FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[E]Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, tome i. p. 54, edit. 1785.[F]See Life of Pliny, by Cuvier, in the Biographie Universelle, tome xxxv. p. 70.

[E]Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, tome i. p. 54, edit. 1785.

[F]See Life of Pliny, by Cuvier, in the Biographie Universelle, tome xxxv. p. 70.

Conrad Gesner—Account of his Life and Writings, preceded by Remarks on those of Ælian, Oppian, Albertus Magnus, Paolo Giovio, and Hieronymus Bock—Pierre Belon—Hippolito Salviani—Guillaume Rondelet—Ulysses Aldrovandi—General Remarks on their Writings, and the State of Science at the Close of the Sixteenth Century.

From the time of Pliny to the commencement of the sixteenth century, zoology, like the other sciences, made little progress. The only naturalists during the earlier portion of this interval at all deserving of notice are Ælian and Oppian. The former was born at Præneste in the year 160, and wrote in Greek a History of Animals, which, like that of the philosopher of Comum, is disfigured by numerous errors and fables. The latter was a poet, a native of Cilicia, who lived under the Emperor Caracalla in the beginning of the third century. Two only of his productions are now extant, his Halieuticon and Cynægeticon; the one containing five books on fishing, the other, four on hunting. These works are still occasionally consulted, though they afford little useful information, and might without any loss to science be consigned to oblivion.

The principal author who appeared between the epoch which witnessed the destruction of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the century just specified, was Albertus Magnus; so called, according to some, not because he was great as a man of science, but because his family-name was Groot, which in Dutch signifies "great," and being Latinized, as was then the fashion, became "magnus." However, he was not a small personage in his day; for it is told of him that he constructed a brazen head which had the faculty of answering questions, and wrote so many works that, when collected for a general edition at Lyons in 1651, they filled twenty-one thick folios. His character was highly respectable, and his History of Animals is certainly a remarkable production for the age in which he lived. Born at Lavingen in Suabia in 1205, he received his education at Pavia, where he entered the order of Dominicans. Some time having elapsed, he went to Paris and delivered public lectures with applause. In 1248, he was invited to Rome by Pope Alexander III., who appointed him to the office of Master of the Holy Palace, and bestowed on him the bishopric of Ratisbon, which he soon after resigned. Returning to Cologne, he resumed his lectures, which were much frequented. Pope Gregory X. called him to assist at the general council, held at Lyons in 1274, where the conclave of cardinals for the election of the successor of St Peter was first instituted. He died at Cologne at the age of 77. The celebrated Thomas Aquinas, who was his pupil, is reported to have broken, in a fit of terror, his famous brazen oracle; and the progress of science has shown as little respect to his other works, consistingchiefly of a commentary on Aristotle, with certain additions from the Arabian writers.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his famous Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, thus characterizes our author:—"Albertus, bishop of Ratisbone, for his great learning and latitude of knowledge sirnamed Magnus, besides divinitie, hath written many Tracts in Philosophie; what we are chiefly to receive with caution, are his naturall Tractates, more especially those of Mineralls, Vegetables, and Animals, which are indeed chiefly Collections out of Aristotle, Ælian, and Plinie, and respectively containe many of our popular errors. He was a man who much advanced these opinions by the authoritie of his name, and delivered most conceits, with strickt enquirie into few."

It is scarcely necessary to mention here a work on the fishes of Rome, De Romanis Piscibus, by the celebrated Paolo Giovio, an Italian writer of this age, who was born at Como in the year 1483. It was dedicated to the Cardinal of Bourbon, and appeared in 1524, but is of little or no value, being the production of a person who, although eminent in general literature, had no claims to the character of a naturalist.

Another author who lived at this period, Hieronymus Bock, generally known by his Latinized name Tragus, was principally distinguished as a botanist, although he wrote also on animals. In 1549, he published a work entitled Kraeuterbuch von den vier Elementen, Thieren, Voegeln, and Fischen, of which there have been various editions. He was born at Heidesbach at Zweybruecken in 1498, and died, in the 56th year of his age, on the 21st of June 1554.

The sixteenth century produced a little band of worthies, who, without having made great acquirements, may yet be justly styled the fathers of modern zoology. These were Guillaume Rondelet, a physician of Montpellier; Hippolito Salviani, also a physician, and a native of Citta di Castello in Umbria; Conrad Gesner, surnamed the German Pliny, who was born at Zurich, and followed the same profession; Pierre Belon, a Frenchman; and Aldrovandi, professor at Bologna. In presenting a sketch of the lives and labours of these venerable sages, we shall begin with him whom Haller characterizes as a prodigy of knowledge,monstrum eruditionis.

