all other animals; +whence they collectively constitute the larger group, or class, +'Crustacea'. But the 'Crustacea' exhibit many peculiar features in +common with insects, spiders, and centipedes, so that these are grouped +into the still larger assemblage or "province" 'Articulata'; and, +finally, the relations which these have to worms and other lower +animals, are expressed by combining the whole vast aggregate into the +sub-kingdom of 'Annulosa'. + +If I had worked my way from a sponge instead of a lobster, I should have +found it associated, by like ties, with a great number of other animals +into the sub-kingdom 'Protozoa'; if I had selected a fresh-water +polype or a coral, the members of what naturalists term the sub-kingdom +'Coelenterata', would have grouped themselves around my type; had a +snail been chosen, the inhabitants of all univalve and bivalve, land and +water, shells, the lamp shells, the squids, and the sea-mat would have +gradually linked themselves on to it as members of the same sub-kingdom +of 'Mollusca'; and finally, starting from man, I should have been +compelled to admit first, the ape, the rat, the horse, the dog, into the +same class; and then the bird, the crocodile, the turtle, the frog, and +the fish, into the same sub-kingdom of 'Vertebrata'. + +And if I had followed out all these various lines of classification +fully, I should discover in the end that there was no animal, either +recent or fossil, which did not at once fall into one or other of these +sub-kingdoms. In other words, every animal is organized upon one +or other of the five, or more, plans, whose existence renders our +classification possible. And so definitely and precisely marked is the +structure of each animal, that, in the present state of our knowledge, +there is not the least evidence to prove that a form, in the slightest +degree transitional between any of the two groups 'Vertebrata', +'Annulosa', 'Mollusca', and 'Coelenterata', either exists, or has +existed, during that period of the earth's history which is recorded by +the geologist. Nevertheless, you must not for a moment suppose, +because no such transitional forms are known, that the members of the +sub-kingdoms are disconnected from, or independent of, one another. On +the contrary, in their earliest condition they are all alike, and the +primordial germs of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, a snail, and +a polype are, in no essential structural respects, distinguishable. + +In this broad sense, it may with truth be said, that all living animals, +and all those dead creations which geology reveals, are bound together +by an all-pervading unity of organization, of the same character, though +not equal in degree, to that which enables us to discern one and the +same plan amidst the twenty different segments of a lobster's body. +Truly it has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a +window through which the Infinite may be seen. + +Turning from these purely morphological considerations, let us now +examine into the manner in which the attentive study of the lobster +impels us into other lines of research. + +Lobsters are found in all the European seas; but on the opposite shores +of the Atlantic and in the seas of the southern hemisphere they do not +exist. They are, however, represented in these regions by very closely +allied, but distinct forms--the 'Homarus Americanus' and the 'Homarus +Capensis': so that we may say that the European has one species of +'Homarus'; the American, another; the African, another; and thus the +remarkable facts of geographical distribution begin to dawn upon us. + +Again, if we examine the contents of the earth's crust, we shall find +in the latter of those deposits, which have served as the great burying +grounds of past ages, numberless lobster-like animals, but none so +similar to our living lobster as to make zoologists sure that they +belonged even to the same genus. If we go still further back in time, +we discover, in the oldest rocks of all, the remains of animals, +constructed on the same general plan as the lobster, and belonging +to the same great group of 'Crustacea'; but for the most part totally +different from the lobster, and indeed from any other living form of +crustacean; and thus we gain a notion of that successive change of the +animal population of the globe, in past ages, which is the most striking +fact revealed by geology. + +Consider, now, where our inquiries have led us. 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. + +But you will observe one remarkable circumstance, that, up to this +point, the question of the life of these organisms has not come under +consideration. Morphology and distribution might be studied almost +as well, if animals and plants were a peculiar kind of crystals, and +possessed none of those functions which distinguish living beings so +remarkably. But the facts of morphology and distribution have to be +accounted for, and the science, whose aim it is to account for them, is +Physiology. + +Let us return to our lobster once more. If we watched the creature in +its native element, we should see it climbing actively the submerged +rocks, among which it delights to live, by means of its strong legs; or +swimming by powerful strokes of its great tail, the appendages of whose +sixth joint are spread out into a broad fan-like propeller: seize +it, and it will show you that its great claws are no mean weapons +of offence; suspend a piece of carrion among its haunts, and it will +greedily devour it, tearing and crushing the flesh by means of its +multitudinous jaws. + +Suppose that we had known nothing of the lobster but as an inert mass, +an organic crystal, if I may use the phrase, and that we could suddenly +see it exerting all these powers, what wonderful new ideas and new +questions would arise in our minds! The great new question would be, +"How does all this take place?" the chief new idea would be, the idea +of adaptation to purpose,--the notion, that the constituents of animal +bodies are not mere unconnected parts, but organs working together to +an end. Let us consider the tail of the lobster again from this point of +view. Morphology has taught us that it is a series of segments composed +of homologous parts, which undergo various modifications--beneath and +through which a common plan of formation is discernible. But if I look +at the same part physiologically, I see that it is a most beautifully +constructed organ of locomotion, by means of which the animal can +swiftly propel itself either backwards or forwards. + +But how is this remarkable propulsive machine made to perform its +functions? If I were suddenly to kill one of these animals and to take +out all the soft parts, I should find the shell to be perfectly +inert, to have no more power of moving itself than is possessed by +the machinery of a mill when disconnected from its steam-engine or +water-wheel. But if I were to open it, and take out the viscera only, +leaving the white flesh, I should perceive that the lobster could bend +and extend its tail as well as before. If I were to cut off the tail, I +should cease to find any spontaneous motion in it; but on pinching any +portion of the flesh, I should observe that it underwent a very +curious change--each fibre becoming shorter and thicker. By this act of +contraction, as it is termed, the parts to which the ends of the +fibre are attached are, of course, approximated; and according to the +relations of their points of attachment to the centres of motions of the +different rings, the bending or the extension of the tail results. Close +observation of the newly-opened lobster would soon show that all its +movements are due to the same cause--the shortening and thickening of +these fleshy fibres, which are technically called muscles. + +Here, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to +muscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and +not at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the +lobster wishes to extend his tail, and another group when he desires to +bend it? What is it originates, directs, and controls the motive power? + +Experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in +physical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the +lobster there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known +as nervous substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of +the lobster, directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these +communicating cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of +exerting what we call voluntary motion in the parts below the section +is destroyed; and on the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the +brain mass be destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost. +Whence the inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating these +motions resides in the brain, and is propagated along the nervous cords. + +In the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have +been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which resides +in the nerves has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance of the +electrical state of their molecules. + +If we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; +if we could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by +determining the quantity of electricity, or of heat, of which it is +the equivalent; if we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other +condition of the molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous +and muscular energies depends (and doubtless science will some day