The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations, intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware, M.D.

  • Smellie, William, 1740-1795.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations, intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. In preparing this edition of Smellie's Philosophy of Nat- ural History, I have endeavoured to avail myself of such moderm discoveries and improvements in Physiology and Natural History as are connected with the subjects of which the book treats. It will be observed that instead of the two first chapters of the original work, I have substituted an Introduction, containing some very general views of animal and vegetable life, and a brief sketch of the struc- ture and classification of the whole animal kingdom. That something of this kind was rendered necessary on account of the light thrown upon these subjects by the progress recently made in Comparative Anatomy, cannot be doubt- ed ; and it was found easier to compose these chapters entirely anew, than to incorporate the requisite additions with them as they originally stood. With regard to the remainder of the work, although a good deal has been added or rewritten, yet it has upon the whole been made considerably shorter, by the omission of many passages, which did not seem of sufficient import- ance to be retained ; and also by the omission of many passages and a few chapters which touch upon subjects interesting only to the scientific reader, and which were deemed unnecessary in an edition intended for general use. Some apology may perhaps be required for the freedom with which these alterations have been made in a standard