Conrad Gesner, one of the most celebrated of this class of naturalists, was born at Zurich on the 26th March 1516. His parents were of an humble rank in life, and having several other children, could not have given him the benefit of a good education, had it not been for the kindness of his maternal uncle, a clergyman, who imparted to him the rudiments of knowledge, and instructed him in botany. This relative, however, died while he was yet at an early age; and when not more than fifteen he was also deprived of his father, who was killed at the battle of Zug, in which the celebrated reformer Zuinglius or Zwingle lost his life. The small patrimony left by his parent having been divided among a large family, Gesner was reduced to great distress, which was heightened by a dropsical affection. Recovering from this disease, he resolved to seek his fortune in another country, and going to Strasburg, entered into the service of Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, professor of Hebrew in the university of that city. Soon after, receiving pecuniary assistancefrom the canons of Zurich, he betook himself to Bourges, where he commenced the study of medicine. At the age of eighteen, he had occasion to go to Paris, where he indulged to excess his literary appetite, and devoured indiscriminately all kinds of knowledge; being supported meanwhile by a young Bernese nobleman, named Steiger, who had contracted a friendship for him. Soon after, he returned to Strasburg, whence, in 1536, he was recalled to Zurich, to teach some children the elements of grammar, with a salary barely sufficient for his support. In the following year, the magistrates, perceiving the superiority of his character, furnished him with an additional grant of money, which enabled him to go to Basil to prosecute his medical studies. To increase his income he assisted Phavorinus in editing his Lexicon, and in a short time removed to Lausanne, where the senate of Berne appointed him Greek professor, in which office he continued three years. He then went to Montpellier, where he engaged more particularly in the study of anatomy and botany, and formed an intimate acquaintance with the celebrated Laurent Joubert and the naturalist Rondelet. In 1541, he obtained the degree of doctor in medicine at Basil, where he arranged some extracts respecting botany and physic, taken from Greek and Arabian writers, which were published the following year at Zurich and Lyons; in the former of which places he now took up his residence and engaged in professional practice. Soon afterwards, he published a catalogue of plants in four languages, in which he evinced his extensive knowledge of botany, which was subsequently increased by several excursions among the Alps. In 1545, hemade a journey to Venice and Augsburg, where he enjoyed some valuable opportunities of consulting rare works and manuscripts. The same year, he commenced the publication of his famous Bibliotheca Universalis, which contains a catalogue of all the works then known, whether extant or lost. Several other fruits of his industry appeared successively between this period and the year 1555, when his merits induced the magistrates of Zurich to appoint him professor of natural history. The Emperor Ferdinand I., to whom he dedicated one of his works, the History of Fishes, rewarded him with various marks of his esteem. These, however, he did not long enjoy, as he fell a victim to a pestilential disease which, commencing at Basil in the spring of 1564, afterwards broke out in his native city with increased violence. When attacked by this fatal malady he betook himself to his cabinet, for the purpose of arranging his papers, and in this occupation died on the 13th December 1565, at the age of 49 years and a few months; leaving a widow who had participated in his adversity and prosperity, having been married by him when he acted as grammar-teacher at Zurich. He bequeathed his library and manuscripts to Caspar Wolf, his pupil, with injunctions to print all that could be rendered fit for the public eye. His principal work is the Historia Naturalis Animalium, chiefly composed of extracts from Aristotle, Ælian, and Pliny, without order or discrimination, but intermixed with numerous original observations, and illustrated by rude engravings. It consists of five books, and forms four folio volumes. There is an English translation by Topsell of part of it under the name of The History of four-footedBeasts and Serpents, collected out of the Writings of Conradus Gesner. Down to the end of the seventeenth century his compilations were held in the highest estimation in every department of zoology: they are now considered as objects of curiosity rather than stores of useful knowledge.—The three next of whom mention is to be made were chiefly eminent as ichthyologists.

The three great authors, it has been remarked, who really laid the foundation of modern ichthyology, appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century, and, what is remarkable, almost at the same time: Belon, in 1553; Rondelet, in 1554 and 1555; Salviani, from 1554 to 1558. Unlike the compilers who, after Aristotle and Theophrastus, swell our list of writers, they saw and examined for themselves the fishes of which they speak, and had drawings of them taken under their immediate inspection with considerable accuracy. Too faithful, however, to the spirit of their time, they took more pains to find out the names which these fishes bore among the ancients, and in selecting fragments for their history, than in describing them in a distinct manner; so that, were it not for the figures, it would in many instances be almost impossible to determine their species.[G]

Scarcely any of the older naturalists, however, confined their attention to one department of their favourite science. Belon was a physician, a zoologist, and a botanist. He was born at Souletière, in the parish of Oisé, in Le Maine, about the year1518. It is supposed that his parents were poor; and we accordingly find that he was indebted for his education to René du Bellay, bishop of Mans, William Duprat, bishop of Clermont, and the Cardinals of Tournon and Lorraine. At an early age, he commenced the study of medicine and botany, and having distinguished himself among the pupils of Valerius Cordus, professor of natural history at Wirtemberg, was allowed to accompany his master on the excursions which he was wont to make into Germany and Bohemia, for the purpose of obtaining specimens. On finishing his education he travelled through Greece, Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor, whence he returned to Paris in 1550, with a valuable collection, after an absence of three years. He now arranged the materials which he had thus procured, and published several interesting works; notwithstanding the merit of which, he experienced great difficulty in obtaining admission into the medical faculty of Paris. In 1557, he undertook another journey into Italy, Savoy, Dauphiny, and Auvergne. On his return, he engaged in a translation of Dioscorides and Theophrastus, and was preparing an important work on agriculture, when he was murdered in the wood of Boulogne, as he was proceeding from Paris to his place of residence at the Chateau de Madrid. This happened in 1564, when he was about forty-five years of age.

