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Show X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. every thing? By what name shall we speak of the Velella, which figures there twice among the Medusre and once among the Holothurire? How are we to bring together the Biphorre; some of which are called there Dagysre, the greater number Salpre, and several placed among the Holothurire.. . In order, therefore, completely to attain the obJect, It was not sufficient to review the species-it was necessary to review their synonymes, or in other words to remodel the sys· tern of animals. Such an enterprise, from the prodigious development of the science in late years, c.ould not have been executed com· pletely by any one individual, even supposing him to have no other employment and to live the longest possible term of years ; had I been constrained to depend upon myself alone, I should not have been able to prepare even the simple sketch I now give; but the resources of my position seemed to me to supply what I wanted both of time and talent. Living in the midst of so many able naturalists-drawing from their worlcs as fast as they appeared-enjoying the use of their collec· tions as freely as themselves-and having formed a very con· siderable one myself especially appropriated to my object; a great portion of my labour consisted merely in the employment of so many rich materials. It was not possible, for in. stance, that much remained for me to do on shells studied by M. de Lamarck, or on quadrupeds described by M. Geoffroy. The numerous and new affinities observed by M. de Lace· pede were so many traits for my system of fishes. Among so many beautiful birds, collected from all parts of the world, · M. Le Vaillant perceived details of organization, which I im· mediately adapted to my plan., My own researches, employed and multiplied by other naturalists, yielded those fruits to me, which, in my hands 'alone, they would not, all, have produced. Thus, by examining, in the cabinet I have formed, the ana· tomical preparations on which I designed to found my division of reptiles, M. de Blainville and M. Oppel anticipated (and perhaps better than I could have done) results of which as yet I had but a glimpse, &c., &c. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xi Encouraged by these reflections, I determined to precede my treatise on comparative anatomy by a kind of. abridged ~ystem of animals, in which I would present their divisions and subdivisions of all degrees, established in a parallel man- . ner upon their structure, external and internal ; where I would give the indication of well ascertained species, which certainly belong to each of the subdivisions, and where, to create more interest, I would enter into some details upon such of those species, which from their abounding in our country, the uses to which we put them, the evils they cause us, the singularity of their habits and economy, their extraordinary forms, their beauty or their size, become the most remarkable. In so doing, I hoped to prove useful to young naturalists, who, for the most part, have but little idea of the confusion and errors of criticism in which the most accredited works abound, and who; in foreign countries particularly, do not _ sufficiently attend to the study of the true relations of the conformation of beings ; I considered myself as rendering a more direct service to those anatomists, who require to know beforehand to what orders they should direct their researches, when they wish to solve any problem of human anatomy or physiology by comparative anatomy, but whose ordinary occupations do not sufficiently prepare them for fulfilling this condition which is essential to their success. I had no intention, however, ,of extending this two-fold view to all the classes of the animal kingdom, and the Vertebrated animals, as in every sense the most interesting, naturally claimed a preference. Among the Invertebrata, I had to study more particularly the naked Mollusca and the great Zoophytes ; but the innumerable variations of the external forms of shells and corals, the microscopic animals, and the other families whose part, on the great theatre of nature, is not very apparent, or whose organization affords but little room for the use of the scalpel, did not require a similar minuteness of detail. Independently of this, so far as the shells and corals were concerned, I could depend on the work of |