or +other ascertain these points), physiologists would have attained their +ultimate goal in this direction; they would have determined the relation +of the motive force of animals to the other forms of force found in +nature; and if the same process had been successfully performed for +all the operations which are carried on in, and by, the animal +frame, physiology would be perfect, and the facts of morphology and +distribution would be deducible from the laws which physiologists +had established, combined with those determining the condition of the +surrounding universe. + +There is not a fragment of the organism of this humble animal whose +study would not lead us into regions of thought as large as those which +I have briefly opened up to you; but what I have been saying, I trust, +has not only enabled you to form a conception of the scope and purport +of zoology, but has given you an imperfect example of the manner in +which, in my opinion, that science, or indeed any physical science, +may be best taught. The great matter is, to make teaching real and +practical, by fixing the attention of the student on particular facts; +but at the same time it should be rendered broad and comprehensive, by +constant reference to the generalizations of which all particular facts +are illustrations. The lobster has served as a type of the whole animal +kingdom, and its anatomy and physiology have illustrated for us some +of the greatest truths of biology. The student who has once seen for +himself the facts which I have described, has had their relations +explained to him, and has clearly comprehended them, has, so far, a +knowledge of zoology, which is real and genuine, however limited it may +be, and which is worth more than all the mere reading knowledge of the +science he could ever acquire. His zoological information is, so far, +knowledge and not mere hear-say. + +And if it were my business to fit you for the certificate in zoological +science granted by this department, I should pursue a course precisely +similar in principle to that which I have taken to-night. I should +select a fresh-water sponge, a fresh-water polype or a 'Cyanaea', a +fresh-water mussel, a lobster, a fowl, as types of the five primary +divisions of the animal kingdom. I should explain their structure very +fully, and show how each illustrated the great principles of zoology. +Having gone very carefully and fully over this ground, I should feel +that you had a safe foundation, and I should then take you in the same +way, but less minutely, over similarly selected illustrative types of +the classes; and then I should direct your attention to the special +forms enumerated under the head of types, in this syllabus, and to the +other facts there mentioned. + +That would, speaking generally, be my plan. But I have undertaken to +explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge +of zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and +precise account of the manner in which I should propose to furnish you +with the information I refer to. + +My own impression is, that the best model for all kinds of training in +physical science is that afforded by the method of teaching anatomy, +in use in the medical schools. This method consists of three +elements--lectures, demonstrations, and examinations. + +The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention +and excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may +be effected to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by +the personal influence of a respected teacher than in any other way. +Secondly, lectures have the double use of guiding the student to the +salient points of a subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend +to the whole of it, and not merely to that part which takes his fancy. +And lastly, lectures afford the student the opportunity of seeking +explanations of those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, +arise in the course of his studies. + +But for a student to derive the utmost possible value from lectures, +several precautions are needful. + +I have a strong impression that the better a discourse is, as an +oration, the worse it is as a lecture. The flow of the discourse carries +you on without proper attention to its sense; you drop a word or a +phrase, you lose the exact meaning for a moment, and while you strive to +recover yourself, the speaker has passed on to something else. + +The practice I have adopted of late years, in lecturing to students, +is to condense the substance of the hour's discourse into a few dry +propositions, which are read slowly and taken down from dictation; +the reading of each being followed by a free commentary expanding +and illustrating the proposition, explaining terms, and removing any +difficulties that may be attackable in that way, by diagrams made +roughly, and seen to grow under the lecturer's hand. In this manner you, +at any rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain extent. +He cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking of notes +is enforced; and a student must be preternaturally dull and mechanical, +if he can take notes and hear them properly explained, and yet learn +nothing. + +What books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to +the teacher. My reply usually is, "None: write your notes out carefully +and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me for the +explanation of anything you cannot understand; and I would rather you +did not distract your mind by reading." A properly composed course +of lectures ought to contain fully as much matter as a student can +assimilate in the time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher should +always recollect that his business is to feed, and not to cram the +intellect. Indeed, I believe that a student who gains from a course +of lectures the simple habit of concentrating his attention upon a +definitely limited series of facts, until they are thoroughly mastered, +has made a step of immeasurable importance. + +But, however good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of +reading by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the +great instrument of scientific teaching--demonstration. If I insist +unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science as +an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of science, +if properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by all other +means of education. I have the greatest respect and love for literature; +nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training other than +a very prominent branch of education: indeed, I wish that real literary +discipline were far more attended to than it is; but I cannot shut my +eyes to the fact, that there is a vast difference between men who +have had a purely literary, and those who have had a sound scientific, +training. + +Seeking for the cause of this difference, I imagine I can find it in the +fact that, in the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and +books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning +and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, +is the source of the latter. + +All that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by +practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate +when I say, that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by +these means. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific +education bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent +upon the extent to which the mind of the student is brought into +immediate contact with facts--upon the degree to which he learns the +habit of appealing directly to Nature, and of acquiring through his +senses concrete images of those properties of things, which are, and +always will be, but approximatively expressed in human language. Our +way of looking at Nature, and of speaking about her, varies from year +to year; but a fact once seen, a relation of cause and effect, once +demonstratively apprehended, are possessions which neither change nor +pass away, but, on the contrary, form fixed centres, about which other +truths aggregate by natural affinity. + +Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint +the fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words +upon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye, and ear, and +touch of the student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or +law enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular +structural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the +law, or the illustration of the term. + +Now this important operation can only be achieved by constant +demonstration, which may take place to a certain imperfect extent during +a lecture, but which ought also to be carried on independently, and +which should be addressed to each individual student, the teacher +endeavouring, not so much to show a thing to the learner, as to make him +see it for himself. + +I am well aware that there are great practical difficulties in the way +of effectual zoological demonstrations. The dissection of animals is not +altogether pleasant, and requires much time; nor is it easy to secure an +adequate supply of the needful specimens. The botanist has here a great +advantage; his specimens are easily obtained, are clean and wholesome, +and can be dissected in a private house as well as anywhere else; and +hence, I believe, the fact, that botany is so much more readily and +better taught than its sister science. But, be it difficult or be it +easy, if zoological science is to be properly