His first great performance was the Natural History of Sea Fishes, with wood engravings, containing a figure and description of the dolphin, and several other species of the same family. It was published at Paris in 1551, in quarto. In 1553, he gave to the world another work on fishes, entitled De AquatitibusLibri Duo, cum Eiconibus ad Vivam ipsorum Effigiem, which he afterwards translated into French, and with certain additions printed in three different forms in 1555. A work on pines and other evergreen trees, De Arboribus Coniferis, also appeared in 1553, as well as a dissertation on Egyptian antiquities. Soon after he presented to the public his Observations de plusieurs Singularités et Choses memorables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres Pays étranges, redigées en trois livres, in which are many curious details on the subject of geography, and on the manners of Eastern nations. A treatise on birds was published at Paris in 1555; another, containing representations of animals and plants observed in Arabia and Egypt, was put forth in 1557; which in 1558 was succeeded by an essay on the cultivation of plants. As a botanist, Belon ranks not less highly than as a zoologist; and, to do honour to him in the former capacity, Plumier has dedicated to his memory an American genus, to which he has given the name ofBelonia.

The Aquatilium Animalium Historia of Salviani is chiefly remarkable for the beauty of its engravings, some of which have scarcely been surpassed by the efforts of modern art. The titlepage bears the date of 1554, but the work was not completed till 1558. It contains descriptions of ninety-nine species of fishes, each including the synonymy, the external appearance of the animal, the places in which it occurs, its habits, the manner in which it is caught and prepared, and its medical properties. He also pointsout the passages in Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient writers, who have spoken of them, and to the observations of these authors adds many excellent ones of his own; so that the work, on account of the general accuracy of the plates and descriptions, is one that may be considered indispensable to the modern ichthyologist.

Salviani was born in 1514, at Citta di Castello in Umbria. His family was noble. After finishing his studies, he settled at Rome, where he practised medicine, and delivered public lectures. The friendship of Cardinal Cervini obtained for him the appointment of physician to the pope, Julius III. The death of this personage, and that of Cervini, who had been elevated to the apostolic chair, which, however, he occupied only three weeks, were not productive of any serious disadvantage to him, for he was continued in his offices by Paul IV., to whom he dedicated his work. He died at Rome, in 1572, at the age of fifty-eight.

Rondelet greatly surpassed Gesner, Belon, and Salviani, in the extent of his knowledge as an ichthyologist; and although his figures, being only wood-cuts, are inferior in beauty to the copperplate-engravings of the last of these authors, they are yet more correct in the characteristic details. His work is entitled De Piscibus Marinis Libri XVIII., in quibus vivæ piscium imagines expositæ sunt, and was published at Lyons in 1554. A second part appeared in 1555, under the name of Universæ Aquatilium Historiæ Pars Altera, cum veris ipsorum Imaginibus. The first part treats of marine animals,including the cetacea, turtles and seals, the mollusca, and the crustacea. In the second part, shells, insects, zoophytes, and fresh-water fishes, are described. These objects, although not methodically arranged, are often placed in such a manner as to indicate that the author had some idea of generic affinity. The anatomical details which he presents are pronounced by Cuvier to be frequently correct; but his descriptions, it must be granted, are inferior to the figures, which are truly surprising for the period at which he lived. In reference to the fishes of the Mediterranean this work is indispensable, and, indeed, to the ichthyologist generally it is one of the most important that exists. The descriptions and figures have been copied by Gesner, in his work De Aquatilibus; while Ray, Artedi, and Linnæus, have obviously profited by them.

Rondelet, the son of an apothecary, was born at Montpellier on the 27th September 1507. Being originally of a very infirm constitution, he was judged incapable of performing a part in active life, and, accordingly, when his father's fortune was distributed, he received a sum merely sufficient to procure his admittance into a convent. As he grew up, however, he improved in strength, and having no affection for a monastic life, he commenced his studies at the age of eighteen, and finished his general education at Paris, where he was supported by his elder brother. Having resolved to embrace the medical profession, he returned in 1529 to his native city, and afterwards settling at Pertuis, a small village in Provence, he began to practise; but not meeting with success in the healing art, he endeavoured to procure subsistence by setting up a grammar-school. Thisexpedient also failing, he went again to Paris in order to improve his knowledge of the Greek language, and, being unwilling to burden his brother any longer, became tutor to a young nobleman. Some time after, he removed to Maringues, in Auvergne, where he again entered upon practice, and in 1537 received a medical degree at Montpellier. The following year he married a young lady endowed with many estimable qualities, but destitute of fortune; and, as his brother was dead, this alliance increased his difficulties. However, he settled finally at the place of his birth; and, being assisted by his wife's sister, began to extend his acquaintance, and succeeded so well in his profession, that, in 1545, he was appointed professor of medicine in the university.

He also obtained the office of physician to the Cardinal of Tournon, whom he accompanied on his missions in France, Italy, and the Low Countries, of which occasions he eagerly availed himself to increase his knowledge of natural history. Returning once more to his usual place of residence he established an anatomical theatre, at which he lectured several hours daily to a numerous audience. His passion for dissection was so strong, that he opened one of his own children after death, and this circumstance has naturally enough given rise to the opinion, that he must have been a man destitute of sensibility; which, however, does not appear to have been the case. His wife having died in 1560, he soon procured another, poor and handsome like the first. While on a journey to Toulouse he was attacked by dysentery, occasioned by eating too many figs, and he died at Realmont, whither he had goneto visit a patient. His death happened on the 30th July 1566, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.

