A manual of zoology for the use of students : with a general introd. on the principles of zoology / by Henry Alleyne Nicholson.

  • Nicholson, Henry Alleyne, 1844-1899.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of zoology for the use of students : with a general introd. on the principles of zoology / by Henry Alleyne Nicholson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. i. Definition of Biology and Zoology. Natural History, strictly speaking, and as the term itself implies, should be employed to designate the study of all natural objects indiscriminately, whether these are endowed with life, or exhibit none of those incessant vicissitudes which collectively constitute vitality. So enormous, however, have been the conquests of science within the last century, that Natural History, using the term in its old sense, has of necessity been divided into several more or less nearly related branches. In the first place, the study of natural objects admits of an obvious separation into two primary sections, of which the first deals with the phenomena presented by the inorganic world, whilst the second is occupied with the investigation of the nature and relations of all bodies which exhibit life. The former department concerns the geologist and mineralogist, and secondarily the naturalist proper as well ; the latter department, treating as it does of living beings, is properly designated by the term Biology (from ySfos, life, and Ao'yo?, a discourse). Biology, in turn, may be split up into the sciences of Botany and Zoology, the former dealing with plants, the latter with animals; and it is really Zoology alone which is nowadays understood by the term Natural History. It should also be borne in mind that the science which deals with those forms of life which have existed during previous periods of the earth’s history to the present, and which is usually designated A