studied, demonstration, +and, consequently, dissection, must be had. Without it, no man can have +a really sound knowledge of animal organization. + +A good deal may be done, however, without actual dissection on the +student's part, by demonstration upon specimens and preparations; and +in all probability it would not be very difficult, were the demand +sufficient, to organize collections of such objects, sufficient for all +the purposes of elementary teaching, at a comparatively cheap rate. Even +without these, much might be effected, if the zoological collections, +which are open to the public, were arranged according to what has been +termed the "typical principle"; that is to say, if the specimens exposed +to public view were so selected that the public could learn something +from them, instead of being, as at present, merely confused by their +multiplicity. For example, the grand ornithological gallery at the +British Museum contains between two and three thousand species of birds, +and sometimes five or six specimens of a species. They are very pretty +to look at, and some of the cases are, indeed, splendid; but I will +undertake to say, that no man but a professed ornithologist has ever +gathered much information from the collection. Certainly, no one of the +tens of thousands of the general public who have walked through that +gallery ever knew more about the essential peculiarities of birds when +he left the gallery than when he entered it. But if, somewhere in that +vast hall, there were a few preparations, exemplifying the leading +structural peculiarities and the mode of development of a common fowl; +if the types of the genera, the leading modifications in the skeleton, +in the plumage at various ages, in the mode of nidification, and the +like, among birds, were displayed; and if the other specimens were put +away in a place where the men of science, to whom they are alone useful, +could have free access to them, I can conceive that this collection +might become a great instrument of scientific education. + +The last implement of the teacher to which I have adverted is +examination--a means of education now so thoroughly understood that +I need hardly enlarge upon it. I hold that both written and oral +examinations are indispensable, and, by requiring the description of +specimens, they may be made to supplement demonstration. + +Such is the fullest reply the time at my disposal will allow me to give +to the question--how may a knowledge of zoology be best acquired and +communicated? + +But there is a previous question which may be moved, and which, in +fact, I know many are inclined to move. It is the question, why should +training masters be encouraged to acquire a knowledge of this, or +any other branch of physical science? What is the use, it is said, of +attempting to make physical science a branch of primary education? Is it +not probable that teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led astray +from the acquirement of more important but less attractive knowledge? +And, even if they can learn something of science without prejudice to +their usefulness, what is the good of their attempting to instil that +knowledge into boys whose real business is the acquisition of reading, +writing, and arithmetic? + +These questions are, and will be, very commonly asked, for they arise +from that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical +science, which infests the minds of the most highly educated and +intelligent classes of the community. But if I did not feel well assured +that they are capable of being easily and satisfactorily answered; that +they have been answered over and over again; and that the time will come +when men of liberal education will blush to raise such questions,--I +should be ashamed of my position here to-night. Without doubt, it +is your great and very important function to carry out elementary +education; without question, anything that should interfere with the +faithful fulfilment of that duty on your part would be a great evil; and +if I thought that your acquirement of the elements of physical science, +and your communication of those elements to your pupils, involved any +sort of interference with your proper duties, I should be the first +person to protest against your being encouraged to do anything of the +kind. + +But is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of science as +is proposed, and the communication of that knowledge, are calculated to +weaken your usefulness? Or may I not rather ask, is it possible for you +to discharge your functions properly without these aids? + +What is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend +that its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools +wherewith men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of +phenomena which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is to +inform them of the fundamental laws which have been found by experience +to govern the course of things, so that they may not be turned out +into the world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events they might +control. + +A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he +may have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever +be opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to +write, that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be +indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge +he acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics, that he may understand +all those relations of number and form, upon which the transactions of +men, associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he may +have some practice in deductive reasoning. + +All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, are +intellectual tools, whose use should, before all things, be learned, and +learned thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his life +that which it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in +wisdom. + +But, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a +certain equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws +of morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as +will tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they are, +and how they have become what they are. + +Without doubt all these are most fitting and excellent things to teach +a boy; I should be very sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of +primary intellectual education. The system is excellent, so far as it +goes. + +But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection arises. I suppose that, +fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen +was taught just these same things; reading and writing in his own, +and, perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and +the religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time. +Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming, that, if such +a Christian Roman boy, who had finished his education, could be +transplanted into one of our public schools, and pass through its course +of instruction, he would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of +thought; amidst all the new facts he would have to learn, not one would +suggest a different mode of regarding the universe from that current in +his own time. + +And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilization +of the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more between +the intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and this? + +And what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly--The prodigious +development of physical science within the last two centuries. + +Modern civilization rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to +our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the +world is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only, that makes +intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force. + +The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way +into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who +affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with +her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe +that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now +slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that +the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not +authority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is +creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and +physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of +an intelligent being. + +But of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note. +Physical science, its methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will +meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a +manner that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence of the +methods and facts of science as the day he was born. The modern world +is full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle in it, +equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. + +Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state +of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences will +cry shame on us. + +It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is, to make the +elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I +have endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of +science which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I +should look upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land +was a centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as +an epoch in the history of