He was a man of very small stature, but robust and active. At the age of twenty-five he gave up the use of wine and spirits, from an apprehension of gout; but he compensated for his abstemiousness in these articles by indulging his appetite for fruit and pastry. Although he had acquired considerable sums of money in the practice of his profession, he expended them in the gratification of his taste for building, and in various acts of generosity; so that he left very little behind him.

One of the most celebrated naturalists of the sixteenth century was Ulysses Aldrovandi, professor at Bologna, who was born in that city in 1527, and died on the 4th of May 1605. He was of a noble family, and his fortune enabled him to travel extensively, to collect materials for his books, and to employ artists in painting and engraving suitable illustrations. He carried, indeed, his liberality in this respect so far, that, having expended his whole fortune in his enthusiastic pursuit of natural history, he left nothing for the support of his old age, and is commonly believed to have died in the hospital of his native city. Cuvier, in a notice of his life in the Biographie Universelle, regards this circumstance as doubtful; imagining it improbable that the senate of Bologna, to whom he bequeathed his museum and manuscripts, and who laid out large sums after his death in completing the publication of his works, would have left him destitute duringhis life. This, however, is mere conjecture; and there is too much reason to fear that, like many other eminent persons, he was abandoned to struggle with misfortune, and not advanced to honour and estimation until after his career was finished, when they could be of no use to him.

The works of Aldrovandi form thirteen folio volumes. Of these, four only were published by himself; namely, three on birds and one on insects. Immediately after his death, in 1606, his widow put forth a volume on the other white-blooded animals, including testacea and crabs. Cornelius Uterverius, a native of Delft, and his successor in the institute of Bologna, revised the work on fishes and whales, which appeared in 1613, as well as that on the quadrupeds with solid hoofs, published in 1616. In 1621, the History of the Quadrupeds with split Hoofs was edited by Thomas Dempster, a Scottish gentleman, who was also a professor at Bologna. The other treatises, on the viviparous and oviparous digitate quadrupeds, on serpents, monsters, and minerals, were prepared for the press by Bartholomew Ambrosinus, another of his successors, and that on trees by Ovid Montalbanus. These works underwent a second impression at Bologna, and some of them were subsequently printed at Frankfort. It is difficult to procure a uniform edition, and some of the tracts are much rarer than others.

Aldrovandi was certainly one of the most zealous naturalists of his time; but, although he added considerably to the stock of information, he can only be considered as a laborious collector of materials. Cuvier pronounces his works "an enormous compilation without taste or genius," and agrees withBuffon in thinking, that were the useless parts removed, they would be reduced to a tenth of their bulk. Moreover, the plan and matter are to a great extent borrowed from Gesner; but in all ages writers on natural history have been so much addicted to the practice of borrowing, that Aldrovandi is hardly to be censured on this account.

Some portions of his museum have successfully struggled with the destructive energies of time, and are still to be seen in the collection of the Institute of Bologna. His manuscripts, of which there is an immense mass, are preserved in the public library of the same city; and the drawings from which the engravings for his work were taken were carried, at the time of the Revolution, to the Museum of Natural History at Paris.

Such were the dawnings of zoological science after the revival of learning in Europe. The authors of those times, it is manifest, looked less to nature than to the writings of Aristotle, Pliny, and their other predecessors; so that in their works we find little more than a repetition of what had been previously said. Their descriptions are rude, frequently incorrect, and in few cases characteristic. They had no idea of disposing the objects of which they treated in a manner resembling that to which we have been accustomed since the period of Ray and Linnæus. The alphabetical arrangement was followed by some, while others possessed a rude notion of the affinity of species; but although attempts were made to separate the animal creation into classic groups, yet from the days of Aristotle to those of Swammerdam, Ray, and Reaumur, we find no traces of the anatomical knowledge necessary for the accomplishmentof such an undertaking. We have, indeed, little reason to expect in the writings of the ancients, or in those of the succeeding naturalists, any example of a just classification; still we cannot but marvel when we find, that very few of them endeavoured to represent objects as they might have seen them with their own eyes. Whatever may be the causes of this defect, those who are extensively conversant with the publications of our own times must be aware, that the practice of copying from books, instead of having recourse to Nature herself, has not yet been relinquished; though nothing is more clear than that there can be no real progress in natural history without authenticating the observations of preceding writers by examining the objects which they have described, and by noting the particulars in which they are erroneous.

FOOTNOTES:[G]Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Poissons.

[G]Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Poissons.

Brief Account of the Lives and Writings of John Jonston, John Goedert, Francis Redi, and John Swammerdam—Notice respecting the principal Works of Swammerdam—His Birth and Education—He studies Medicine, but addicts himself chiefly to the Examination of Insects—Goes to France, where he forms an Acquaintance with Thevenot—Returns to Amsterdam, takes his Degree, improves the Art of making Anatomical Preparations—Publishes various Works—Destroys his Health by the Intensity of his Application—Becomes deeply impressed with religious Ideas—Adopts the Opinions of Antoinette Bourignon—Is tortured by conflicting Passions—Endeavours to dispose of his Collections—Is affected with Ague and Anasarca, and dies after protracted Suffering—His Writings published by Boerhaave—His Classification of Insects.

