_ in the Oxford series.

[6] On Aristotle's forerunners, see R. Burckhardt, "Das
koische Tiersystem, eine Vorstufe des zoologischen
Systematik des Aristoteles." _Verh. Naturf. Ges. Basel_,
xx., 1904.

[7] T.E. Lones, _Aristotle's Researches in Natural
Science_, pp. 82-3, London, 1912.

[8] _De Partibus Animalium_, i., 4, 644^a trans. W.
Ogle, Oxford, 1911.

CHAPTER II

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY BEFORE CUVIER

For two thousand years after Aristotle little advance was made upon
his comparative anatomy. Knowledge of the human body was increased not
long after his death by Herophilus and Erasistratus, but not even
Galen more than four centuries later made any essential additions to
Aristotle's anatomy.

During the Middle Ages, particularly after the introduction to Europe
in the 13th century of the Arab texts and commentaries, Aristotle
dominated men's thoughts of Nature. The commentary of Albertus Magnus,
based upon that of Avicenna, did much to impose Aristotle upon the
learned world. Albertus seems to have contented himself with following
closely in the footsteps of his master. There are noted, however, by
Bonnier certain improvements made by Albertus on Aristotle's view of
the seriation of living things. "He is the first," writes Bonnier, "to
take the correct view that fungi are lower plants allied to the most
lowly organised animals. From this point there start, for Albertus
Magnus, two series of living creatures, and he regards the plant
series as culminating in the trees which have well-developed
flowers."[9]

Aristotle's influence is predominant also in the work of Edward Wotton
(1492-1555), who in his book _De differentiis animalium_ adopted a
classification similar to that proposed by Aristotle. He too laid
stress upon the gradation shown from the lower to the higher forms.

In the 16th century, two groups of men helped to lay foundations for a
future science of comparative anatomy--the great Italian anatomists
Vesalius, Fallopius and Fabricius, and the first systematists (though
their "systems" were little more than catalogues) Rondeletius,
Aldrovandus and Gesner.

The anatomists, however, took little interest in problems of pure
morphology; the anatomy of the human body was for them simply the
necessary preliminary of the discovery of the functions of the
parts--they were quite as much physiologists as anatomists.

One of them, Fabricius, made observations on the