Engraved by J. Horsburgh.
LINNÆUS.
PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH

LIVES

OF

EMINENT ZOOLOGISTS,

FROM

ARISTOTLE TO LINNÆUS:

WITH

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY,

AND

OCCASIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY.

BY W. MACGILLIVRAY, A.M., F.R.S.E., &c.

Author of "A Narrative of the Travels and Researches of Alexander Von Humboldt."

WITH A PORTRAIT OF LINNÆUS ENGRAVED BY HORSBURGH.

SECOND EDITION.
EDINBURGH:
OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT;
AND SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, LONDON.
MDCCCXXXIV.
ENTERED IN STATIONERS' HALL.
Printed by Oliver & Boyd,
Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh.

PREFACE.

Natural History has of late become a favourite pursuit in this country; and although its progress as a study may not have been equal to the enthusiasm which it has excited, its general effect is unquestionably beneficial. In consequence of the interest which it has created, a great variety of works, from the simple catechism to the elaborate treatise, have appeared in rapid succession. But while compends and manuals are thus multiplied, little has been said with regard to the private history and professional pursuits of the distinguished persons who have contributed most to the general stock of knowledge from which these popular essays have in a great measure been derived. We have, therefore, endeavoured in some degree to supply this deficiency, by presenting a series of Lives of the more Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus inclusive.

In the Introduction will be found a view of the objects, to the investigation of which the talents of the individuals whose annals we record were principally directed. The remarks there offered are calculated to enable such readers as may not have been previously acquainted with the subject to comprehend many circumstances which might otherwise appear unintelligible.

Few, even of those who have made considerable progress in the study of nature, are aware of the difficulties with which the ancient philosophers had to contend. For this reason we have begun with Aristotle, the founder of Natural History among the Greeks. A biography of the elder Pliny, the greatest of Roman writers in this department, comes next in order. The lives of the more remarkable zoologists who flourished after the revival of learning in Europe are briefly sketched; while some degree of connexion has been given to the series by remarks on the progress of knowledge at that period, on the labours of their contemporaries, and on the principal works which occasionally issued from colleges and museums. Although it is unnecessary here to enumerate all the names that enter into the catalogue of zoological writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Swammerdam, Ray, and Reaumur, may be particularly mentioned. The great Linnæus witnessed the termination of those dark ages, during which his favourite pursuits were treated with comparative neglect, and the commencement of a happier era, in which they were to assume the dignity of a science. His life is given with more detail than those of his predecessors, both because the facts relating to him are more abundant, and because he exercised a more decided influence upon the opinions of Europe. The volume concludes with a notice respecting his son, which forms an appropriate appendix to that of his more distinguished parent.

Although the lives of studious men may, generally speaking, present fewer striking incidents than those of warriors, navigators, and politicians, yet the memoirs of naturalists are always extremely interesting, on account of the connexion in which they are necessarily placed with whatever is curious, beautiful, or sublime in creation. Some of them, too, will be found to have occupied a high station in society; others to have forced their way through numberless obstacles, before obtaining the end of their ambition; while a third class are seen perishing in the midst of their career, the victims of indiscretion, or of neglect. Certain highly-gifted individuals, again, shine as bright luminaries in the firmament of science, and extend their influence over the whole of the civilized world; while the labours of nearly all have been in some degree productive of good. Perhaps there is no order of men to whose charge so little positive evil can be laid; and if their studies do not always elevate the mind above the corroding cares and cankering jealousies of life, they at least tend to bring it into a more immediate relation with the great Creator and Governor of the universe.

It is not therefore imagined that the general reader will find the following sketches destitute of interest, even although he should possess only a superficial knowledge of the principles and phenomena to which they refer. The professional student, on the other hand, cannot fail to obtain in them information which will prove of the utmost value to him, whether viewed as a guide, or as a stimulus to exertion; and even the accomplished naturalist may derive pleasure from the general review of the labours of those to whom he is mainly indebted for the knowledge which he possesses.

The authorities which have been consulted with reference to these Lives are too numerous to be mentioned here; but the more important are pointed out as occasion presents. It may be sufficient to remark, that no modern work on Natural History would be deserving of public confidence, which did not acknowledge some obligation to the valuable labours of the French School, and of Sir James Edward Smith in our own country.

The second volume, already in preparation, will be devoted to the most distinguished writers in the same department, from Pallas, Brisson, and Buffon, down to Cuvier, and will conclude with General Reflections on the present state of the science.