Of the three kingdoms of nature, the vegetable was that which, down to the time of Linnæus, had received most attention. Mineralogy could scarcely be said to have commenced. Zoology had indeed made considerable progress; but botany had advanced in a still greater degree, having been cultivated by a host of naturalists, chiefly belonging to the medical profession. One of these, Cæsalpinus, who flourished in the end of the 16th century, had already invented a system; whereas Ray, who belonged to the 17th, was the first zoologist who formed a methodical arrangementof animals. It might thus be supposed that the examination of plants is easier, while that of minerals is more difficult, than the study of zoology; but the cause of the preference given to the vegetable economy seems to be connected with the value of herbs as articles of the Materia Medica, while the animal kingdom attracted more attention than the mineral, as exciting greater curiosity, and tending more directly to supply the most urgent wants of man. However this may be, it is certain, that in the 17th century the botanists greatly exceeded the zoologists in number. One of the most remarkable of the latter was the subject of the present notice, who, although merely a compiler, and not possessed of much judgment or taste, continued to be a popular author on natural history until his works were superseded by those of Linnæus.

John Jonston, descended from a family originally Scottish, was born, in 1603, at Sambter, near Lissa, a city of the palatinate of Posen in Poland. After studying at Beuthen on the Oder, and at Thorn in the Prussian dominions, he prosecuted his education at the University of St Andrews; whence, in due time, he returned to his native country, and for three years acted as tutor to the sons of Count Kurtzbach. He then studied medicine and natural history in several of the more distinguished seminaries at home and abroad. In 1632, he took charge of two young noblemen, whom he accompanied to England, Holland, France, and Italy. At Leyden he obtained a medical degree, and was offered a professorship; which, however, he declined, preferring a private life. On completing his travels, he retired to a place in the neighbourhood of Lignitz,where he spent the rest of his days. He died on the 8th June 1675.

The most important of Jonston's works is his Historia Animalium, which was published at Frankfort on the Maine. The first part, containing five books on fishes and cetacea, and four on the white-blooded aquatic animals, appeared in 1649. The second part, which treats of birds, followed in 1650; the third, on quadrupeds, in 1652; and the fourth, on insects and serpents, in 1653. Several editions of this work have since come out; the latest being that of Heidelberg, in 1755. It is, however, a mere compilation from the writings of Gesner, Aldrovandi, and others. The plates, which are numerous, are also, for the most part, copied from these authors, a few only being original. They are not without merit, having been engraved by the famous Matthew Merian; but several of them, resting on no authority beyond that of simple description, represent objects which have no real existence. His first treatise, which is a collection of the most curious phenomena presented by the sky, the elements, meteors, fossils, plants, birds, quadrupeds, insects, and man, was printed at Amsterdam in 1632, under the title of Thaumatographia Naturalis in Decem Classes Distincta. He also produced a Dendrographia, or natural history of trees and shrubs; and two smaller tracts, the one entitled Notitia Regni Vegetabilis, the other Notitia Regni Mineralis; together with several others, on various subjects, which, as they have long since passed into oblivion, it is unnecessary to mention at greater length.

This distinguished naturalist was born at Middleburg in Holland, in 1620. He was a sedulous observer of the nature and properties of insects, which he examined with admirable patience and sagacity. His work, which was written in Dutch, was published at Middleburg in 1662, with the title Descriptions of the Origin, Species, Qualities, and Metamorphoses of Worms, Caterpillars, &c. Being a painter by profession, he adorned it with very accurate coloured engravings. The treatise was also printed in Latin and French translations. The former bore this title:—Metamorphosis et Historia Naturalis Insectorum, cum Commentario Jo. de Mey et duplici cjusd. Appendice, una de Hemerobiis, altera de Natura Cometarum. An improved edition, in the English language, was published by Lister in 1682; and another, in Latin, in which the species were methodically disposed, appeared in 1685, under the care of the same naturalist, who had the work reprinted a third time as an appendix to his Historia Animalium Angliæ. Goedart describes 150 different species, and may be considered as the first who subjected the metamorphoses of insects to accurate examination. He died in 1668.

The principal works of this eminent physician, having any reference to zoology, are on the generation of insects, on the poison of the viper, and on intestinal worms. His observations and experiments were translated from the Italian into Latin, and published atAmsterdam in 1670 and 1686, and at Leyden in 1729. Fabroni gives his life in the third volume of his Vitæ Illustrium Italorum. Sprung from a noble family, he was born at Arezzo on the 18th February 1626. After finishing his studies at the University of Pisa, he settled at Florence, where he soon became known as a successful practitioner, and was appointed physician to Ferdinand II, grand duke of Tuscany, in which office he was continued by Cosmo III. Redi's experiments, directed by professional views, had for their chief object the treatment of the bite of serpents, and the destruction or removal of intestinal worms. His letters, however, published in 1724, in two volumes 4to, are replete with interesting observations in every department of natural history; his poetical works are said to be distinguished by elegance and grace; and his numerous literary compositions are described as evincing a pure and cultivated taste. He was a considerable contributor to the edition of the Dictionary of the Academia della Crusca, printed in 1691. He died at Pisa on the 1st of March 1694, at the age of sixty-eight, and was buried at Arezzo, in a tomb which his nephew decorated with an inscription, remarkable for its simplicity and good taste:—

Francisco Redi Patritio AretinoGregorius Fratris Filius.

