The Philosophy of Zoology (2-Volume Set) Or a General View of the Structure, Functions, and Classification of Animals

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

John Fleming (1785-1857) was a minister of the Church of Scotland, but in his time at the University of Edinburgh he had also studied geology and zoology. In the tradition of the country parson who was also a talented and knowledgeable naturalist, he published his first works on the geology of the Shetland Islands while serving there as a minister. His subsequent works led to his being offered the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, and subsequently at the newly created chair of natural history at the Free Church College in Edinburgh. This two-volume Philosophy of Zoology was originally published in 1822, and the young Charles Darwin is recorded as borrowing it from the library of Edinburgh University in 1825/6. His intention in the book was to 'collect the truths of Zoology within a small compass, and to render them more intelligible, by a systematical arrangement'.

Contents

Volume I: Preface
Divisions of natural science
1. Division of natural objects into organised and inorganic
2. Peculiar characters of organised bodies
3. Distinguishing characters of animals and vegetables
4. On the polity of nature
5. On the substances which enter into the composition of the bodies of animals
6. Cutaneous system
7. Osseous system
8. Muscular system
9. Nervous system
10. Organs of perception
11. Faculties of the mind
12. Digestive system
13. Circulating system
14. Peculiar secretions
15. Reproductive system

Volume II:
1. On the condition of animals
2. On the methods of investigation employed
3. On the rules of nomenclature
4. General view of the classification of the objects of the animal kingdom

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