the country. + +But let me entreat you to remember my last words. Addressing myself to +you, as teachers, I would say, mere book learning in physical science is +a sham and a delusion--what you teach, unless you wish to be impostors, +that you must first know; and real knowledge in science means personal +acquaintance with the facts, be they few or many. [2] + + + +[Footnote 1: A Lecture delivered at the South Kensington Museum in +1861.] + +[Footnote 2: It has been suggested to me that these words may be +taken to imply a discouragement on my part of any sort of scientific +instruction which does not give an acquaintance with the facts at first +hand. But this is not my meaning. The ideal of scientific teaching is, +no doubt, a system by which the scholar sees every fact for himself, and +the teacher supplies only the explanations. Circumstances, however, do +not often allow of the attainment of that ideal, and we must put up +with the next best system--one in which the scholar takes a good deal on +trust from a teacher, who, knowing the facts by his own knowledge, can +describe them with so much vividness as to enable his audience to form +competent ideas concerning them. The system which I repudiate is that +which allows teachers who have not come into direct contact with the +leading facts of a science to pass their second-hand information on. +The scientific virus, like vaccine lymph, if passed through too long +a succession of organisms, will lose all its effect in protecting the +young against the intellectual epidemics to which they are exposed.] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's On the Study of Zoology, by Thomas H. Huxley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY *** + +***** This file should be named 2935.txt or 2935.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/2935/ + +Produced by Amy E. 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Huxley + + + + + [footnote] *A Lecture delivered at the South Kensington + Museum in 1861. + +NATURAL HISTORY is the name familiarly applied to the study of the +properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the +sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these +subjects are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinction to +other so-called "physical" sciences; and those who devote themselves +especially to the pursuit of such sciences have been and are commonly +termed "Naturalists." + +Linnaeus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his 'Systema Naturae' +was a work upon natural history, in the broadest acceptation of the +term; in it, that great methodising spirit embodied all that was known +in his time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, and +plants. But the enormous stimulus which Linnaeus gave to the +investigation of nature soon rendered it impossible that any one man +should write another 'Systema Naturae,' and extremely difficult for any +one to become even a naturalist such as Linnaeus was. + +Great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of +science, of old included under the title of natural history, there can +be no doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater +ratio than mineralogy; and hence, as I suppose, the name of "natural +history" has gradually become more and more definitely attached to these +prominent divisions of the subject, and by "naturalist" people have +meant more and more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and +function of living beings. + +However this may be, it is certain that the advance of knowledge has +gradually widened the distance between mineralogy and its old +associates, while it has drawn zoology and botany closer together; so +that of late years it has been found convenient (and indeed necessary) +to associate the sciences which deal with vitality and all its +phenomena under the common head of "biology"; and the biologists have +come to repudiate any blood-relationship with their foster-brothers, +the mineralogists. + +Certain broad laws have a general application throughout both the animal +and the vegetable worlds, but the ground common to these kingdoms of +nature is not of very wide extent, and the multiplicity of details is +so great, that the student of living beings finds himself obliged to +devote his attention exclusively either to the one or the other. If he +elects to study plants, under any aspect, we know at once what to call +him. He is a botanist, and his science is botany. But if the +investigation of animal life be his choice, the name generally applied +to him will vary according to the kind of animals he studies, or the +particular phenomena of animal life to which he confines his +attention. If the study of man is his object, he is called an +anatomist, or a physiologist, or an ethnologist; but if he dissects +animals, or examines into the mode in which their functions are +performed, he is a comparative anatomist or comparative physiologist. +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. + +Employed in this sense, zoology, like botany, is divisible into three +great but subordinate sciences, morphology, physiology, and +distribution, each of which may, to a very great extent, be studied +independently of the other. + +Zoological morphology is the doctrine of animal form or structure. +Anatomy is one of its branches; development is another; while +classification is the expression of the relations which different +animals bear to one another, in respect of their anatomy and their +development. + +Zoological distribution is the study of animals in relation to the +terrestrial conditions which obtain now, or have obtained at any +previous epoch of the earth's history. + +Zoological physiology, lastly, is the doctrine of the functions or +actions of animals. It regards animal bodies as machines impelled by +certain forces, and performing an amount of work which can be expressed +in terms of the ordinary forces of nature. The final object of +physiology is to deduce the facts of morphology, on the one hand, and +those of distribution on the other, from the laws of the molecular +forces of matter. + +Such is the scope of zoology. But if I were to content myself with the +enunciation of these dry definitions, I should ill exemplify that +method of teaching this branch of physical science, which it is my +chief business to-night to recommend. Let us turn away then from +abstract definitions. Let us take some concrete living thing, some +animal, the commoner the better, and let us see how the application of +common sense and common logic to the obvious facts it presents, +inevitably leads us into all these branches of zoological science. + +I have before me a lobster. When I examine it, what appears to be the +most striking character it presents? Why, I observe that this part +which we call the tail of the lobster, is made up of six distinct hard +rings and a seventh terminal piece. If I separate one of the middle +rings, say the third, I find it carries upon its under surface a pair +of limbs or appendages, each of which consists of a stalk and two +terminal pieces. So that I can represent a transverse section of the +ring and its appendages upon the diagram board in this way. + +If I now take the fourth ring, I find it has the same structure, and so +have the fifth and the second; so that, in each of these divisions of +the tail, I find parts which correspond with one another, a ring and +two appendages; and in each appendage a stalk and two end pieces. +These corresponding parts are called, in the technical language of +anatomy, "homologous parts." The ring of the third division is the +"homologue" of the ring of the fifth, the appendage of the former is +the homologue of the appendage of the latter. And, as each division +exhibits corresponding parts in corresponding places, we say that all +the divisions are constructed upon the same plan. But now let us +consider the sixth division. It is similar to, and yet different from, +the others. The ring is essentially the same as in the other divisions; +but the appendages look at first as if they were very different; and +yet when we regard them closely, what do we find? A stalk and two +terminal divisions, exactly as in the others, but the stalk is very +short and very thick, the terminal divisions are very broad and flat, +and one of them is divided into two pieces. + +I may say, therefore, that the sixth segment is like the others in plan, +but that it is modified in its details. + +The first segment is like the others, so far as its ring is concerned, +and though its appendages differ from any of those yet examined in the +simplicity of their structure, parts corresponding with the stem and +one of the divisions of the appendages of the other segments can be +readily discerned in them. + +Thus it appears that the lobster's tail is composed of a series of +segments which are fundamentally similar, though each presents peculiar +modifications of the plan common to all. But when I turn to the +forepart of the body I see, at first, nothing but a great shield-like +shell, called technically the "carapace," ending in front in a sharp +spine, on either side of which are the curious compound eyes, set upon +the ends of stout movable stalks. Behind these, on the under side of +the body, are two pairs of long feelers, or antennae, followed by six +pairs of jaws folded against one another over the mouth, and five pairs +of legs, the foremost of these being the great pinchers, or claws, of +the lobster. + +It looks, at first, a little hopeless to attempt to find in this complex +mass a series of rings, each with its pair of