As a naturalist, Swammerdam is chiefly celebrated for the extent and accuracy of his inquiries into the structure of insects; though anatomy and physiology are equally indebted to his labours. He was the first who discovered the method of rendering the blood-vesselsmore easy to be traced in dissection, by injecting them with coloured wax in a fluid state; and although he cannot for that reason alone claim all the discoveries that have been made in anatomy, any more than the first person who skinned birds can claim the honour of determining the numerous species that have been conveyed from distant countries, or he who first cut a slice of petrified wood, all the results that have emanated from his experiment, yet he certainly devised the means of extending our knowledge of the human body as well as of pathology. His works on insects are the following:—1. The General History of Insects, published in Dutch at Utrecht in 1669, and subsequently in French and Latin, in which he gives a classification of these animals, founded on their structure and metamorphoses. 2. The History of the Ephemeris, published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1675, and in Latin at London in 1681. 3. The Biblia Naturæ, sive Historia Insectorum in Classes Certas Redacta, Leyden, 1737-38, 2 vols folio, which has been translated into German, English, and French. This important work was published after his death by Boerhaave, in Dutch and Latin, and contains a masterly exposition of the structure of such insects as came under his observation.

It has been remarked by an eminent entomologist, that natural history, which, during the long series of ages in which barbarism reigned, shared the fate of the other sciences, underwent the same treatment when a taste for knowledge began to revive. For example, it was chiefly in Aristotle that the history of animals was sought; whereas, if Aldrovandi, Gesner, Moufet, and other physiologists, had studied nature as muchas they studied the ancient writers, the assiduous labour of so many active minds would have secured for that science a more sure and rapid progress. The material world was then observed only for the purpose of confirming the reports made by the authors of antiquity. At length Nature opened the eyes of those who were trying to see in her only what they had seen in Aristotle and Pliny. She disclosed to them facts worthy of being noticed, which they vainly sought in the books which they imagined to contain every thing; and unfolded others, which gave them reason to doubt the truth of those that had been transmitted from former ages. After having thrown off the fetters of authority, farther, perhaps, than was quite consistent with the respect that was really due to the ancients, men perceived that they ought to study facts, verify whatever had been related, and try to discover more. It was thus that Malpighi, Swammerdam, Redi, and other illustrious authors proceeded. Even those, such as Goedart and Madame Merian, who, from an ignorance in some degree fortunate, were unable to read the ancients, laboured with advantage as observers.[H]

The subject of this memoir was born at Amsterdam on the 12th February 1637. His father, an apothecary, was fond of natural history, and, being in prosperous circumstances, embellished his house with preserved animals, shells, and minerals, insomuch that it became an object of attraction to the curious. Young Swammerdam was intended for the church, and received instructions in the Greek and Latin languages, to qualify him for the study of divinity; but, on seriously consideringthe importance of the task designed for him, he judged himself incapable of discharging the duties of a religious instructor. On representing the matter to his parents, he received their permission to commence the study of medicine. Being frequently employed in cleaning and arranging his father's cabinet, he gradually acquired a liking to natural history, and even at an early age began to form a collection of insects, which he disposed into classes, agreeably to ideas derived from observation and the descriptions of authors. Day and night he pursued his favourite employment, searching the woods and fields, the sandhills and muddy shores, the lakes, rivers, and canals, for insects, worms, and mollusca, until he acquired, even while a youth, a more extensive and more accurate knowledge of the lower animals than all the naturalists who had preceded him.

In 1661, he went to Leyden, for the purpose of attending the lectures at the celebrated university of that city. There he remained two years, studying surgery with Van Horne, and medicine with Franciscus Sylvius de le Boe, with as much diligence as he had previously displayed in his other pursuits. During the whole of this time he enjoyed the friendship of Steno and De Graaf; and, becoming much attached to the study of anatomy, he exerted his utmost ingenuity in devising means for effectually preserving his preparations.

He then went to Paris to improve himself in his profession. There he continued the examination of insects, and had the good fortune to discover the valves in the lymphatic vessels. After this he resided for some time at Lyons, where he lived on terms of intimacy with Thevenot the celebrated traveller, who introducedhim to the learned men by whom his house was frequented. In their society he usually remained a listener, and could not be prevailed upon to communicate his ideas; but, being repeatedly urged to exhibit one of his minute dissections, he gratified the wishes of his friends, and, by the profound knowledge which he displayed, acquired at once their esteem and admiration. Thevenot recommended him to Van Beuningen, a senator at Amsterdam, who, on his returning to that city, obtained permission for him to examine the bodies of patients dying in the hospital,—an opportunity of increasing his knowledge which he took care not to neglect.

In his native town he frequented a society of medical men, who met once a-fortnight for the purpose of discussing subjects connected with their profession, and made observations on the structure of the spinal marrow and nerves, on respiration, and on the effects produced by the injection of fluids into the blood-vessels of animals.

About the end of 1666, he returned to Leyden with the view of obtaining his medical diploma, and there continued his researches in company with his former teacher, Van Horne, in whose house he injected the uterine vessels with wax,—a method of showing the distribution of the arteries and veins afterwards greatly improved by him, and which has been productive of much advantage in the study of anatomy. In February 1667, he received the degree of doctor, and in March published his thesis on respiration, which he dedicated to Thevenot. He next invented a new method of preserving anatomical subjects by inflating them with air. But the eagerness with which he engaged in these occupationswas prejudicial to his health, and he was seized with a quartan ague, which reduced him to a state of extreme debility. On recovering from this disease, he remitted his professional studies for two years; resuming the investigation of insects, the structure of which he unfolded with astonishing precision and success.

