Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    On the Study of Zoology
    On the Study of Zoology
    On the Study of Zoology
    Ebook52 pages38 minutes

    On the Study of Zoology

    By Thomas Henry Huxley

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    On the Study of Zoology

    Read more from Thomas Henry Huxley

    Related to On the Study of Zoology

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      eDNA: HOW IT WORKS

      May 7, 2020

      eDNA: HOW IT WORKS
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Math of Living Things

      Jun 23, 2021

      It’s hard to argue with the famously authoritative Oxford English Dictionary, but its definition of physics as the “branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of non-living matter and energy” is incomplete because physics studies livi

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Hidden Power Laws of Ecosystems: As nature scales, complexity gives way to universal law.

      Oct 29, 2015

      Here’s how to cause a ruckus: Ask a bunch of naturalists to simplify the world. We usually think in terms of a web of complicated interactions among animals, plants, microbes, earth, wind, and fire—what Darwin called “the entangled bank.” Reducing th

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Scientists Finally Find Where A Starfish Keeps Its Head

      Dec 7, 2023

      From their ability to regrow limbs to the conundrum of identifying where their bodies end and their heads begin, starfish are often at the centre of scientific intrigue. When it comes to that latter query, at least, scientists may finally have the an

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Is the Dinosaur Family Tree Becoming a Dinosaur?

      Nov 2, 2017

      The division of dinosaurs into two groups, a taxonomy that dates back to the Victorian era, is looking increasingly shaky to some paleontologists in light of a wealth of new fossil discoveries.

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Braindump

      Nov 23, 2023

      Braindump
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Searching For Signs Of Life

      Apr 7, 2021

      Searching For Signs Of Life
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why the Earth Has Fewer Species Than We Think

      Aug 23, 2018

      In 2012, I ran a trip sampling the nautilus populations along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef explicitly to see if nautiluses living on marine protected areas of the reef are as rare as from places where they are fished for their pretty shells (such a

      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Survival Of The Friendliest

      Aug 22, 2019

      Violence has been the sire of all the world’s values,” wrote poet Robinson Jeffers in 1940. “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine the fleet limbs of the antelope? What but fear winged the birds, and hunger jeweled with such eyes the great gosha

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Survival of the Friendliest: It’s time to give the violent metaphors of evolution a break.

      Mar 23, 2017

      Violence has been the sire of all the world’s values,” wrote poet Robinson Jeffers in 1940. “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine the fleet limbs of the antelope? What but fear winged the birds, and hunger jeweled with such eyes the great gosha

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Life Beyond Human Has to Play by the Rules

      Mar 17, 2021

      There are many ways to think about alien, extraterrestrial life forms. Science-fiction writers do it all the time. Scientists, more interested in nonfiction, think about how to receive signals that real aliens might send, as well as what sort of sign

      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Reality Ouroboros

      Sep 4, 2024

      “Among the roots of your classicism you must include your passions for the stars.” —Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living What is reality? And is there just one reality or many, perhaps infinitely many? And how should we describe these realities, wi

      4 min read

    Reviews for On the Study of Zoology

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      On the Study of Zoology - Thomas Henry Huxley

      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

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY ***

      Produced by Amy E. Zelmer, and David Widger

      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.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1