appendages, such as I +have shown you in the abdomen, and yet it is not difficult to +demonstrate their existence. Strip off the legs, and you will find that +each pair is attached to a very definite segment of the under wall of +the body; but these segments, instead of being the lower parts of free +rings, as in the tail, are such parts of rings which are all solidly +united and bound together; and the like is true of the jaws, the +feelers, and the eye-stalks, every pair of which is borne upon its own +special segment. Thus the conclusion is gradually forced upon us, that +the body of the lobster is composed of as many rings as there are pairs +of appendages, namely, twenty in all, but that the six hindmost rings +remain free and movable, while the fourteen front rings become firmly +soldered together, their backs forming one continuous shield--the +carapace. + +Unity of plan, diversity in execution, is the lesson taught by the study +of the rings of the body, and the same instruction is given still more +emphatically by the appendages. If I examine the outermost jaw I find +it consists of three distinct portions, an inner, a middle, and an +outer, mounted upon a common stem; and if I compare this jaw with the +legs behind it, or the jaws in front of it, I find it quite easy to +see, that, in the legs, it is the part of the appendage which +corresponds with the inner division, which becomes modified into what we +know familiarly as the "leg," while the middle division disappears, and +the outer division is hidden under the carapace. Nor is it more +difficult to discern that, in the appendages of the tail, the middle +division appears again and the outer vanishes; while, on the other hand, +in the foremost jaw, the so-called mandible, the inner division only is +left; and, in the same way, the parts of the feelers and of the +eye-stalks can be identified with those of the legs and jaws. + +But whither does all this tend? To the very remarkable conclusion that +a unity of plan, of the same kind as that discoverable in the tail or +abdomen of the lobster, pervades the whole organization of its +skeleton, so that I can return to the diagram representing any one of +the rings of the tail, which I drew upon the board, and by adding a +third division to each appendage, I can use it as a sort of scheme or +plan of any ring of the body. I can give names to all the parts of +that figure, and then if I take any segment of the body of the lobster, +I can point out to you exactly, what modification the general plan has +undergone in that particular segment; what part has remained movable, +and what has become fixed to another; what has been excessively +developed and metamorphosed and what has been suppressed. + +But I imagine I hear the question, How is all this to be tested? No +doubt it is a pretty and ingenious way of looking at the structure of +any animal; but is it anything more? Does Nature acknowledge, in any +deeper way, this unity of plan we seem to trace? + +The objection suggested by these questions is a very valid and important +one, and morphology was in an unsound state so long as it rested upon +the mere perception of the analogies which obtain between fully formed +parts. The unchecked ingenuity of speculative anatomists proved itself +fully competent to spin any number of contradictory hypotheses out of +the same facts, and endless morphological dreams threatened to supplant +scientific theory. + +Happily, however, there is a criterion of morphological truth, and a +sure test of all homologies. Our lobster has not always been what we +see it; it was once an egg, a semifluid mass of yolk, not so big as a +pin's head, contained in a transparent membrane, and exhibiting not the +least trace of any one of those organs, whose multiplicity and +complexity, in the adult, are so surprising. After a time a delicate +patch of cellular membrane appeared upon one face of this yolk, and +that patch was the foundation of the whole creature, the clay out of +which it would be moulded. Gradually investing the yolk, it became +subdivided by transverse constrictions into segments, the forerunners +of the rings of the body. Upon the ventral surface of each of the +rings thus sketched out, a pair of bud-like prominences made their +appearance--the rudiments of the appendages of the ring. At first, all +the appendages were alike, but, as they grew, most of them became +distinguished into a stem and two terminal divisions, to which in the +middle part of the body, was added a third outer division; and it was +only at a later period, that by the modification, or absorption, of +certain of these primitive constituents, the limbs acquired their +perfect form. + +Thus the study of development proves that the doctrine of unity of plan +is not merely a fancy, that it is not merely one way of looking at the +matter, but that it is the expression of deep-seated natural facts. The +legs and jaws of the lobster may not merely be regarded as +modifications of a common type,--in fact and in nature they are so,--the +leg and the jaw of the young animal being, at first, indistinguishable. + +These are wonderful truths, the more so because the zoologist finds them +to be of universal application. The investigation of a polype, of a +snail, of a fish, of a horse, or of a man, would have led us, though by +a less easy path, perhaps, to exactly the same point. Unity of plan +everywhere lies hidden under the mask of diversity of structure--the +complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple. Every animal has at +first the form of an egg, and every animal and every organic part, in +reaching its adult state, passes through conditions common to other +animals and other adult parts; and this leads me to another point. I +have hitherto spoken as if the lobster were alone in the world, but, as +I need hardly remind you, there are myriads of other animal organisms. +Of these, some, such as men, horses, birds, fishes, snails, slugs, +oysters, corals, and sponges, are not in the least like the lobster. +But other animals, though they may differ a good deal from the lobster, +are yet either very like it, or are like something that is like it. The +cray fish, the rock lobster, and the prawn, and the shrimp, for +example, however different, are yet so like lobsters, that a child +would group them as of the lobster kind, in contradistinction to snails +and slugs; and these last again would form a kind by themselves, in +contradistinction to cows, horses, and sheep, the cattle kind. + +But this spontaneous grouping into "kinds" is the first essay of the +human mind at classification, or the calling by a common name of those +things that are alike, and the arranging them in such a manner as best +to suggest the sum of their likenesses and unlikenesses to other +things. + +Those kinds which include no other subdivisions than the sexes, or +various breeds, are called, in technical language, species. The +English lobster is a species, our cray fish is another, our prawn is +another. In other countries, however, there are lobsters, cray fish, +and prawns, very like ours, and yet presenting sufficient differences +to deserve distinction. Naturalists, therefore, express this +resemblance and this diversity by grouping them as distinct species of +the same "genus." But the lobster and the cray fish, though belonging +to distinct genera, have many features in common, and hence are grouped +together in an assemblage which is called a family. More distant +resemblances connect the lobster with the prawn and the crab, which are +expressed by putting all these into the same order. Again, more remote, +but still very definite, resemblances unite the lobster with the +woodlouse, the king crab, the water flea, and the barnacle, and +separate them from all other animals; whence they collectively +constitute the larger group, or class, 'Crustacea'. But the +'Crustacea' exhibit many peculiar features in common with insects, +spiders, and centipedes, so that these are grouped into the still +larger assemblage or "province" 'Articulata'; and, finally, the +relations which these have to worms and other lower animals, are +expressed by combining the whole vast aggregate into the sub-kingdom of +'Annulosa'. + +If I had worked my way from a sponge instead of a lobster, I should have +found it associated, by like ties, with a great number of other animals +into the sub-kingdom 'Protozoa'; if I had selected a fresh-water polype +or a coral, the members of what naturalists term the sub-kingdom +'Coelenterata', would have grouped themselves around my type; had a +snail been chosen, the inhabitants of all univalve and bivalve, land +and water, shells, the lamp shells, the squids, and the sea-mat would +have gradually linked themselves on to it as members of the same +sub-kingdom of 'Mollusca'; and finally, starting from man, I should have +been compelled to admit first, the ape, the rat, the horse, the dog, +into the same class; and then the bird, the crocodile, the turtle, the +frog, and the fish, into the same sub-kingdom of 'Vertebrata'. + +And if I had followed out all these various lines of classification +fully, I should discover in the end that there was no animal, either +recent or fossil, which did not at once fall into one or other of these +sub-kingdoms. In other words, every animal is organized upon one or +other of the five, or more, plans, whose existence renders our +classification possible. And so definitely and precisely marked is the +structure of each animal, that, in the present state of our knowledge, +there is not the least evidence to prove that a form, in the slightest +degree