Volume 1

Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Date:
1900-1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The ‘Synopsis’ is here reprinted *, because it exhibits the arrangement of the physiological series which preceded that adopted in the present catalogue ; and, while it indicates th(‘ nature and extent of the changes which have been introduced, enables the scientific reader to understand more rcaidily the reasons that are given for them. The altei-ations consist, foi- the most part, of a return to the arrangement originally em- ployed by Mr. Hunter, and have been either suggested by the Hunterian manuscript catalogues, or made with the view of obtaining greater simplicity and consistency, and a more regular subordination in the several groups of preparations. The Hunterian documents, for example, seemed clearly to show that it was not the intention of the founder to place the preparations of ‘ Elastic substance as a substitute for muscle f ’ in a subseries distinct and remote from that which illustrated ‘ Elasticity in aid of muscular action No adequate advantage was gained by retaining the subseries of ‘ Gizzards § ’ distinct from that of ‘ Stomachs with a superadded crop ||.’ The physiological relation of these cavities to each other, and the modifications of a single and definite plan of gastric structure, were obviously better illustrated by retaining in the same series all the grada- tions of complexity in the stomachs of birds, which form the most natural and best defined class in the animal kingdom. As the progress of science is chiefly characterized by the reduction of supposed anomalies to recognized general prin- ciples, the physiologist, who may compare the present with the preceding arrangement of the physiological collection, will not be surprised at the suppression of many of the groups of prepa- rations which formerly swelled the series entitled ‘ Peculiarities in vegetables and animals^.’ Osseous substance, for example, is a material of the frame- work, not of animals in general, but of one only of the primarj groups of the class; the substances, therefore, ‘ of which the * [Omitted.] t Subseries 17 of the Synopsis, t Subseries 6. § Subseries 28, II Subseries 23, 51 Series XII.