It happened about this time that the Grand Duke of Tuscany visited Amsterdam. Accompanied by Thevenot, he examined the collections made by Swammerdam and his father, and was so struck by the wonderful dissections of insects that he offered 12,000 florins for the museum, on condition that its proprietor should accompany it to Florence, and take up his residence in the palace. But the young naturalist had been no much accustomed to roam about at will, that he could not relinquish his liberty, and therefore refused the offer.

In 1669, he published his General History of Insects, which he dedicated to the senate of Amsterdam. The expense which he incurred in procuring specimens from all quarters, while no emoluments resulted from his labours, so displeased his father, that he earnestly urged him to relinquish his unprofitable pursuits, and engage in the practice of medicine. At length, finding him unwilling to follow his advice, he was obliged to threaten a total intermission of supplies; though by this time the ardent student had fallen into such a state of debility that he was totally unfit to undergo the fatigues of practice. He was, however, sensible of the propriety of the counsel which was administered to him, and retired to the country to recruit his strength; but he had scarcely arrived when he recommenced his studies, beingwholly unable to resist the temptation offered by solitude and by the presence of the objects which invited his research. In the mean time, Thevenot, being made acquainted with these circumstances, urged him to return to France, generously offering him every thing necessary to enable him to follow the bent of his genius. His father, however, did not approve of this scheme, which was therefore relinquished; but the son did not the less continue to pursue his former occupations.

In 1672, he published his Miraculum Naturæ, seu Uteri Muliebris Fabrica. He soon afterwards entered upon an extensive examination of fishes, having reference chiefly to the pancreas. About this time he began to be impressed with religious ideas; becoming sensible of the vanity of human pursuits, as well as of the sinfulness of that inordinate ambition which impels men to aim at the highest place in the estimation of their fellows. He accordingly resolved to eradicate that base passion from his breast. In this state of mind he imbibed the mystical notions of the celebrated Antoinette Bourignon.

This lady, who was a native of Lisle in Flanders, had become at an early age impressed with the idea that pure Christianity was in a state of decay, and that she was called to revive it. She became governess of the hospital of her native city, and took the order and habit of St Augustin; but owing to the disturbances caused by her violent temper and pretensions to inspiration, the magistrates were obliged to expel her from her office, when she retired to Ghent. The fortune which she inherited from her parents, and that bequeathed to her by her convert De Cordt, enabled her to publish several works ofher own composition, and rendered her, notwithstanding the deformity of her person, the object of much hypocritical admiration. Such was her extreme parsimony, and so inconsistent was her conduct with her professions, that she declared she would rather throw her wealth into the sea than bestow the smallest sum on the poor, or on "beastly persons who had no souls to be saved."

She was at that time in Holstein; and Swammerdam wrote to a friend of his who accompanied her, to obtain permission to consult her in writing respecting his doubts. The result of their correspondence was a resolution on his part no longer to addict himself exclusively to pursuits which had reference to this world only, but to endeavour to make his peace with God. He did not, however, entirely relinquish his anatomical studies, but on the contrary engaged with astonishing ardour in the examination of the structure of bees, which he finished on the last day of September 1674. "He had laboured so assiduously at this work," says Boerhaave, "as to destroy his constitution; nor did he ever recover even a shadow of his former strength. The labour, in fact, was beyond the power of ordinary men: all day he was occupied in examining subjects, and at night described and delineated what he had seen by day. At six in the morning, in summer, he began to receive sufficient light from the sun to enable him to trace the objects of his examination. He continued dissecting till twelve, with his hat removed lest it should impede the light, and in the full blaze of the sun, the heat of which caused his head to be constantly covered with a profuse perspiration. His eyes being continually employed in this stronglight, the effect of which was increased by the use of the microscope, they were so affected by it, that after mid-day he could no longer trace the minute bodies which he examined, although he had then as bright a light as in the forenoon." A month of this excessive labour was necessary to examine and depict the intestines of bees alone; and the investigation of their entire structure cost him much additional labour; and all this was done, with a body debilitated by disease, and a mind agitated by conflicting passions, amid sighs and tears. At one time the bent of his disposition impelled him to investigate the wonderful works of Omnipotence; at another a voice within told him that he ought to set his affections on God alone. After finishing his examination of the structure of bees, he was so affected with remorse, that he gave the manuscript and drawings to a friend, careless what might happen to them. At the same time, however, he wrote two letters to Boccone, on the nature of corals.

These occupations being ended, he was more powerfully impressed than ever with the vanity of human pursuits, and after this period he never engaged in his customary investigations. He acknowledged that hitherto ambition alone had incited him to undergo so many labours, but now resolved to devote the remainder of his life to the cultivation of Christian piety. Being encouraged in this resolution by the approbation of Antoinette Bourignon, he firmly adhered to it; and estimating the annual sum necessary for his subsistence at 400 Dutch florins, he endeavoured to dispose of his collections, which formed the only treasures that he possessed. For this purpose, he applied to Thevenot, who, however, wasunable to find a purchaser in France. He then had recourse to another friend, Nicolas Steno, who had abjured the Protestant faith and was living at Florence, and whom he requested to represent the matter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in case he might feel disposed to purchase them. This person advised him to follow his example, relinquish his creed, embrace the Catholic faith, and proceed to Florence, promising that he should induce the duke to accept the offer. Swammerdam replied indignantly, that he would not sell his soul for money.