transitional between any of the two groups 'Vertebrata', +'Annulosa', 'Mollusca', and 'Coelenterata', either exists, or has +existed, during that period of the earth's history which is recorded by +the geologist. Nevertheless, you must not for a moment suppose, because +no such transitional forms are known, that the members of the +sub-kingdoms are disconnected from, or independent of, one another. On +the contrary, in their earliest condition they are all alike, and the +primordial germs of a man, a dog, a bird, a fish, a beetle, a snail, and +a polype are, in no essential structural respects, distinguishable. + +In this broad sense, it may with truth be said, that all living animals, +and all those dead creations which geology reveals, are bound together +by an all-pervading unity of organization, of the same character, +though not equal in degree, to that which enables us to discern one and +the same plan amidst the twenty different segments of a lobster's body. +Truly it has been said, that to a clear eye the smallest fact is a +window through which the Infinite may be seen. + +Turning from these purely morphological considerations, let us now +examine into the manner in which the attentive study of the lobster +impels us into other lines of research. + +Lobsters are found in all the European seas; but on the opposite shores +of the Atlantic and in the seas of the southern hemisphere they do not +exist. They are, however, represented in these regions by very closely +allied, but distinct forms--the 'Homarus Americanus' and the 'Homarus +Capensis': so that we may say that the European has one species of +'Homarus'; the American, another; the African, another; and thus the +remarkable facts of geographical distribution begin to dawn upon us. + +Again, if we examine the contents of the earth's crust, we shall find in +the latter of those deposits, which have served as the great burying +grounds of past ages, numberless lobster-like animals, but none so +similar to our living lobster as to make zoologists sure that they +belonged even to the same genus. If we go still further back in time, +we discover, in the oldest rocks of all, the remains of animals, +constructed on the same general plan as the lobster, and belonging to +the same great group of 'Crustacea'; but for the most part totally +different from the lobster, and indeed from any other living form of +crustacean; and thus we gain a notion of that successive change of the +animal population of the globe, in past ages, which is the most +striking fact revealed by geology. + +Consider, now, where our inquiries have led us. 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. + +But you will observe one remarkable circumstance, that, up to this +point, the question of the life of these organisms has not come under +consideration. Morphology and distribution might be studied almost as +well, if animals and plants were a peculiar kind of crystals, and +possessed none of those functions which distinguish living beings so +remarkably. But the facts of morphology and distribution have to be +accounted for, and the science, whose aim it is to account for them, is +Physiology. + +Let us return to our lobster once more. If we watched the creature in +its native element, we should see it climbing actively the submerged +rocks, among which it delights to live, by means of its strong legs; or +swimming by powerful strokes of its great tail, the appendages of whose +sixth joint are spread out into a broad fan-like propeller: seize it, +and it will show you that its great claws are no mean weapons of +offence; suspend a piece of carrion among its haunts, and it will +greedily devour it, tearing and crushing the flesh by means of its +multitudinous jaws. + +Suppose that we had known nothing of the lobster but as an inert mass, +an organic crystal, if I may use the phrase, and that we could suddenly +see it exerting all these powers, what wonderful new ideas and new +questions would arise in our minds! The great new question would be, +"How does all this take place?" the chief new idea would be, the idea +of adaptation to purpose,--the notion, that the constituents of animal +bodies are not mere unconnected parts, but organs working together to +an end. Let us consider the tail of the lobster again from this point +of view. Morphology has taught us that it is a series of segments +composed of homologous parts, which undergo various +modifications--beneath and through which a common plan of formation is +discernible. But if I look at the same part physiologically, I see +that it is a most beautifully constructed organ of locomotion, by means +of which the animal can swiftly propel itself either backwards or +forwards. + +But how is this remarkable propulsive machine made to perform its +functions? If I were suddenly to kill one of these animals and to take +out all the soft parts, I should find the shell to be perfectly inert, +to have no more power of moving itself than is possessed by the +machinery of a mill when disconnected from its steam-engine or +water-wheel. But if I were to open it, and take out the viscera only, +leaving the white flesh, I should perceive that the lobster could bend +and extend its tail as well as before. If I were to cut off the tail, I +should cease to find any spontaneous motion in it; but on pinching any +portion of the flesh, I should observe that it underwent a very curious +change--each fibre becoming shorter and thicker. By this act of +contraction, as it is termed, the parts to which the ends of the fibre +are attached are, of course, approximated; and according to the +relations of their points of attachment to the centres of motions of +the different rings, the bending or the extension of the tail results. +Close observation of the newly-opened lobster would soon show that all +its movements are due to the same cause--the shortening and thickening +of these fleshy fibres, which are technically called muscles. + +Here, then, is a capital fact. The movements of the lobster are due to +muscular contractility. But why does a muscle contract at one time and +not at another? Why does one whole group of muscles contract when the +lobster wishes to extend his tail, and another group when he desires to +bend it? What is it originates, directs, and controls the motive +power? + +Experiment, the great instrument for the ascertainment of truth in +physical science, answers this question for us. In the head of the +lobster there lies a small mass of that peculiar tissue which is known +as nervous substance. Cords of similar matter connect this brain of +the lobster, directly or indirectly, with the muscles. Now, if these +communicating cords are cut, the brain remaining entire, the power of +exerting what we call voluntary motion in the parts below the section +is destroyed; and on the other hand, if, the cords remaining entire, the +brain mass be destroyed, the same voluntary mobility is equally lost. +Whence the inevitable conclusion is, that the power of originating +these motions resides in the brain, and is propagated along the nervous +cords. + +In the higher animals the phenomena which attend this transmission have +been investigated, and the exertion of the peculiar energy which +resides in the nerves has been found to be accompanied by a disturbance +of the electrical state of their molecules. + +If we could exactly estimate the signification of this disturbance; if +we could obtain the value of a given exertion of nerve force by +determining the quantity of electricity, or of heat, of which it is the +equivalent; if we could ascertain upon what arrangement, or other +condition of the molecules of matter, the manifestation of the nervous +and muscular energies depends (and doubtless science will some day or +other ascertain these points), physiologists would have attained their +ultimate goal in this direction; they would have determined the relation +of the motive force of animals to the other forms of force found in +nature; and if the same process had been successfully performed for all +the operations which are carried on in, and by, the animal frame, +physiology would be perfect, and the facts of morphology and +distribution would be deducible from the laws which physiologists had +established, combined with those determining the condition of the +surrounding universe. + +There is not a fragment of the organism of this humble animal whose +study would not lead us into regions of thought as large as those which +I have briefly opened up to you; but what I have been saying, I trust, +has not only enabled you to form a conception of the scope and purport +of zoology, but has given you an imperfect example of the manner in +which, in my opinion, that science, or indeed any physical science, may +be best taught. The great matter is, to make teaching real and +practical, by fixing the attention of the student on particular facts; +but at the same time it should be rendered broad and comprehensive, by +constant reference to the generalizations of which all particular facts +are illustrations. The lobster has served as a type of the whole +animal kingdom, and its anatomy and physiology have illustrated for us +some of the greatest truths of biology. The student who has once seen +for himself the facts which I have described, has had their relations +explained to him, and has clearly comprehended them, has, so far, a +knowledge of zoology, which is real and genuine, however limited it may +be, and which is worth more than all the mere reading knowledge of the +science he could ever acquire. His zoological information is, so far, +knowledge and not mere hear-say. + +And if it were my business to fit you for the certificate in zoological +science granted by this department, I should pursue a course precisely +similar in principle to that which I have taken to-night. I should +select a fresh-water sponge, a fresh-water polype or a 'Cyanaea', a +fresh-water mussel, a lobster, a fowl, as types of the five primary +divisions of the animal kingdom. I should explain their structure very +fully, and show how each illustrated the great principles of zoology. +Having gone very carefully and fully over this ground, I should feel +that you had a safe foundation, and I should then take you in the same +way, but less minutely, over similarly selected illustrative types of +the classes; and then I should direct your attention to the special +forms enumerated under the head of types, in this syllabus, and to the +other facts there mentioned. + +That would, speaking generally, be my plan. But I have undertaken to +explain to you the best mode of acquiring and communicating a knowledge +of zoology, and you may therefore fairly ask me for a more detailed and +precise account of the manner in which I should propose to furnish you +with the information I refer to. + +My own impression is, that the best model for all kinds of training in +physical science is that afforded by the method of teaching anatomy, in +use in the medical schools. This method consists of three +elements--lectures, demonstrations, and examinations. + +The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the attention +and excite the enthusiasm of the student; and this, I am sure, may be +effected to a far greater extent by the oral discourse and by the +personal influence of a respected teacher than in any other way. +Secondly, lectures have the double use of guiding the student to the +salient points of a subject, and at the same time forcing him to attend +to the whole of it, and not merely to that part which takes his fancy. +And lastly, lectures afford the student the opportunity of seeking +explanations of those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, +arise in the course of his studies. + +But for a student to derive the utmost possible value from lectures, +several precautions are needful. + +I have a strong impression that the better a discourse is, as an +oration, the worse it is as a lecture. The flow of the discourse +carries you on without proper attention to its sense; you drop a word +or a phrase, you lose the exact meaning for a moment, and while you +strive to recover yourself, the speaker has passed on to something +else. + +The practice I have adopted of late years, in lecturing to students, is +to condense the substance of the hour's discourse into a few dry +propositions, which are read slowly and taken down from dictation; the +reading of each being followed by a free commentary expanding and +illustrating the proposition, explaining terms, and removing any +difficulties that may be attackable in that way, by diagrams made +roughly, and seen to grow under the lecturer's hand. In this manner +you, at any rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain +extent. He cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking +of notes is enforced; and a student must be preternaturally dull and +mechanical, if he can take notes and hear them properly explained, and +yet learn nothing. + +What books shall I read? is a question constantly put by the student to +the teacher. My reply usually is, "None: write your notes out +carefully and fully; strive to understand them thoroughly; come to me +for the explanation of anything you cannot understand; and I would +rather you did not distract your mind by reading." A properly composed +course of lectures ought to contain fully as much matter as a student +can assimilate in the time occupied by its delivery; and the teacher +should always recollect that his business is to feed, and not to cram +the intellect. Indeed, I believe that a student who gains from a course +of lectures the simple habit of concentrating his attention upon a +definitely limited series of facts, until they are thoroughly mastered, +has made a step of immeasurable importance. + +But, however good lectures may be, and however extensive the course of +reading by which they are followed up, they are but accessories to the +great instrument of scientific teaching--demonstration. If I insist +unweariedly, nay fanatically, upon the importance of physical science +as an educational agent, it is because the study of any branch of +science, if properly conducted, appears to me to fill up a void left by +all other means of education. I have the greatest respect and love for +literature; nothing would grieve me more than to see literary training +other than a very prominent branch of education: indeed, I wish that +real literary discipline were far more attended to than it is; but I +cannot shut my eyes to the fact, that there is a vast difference +between men who have had a purely literary, and those who have had a +sound scientific, training. + +Seeking for the cause of this difference, I imagine I can find it in the +fact that, in the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and +books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning +and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, +is the source of the latter. + +All that literature has to bestow may be obtained by reading and by +practical exercise in writing and in speaking; but I do not exaggerate +when I say, that none of the best gifts of science are to be won by +these means. On the contrary, the great benefit which a scientific +education bestows, whether as training or as knowledge, is dependent +upon the extent to which the mind of the student is brought into +immediate contact with facts--upon the degree to which he learns the +habit of appealing directly to Nature, and of acquiring through his +senses concrete images of those properties of things, which are, and +always will be, but approximatively expressed in human language. Our +way of looking at Nature, and of speaking about her, varies from year +to year; but a fact once seen, a relation of cause and effect, once +demonstratively apprehended, are possessions which neither change nor +pass away, but, on the contrary, form fixed centres, about which other +truths aggregate by natural affinity. + +Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint +the fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words +upon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye, and ear, and +touch of the student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or +law enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular +structural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the +law, or the illustration of the term. + +Now this important operation can only be achieved by constant +demonstration, which may take place to a certain imperfect extent +during a lecture, but which ought also to be carried on independently, +and which should be addressed to each individual student, the teacher +endeavouring, not so much to show a thing to the learner, as to make him +see it for himself. + +I am well aware that there are great practical difficulties in the way +of effectual zoological demonstrations. The dissection of animals is +not altogether pleasant, and requires much time; nor is it easy to +secure an adequate supply of the needful specimens. The botanist has +here a great advantage; his specimens are easily obtained, are clean +and wholesome, and can be dissected in a private house as well as +anywhere else; and hence, I believe, the fact, that botany is so much +more readily and better taught than its sister science. But, be it +difficult or be it easy, if zoological science is to be properly +studied, demonstration, and, consequently, dissection, must be had. +Without it, no man can have a really sound knowledge of animal +organization. + +A good deal may be done, however, without actual dissection on the +student's part, by demonstration upon specimens and preparations; and +in all probability it would not be very difficult, were the demand +sufficient, to organize collections of such objects, sufficient for all +the purposes of elementary teaching, at a comparatively cheap rate. +Even without these, much might be effected, if the zoological +collections, which are open to the public, were arranged according to +what has been termed the "typical principle"; that is to say, if the +specimens exposed to public view were so selected that the public could +learn something from them, instead of being, as at present, merely +confused by their multiplicity. For example, the grand ornithological +gallery at the British Museum contains between two and three thousand +species of birds, and sometimes five or six specimens of a species. +They are very pretty to look at, and some of the cases are, indeed, +splendid; but I will undertake to say, that no man but a professed +ornithologist has ever gathered much information from the collection. +Certainly, no one of the tens of thousands of the general public who +have walked through that gallery ever knew more about the essential +peculiarities of birds when he left the gallery than when he entered +it. But if, somewhere in that vast hall, there were a few preparations, +exemplifying the leading structural peculiarities and the mode of +development of a common fowl; if the types of the genera, the leading +modifications in the skeleton, in the plumage at various ages, in the +mode of nidification, and the like, among birds, were displayed; and if +the other specimens were put away in a place where