Being without any fixed occupation, he devoted his leisure to arranging and cleaning the contents of his museum, and writing out a catalogue of them. They consisted of anatomical preparations and insects, of the latter of which there were nearly three thousand distinct species. These were all described and arranged into classes, and the entire structure of many of them had been demonstrated by the most minute dissection. He then published his Treatise on the Ephemeris, which he had commenced when in France, and which is considered as one of the most remarkable productions of any age. He did not, however, venture upon this step without consulting Bourignon. These arrangements completed, he now determined in earnest to lead a holy life, and being desirous of a personal consultation with his directress, he went to Holstein, where he remained with her some time. On returning to Amsterdam, he again endeavoured to dispose of his museum, but without success; and his sister, who had hitherto presided over the domestic establishment, happening at this time to be married, his father resolved uponliving with his son-in-law, so that he was obliged to look out for another residence. On this occasion his allowance was limited to 200 florins, and as he could not find any one to purchase his collection he was reduced to great perplexity. However, a thought struck him that he might apply to an old friend, who had formerly treated him with great kindness; but in this he also failed.

In the following year, his father died, leaving him heir to his property, which was sufficient for his support; but he became involved in disputes with his sister, which, together with his assiduous endeavours to discharge his religious duties, so agitated his mind, that he was again seized with a severe ague. For three entire months he was confined to his bed, and even when the accessions of the fever had become more gentle and less frequent, he still persisted in remaining in the house. In vain did his friends, Sladus, Ruysch, Schrader, Hotton, and Guenellon, urge upon him the propriety of adopting means for improving his health. He would not yield to their proposals; and, when they still persisted, at length maintained an obstinate silence.

Finding all his endeavours to sell his collection fruitless, he determined to expose it to public auction; but before the period arrived, his disease was much aggravated by the various agitations to which his mind was now habitually subject. The fever proved again regular and continuous, the countenance was emaciated, the eyes were sunk, the feet, the legs, and at length the whole body, dropsical. His friends dared not speak to him respecting his former studies, for he detested all allusion to them, and wished to withdraw his mind entirely from earthly concerns.At length, on the 25th January 1670, when he perceived his end approaching, he wrote his will, leaving to Thevenot all his original manuscripts on the history of bees, butterflies, and anatomy, with 52 plates; all of which were at that time in the house of Herman Wigendorp in Leyden, to whom they had been delivered to be translated into Latin. He bequeathed his property to Margaret Volckers, wife of Daniel de Hoest, appointing her and Christopher Wyland his executors. The remainder of his time he spent in devotion, and died on the 17th February.

It was some years before Thevenot obtained possession of the manuscripts, and after his death they passed into various hands, but were bought in 1727 by the illustrious Boerhaave, who arranged and published them in two folio volumes, prefixing a life of the author, from which we have drawn the materials of this notice.

The learned editor gives an interesting account of the instruments and expedients employed by Swammerdam in dissecting insects and other minute animals. When the anatomical preparations, insects, and apparatus, were offered for sale, no purchaser could be found, and the collection was subsequently dispersed. The manuscripts and drawings of the Biblia Naturæ were deposited by Boerhaave in the library of the University of Leyden.

The works of Swammerdam contain more original and accurate observations than those of any naturalist who preceded him, excepting Aristotle. He refuted numerous errors committed by his predecessors, and carried his observations to a degree of minuteness and accuracy truly astonishing; but it is not a little surprising that he succeeded less in describingthe structure of large objects than in delineating the organs of the most minute.

His classification of insects differs very materially from those now in use. The characters of his four classes he derives from the state in which each insect appears after its birth, and those through which it passes before attaining its entire development. In the first he places all those which issue from the egg with nearly the same form as that which they have at the period of their full growth; such as spiders, slugs, leeches, &c. In the second are included those which, like the grashopper, issue with six feet, and some time after cast off the covering under which the wings were concealed. These insects run or leap with agility in their first stage, which is not the case with those of the next class. To the third are referred insects which undergo greater changes, such as caterpillars, and which proceed from the egg in the state of a worm, remain in that state for some time, cast off their hairy covering, assume the form of a chrysalis, when they become motionless, and finally emerge in a winged state. The fourth class consists of such as, like the common fly, on changing the form under which they issued from the egg to assume that of a worm, do not cast their covering, but become separated from it, while it remains and forms a shell or egg-like investiture, in which the insect remains in the pupa state until it finally emerges with wings.

The history of Swammerdam must excite our sympathy and commiseration; but that, as some have alleged, he lost his reason towards the end of his life, and became subject to mania, arising from religious melancholy, no one who has any share ofthat piety which he evinced will feel disposed to admit. Although he lived in misery, the close of his life was perhaps more enviable than that of many who have gone smiling to their final rest; and it is well for those who, before the period arrives when as the tree falls so it must lie, can like him become truly sensible of the vanity of all earthly pursuits, even although after death they should be pointed out as the victims of a distempered imagination.

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