the men of science, +to whom they are alone useful, could have free access to them, I can +conceive that this collection might become a great instrument of +scientific education. + +The last implement of the teacher to which I have adverted is +examination--a means of education now so thoroughly understood that I +need hardly enlarge upon it. I hold that both written and oral +examinations are indispensable, and, by requiring the description of +specimens, they may be made to supplement demonstration. + +Such is the fullest reply the time at my disposal will allow me to give +to the question--how may a knowledge of zoology be best acquired and +communicated? + +But there is a previous question which may be moved, and which, in fact, +I know many are inclined to move. It is the question, why should +training masters be encouraged to acquire a knowledge of this, or any +other branch of physical science? What is the use, it is said, of +attempting to make physical science a branch of primary education? Is +it not probable that teachers, in pursuing such studies, will be led +astray from the acquirement of more important but less attractive +knowledge? And, even if they can learn something of science without +prejudice to their usefulness, what is the good of their attempting to +instil that knowledge into boys whose real business is the acquisition +of reading, writing, and arithmetic? + +These questions are, and will be, very commonly asked, for they arise +from that profound ignorance of the value and true position of physical +science, which infests the minds of the most highly educated and +intelligent classes of the community. But if I did not feel well +assured that they are capable of being easily and satisfactorily +answered; that they have been answered over and over again; and that +the time will come when men of liberal education will blush to raise +such questions,--I should be ashamed of my position here to-night. +Without doubt, it is your great and very important function to carry +out elementary education; without question, anything that should +interfere with the faithful fulfilment of that duty on your part would +be a great evil; and if I thought that your acquirement of the elements +of physical science, and your communication of those elements to your +pupils, involved any sort of interference with your proper duties, I +should be the first person to protest against your being encouraged to +do anything of the kind. + +But is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of science as is +proposed, and the communication of that knowledge, are calculated to +weaken your usefulness? Or may I not rather ask, is it possible for +you to discharge your functions properly without these aids? + +What is the purpose of primary intellectual education? I apprehend that +its first object is to train the young in the use of those tools +wherewith men extract knowledge from the ever-shifting succession of +phenomena which pass before their eyes; and that its second object is +to inform them of the fundamental laws which have been found by +experience to govern the course of things, so that they may not be +turned out into the world naked, defenceless, and a prey to the events +they might control. + +A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in order that he +may have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge than could ever +be opened to him by oral intercourse with his fellow men; he learns to +write, that his means of communication with the rest of mankind may be +indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store up the knowledge +he acquires. He is taught elementary mathematics, that he may +understand all those relations of number and form, upon which the +transactions of men, associated in complicated societies, are built, +and that he may have some practice in deductive reasoning. + +All these operations of reading, writing, and ciphering, are +intellectual tools, whose use should, before all things, be learned, +and learned thoroughly; so that the youth may be enabled to make his +life that which it ought to be, a continual progress in learning and in +wisdom. + +But, in addition, primary education endeavours to fit a boy out with a +certain equipment of positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws +of morality; the religion of his sect; so much history and geography as +will tell him where the great countries of the world are, what they +are, and how they have become what they are. + +Without doubt all these are most fitting and excellent things to teach a +boy; I should be very sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of +primary intellectual education. The system is excellent, so far as it +goes. + +But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection arises. I suppose +that, fifteen hundred years ago, the child of any well-to-do Roman +citizen was taught just these same things; reading and writing in his +own, and, perhaps, the Greek tongue; the elements of mathematics; and +the religion, morality, history, and geography current in his time. +Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming, that, if such a +Christian Roman boy, who had finished his education, could be +transplanted into one of our public schools, and pass through its course +of instruction, he would not meet with a single unfamiliar line of +thought; amidst all the new facts he would have to learn, not one would +suggest a different mode of regarding the universe from that current in +his own time. + +And yet surely there is some great difference between the civilization +of the fourth century and that of the nineteenth, and still more +between the intellectual habits and tone of thought of that day and +this? + +And what has made this difference? I answer fearlessly--The prodigious +development of physical science within the last two centuries. + +Modern civilization rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to +our own country, and our position among the leading nations of the +world is gone to-morrow; for it is physical science only, that makes +intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force. + +The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way +into the works of our best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who +affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated +with her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I +believe that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen +is now slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world +that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and +not authority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she +is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral +and physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible +aim of an intelligent being. + +But of all this your old stereotyped system of education takes no note. +Physical science, its methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will +meet the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a +manner that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence of +the methods and facts of science as the day he was born. The modern +world is full of artillery; and we turn out our children to do battle +in it, equipped with the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. + +Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy this deplorable state +of things. Nay, if we live twenty years longer, our own consciences +will cry shame on us. + +It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy it is, to make the +elements of physical science an integral part of primary education. I +have endeavoured to show you how that may be done for that branch of +science which it is my business to pursue; and I can but add, that I +should look upon the day when every schoolmaster throughout this land +was a centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as +an epoch in the history of the country. + +But let me entreat you to remember my last words. Addressing myself to +you, as teachers, I would say, mere book learning in physical science +is a sham and a delusion--what you teach, unless you wish to be +impostors, that you must first know; and real knowledge in science +means personal acquaintance with the facts, be they few or many.* + + [footnote] *It has been suggested to me that these words may + be taken to imply a discouragement on my part of any sort + of scientific instruction which does not give an + acquaintance with the facts at first hand. But this is not + my meaning. The ideal of scientific teaching is, no doubt, + a system by which the scholar sees every fact for himself, + and the teacher supplies only the explanations. + Circumstances, however, do not often allow of the + attainment of that ideal, and we must put up with the next + best system--one in which the scholar takes a good deal on + trust from a teacher, who, knowing the facts by his own + knowledge, can describe them with so much vividness as to + enable his audience to form competent ideas concerning + them. The system which I repudiate is that which allows + teachers who have not come into direct contact with the + leading facts of a science to pass their second-hand + information on. The scientific virus, like vaccine lymph, + if passed through too long a succession of organisms, will + lose all its effect in protecting the young against the + intellectual epidemics to which they are exposed. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext On the Study of Zoology, by T. H. 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