Edinburgh, June 1834.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Remarks on the Estimation in which Natural History is held at the present Day, and on its Importance—Men are more conversant with Nature in uncivilized Life—The original State of Man, and his progressive Acquisition of Knowledge—General View of the Objects of Natural History: the Earth's Surface and Structure, the Ocean, the Atmosphere, Plants, and Animals—Definition of Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology—Sketch of the Progress of Zoology: four Eras distinguished, as marked by the Names of Aristotle, Pliny, Linnæus, and Cuvier, [17]

ARISTOTLE.

SECTION I.

REMARKABLE EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE.

Introductory Remarks—Birth and Parentage of Aristotle—He studies Philosophy under Plato—Is highly distinguished in the Academy—Retires to Atarneus on the Death of his Master—Marries—Is invited by Philip to superintend the Education of Alexander—Prosecutes his Studies at the Court—On the Succession of Alexander, returns to Athens, where he sets up a School in the Lyceum—Corresponds with Alexander, who supplies Means for carrying on his Investigations—Alexander finds Fault with him for publishing some of his Works, and after putting Callisthenes to Death, exalts his Rival Xenocrates—On the Death of Alexander, he is accused by his Enemies of Impiety, when he escapes to Chalcis, where he dies soon after—His personal Appearance and Character—His Testament—History of his Writings—Great Extent of the Subjects treated of by him—His Notions on elementary Bodies—The Material Universe—The Changes to which the Earth has been subjected, and the Eternity of its Existence—Conclusion, [38]

SECTION II.

ACCOUNT OF ARISTOTLE'S HISTORY OF ANIMALS.

Aristotle's Ideas respecting the Soul—His Views of Anatomy and Physiology—Introduction to his History of Animals, consisting of Aphorisms or general Principles—His Division of Animals; their external Parts; their Arrangement into Families; their internal Organs; Generation, &c. [55]

PLINY THE ELDER.

ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS.

Introductory Remarks—Notice respecting Pliny by Suetonius—Account of his Habits, as given by his Nephew, Pliny the Younger—Various Particulars of his Life—His Death occasioned by an Eruption of Vesuvius—Buffon's Opinion of the Writings of Pliny—Judgment of Cuvier on the same Subject—Brief Account of the Historia Naturalis, including Extracts respecting the Wolf, the Lion, and other Animals—Cleopatra's Pearls—History of a Raven—Domestic Fowls—General Remarks, [74]

GESNER, BELON, SALVIANI, RONDELET, AND ALDROVANDI.

ZOOLOGISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

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, [102]

JONSTON, GOEDART, REDI, AND SWAMMERDAM.

ZOOLOGISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Brief Account of the Lives and Writings of John Jonston, John Goedart, 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, [118]

RAY.

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF RAY.

Birth and Parentage of Ray—He receives the Rudiments of his Education at Braintree School—At the age of Sixteen enters at Katherine Hall, Cambridge—Removes to Trinity College, where he passes through various Gradations, and becomes a Fellow—Publishes his Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, and undertakes several Journeys—Extracts from his Itineraries—Resigns his Fellowship—Becomes a Member of the Royal Society—Publishes his Catalogue of English Plants, &c.—Death of his most intimate Friend, Mr Willughby—Character of that Gentleman—Mr Ray undertakes the Education of his Sons, and writes a Vocabulary for their Use—Notice of Dr Lister—Several Works published by Mr Ray, who improves and edits Willughby's Notes on Birds and Fishes—Continues his scientific Labours—Remarks on the Scoter and Barnacle—Letters of Dr Robinson and Sir Hans Sloane—Notice respecting the latter—Publication of the Synopsis of British Plants, the Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of Creation, &c.—Estimate of the Number of Animals and Plants known—Synopsis of Quadrupeds and Serpents—Classification of Animals—Various Publications—Ray's Decline—His last Letter—His Ideas of a Future State, and of the Use of the Study of Nature—His Death, Character, and principal Writings, [136]

REAUMUR.

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF REAUMUR.

Birth and Education of Reaumur—He settles at Paris, where he is introduced to the Scientific World by the President Henault, and becomes a Member of the Academy of Sciences—His Labours for the Improvement of the Arts—His Works on Natural History, of which the Memoirs on Insects are the most important—His Occupations and Mode of Life, [183]

LINNÆUS.

SECTION I.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF LINNÆUS.

Birth and Parentage of Linnæus—He is destined for the Clerical Profession—His early Fondness for Plants—He is sent to School, where his Progress is so slow that his Father resolves to make him a Shoemaker—Is rescued from this Fate by Dr Rothmann, who receives him into his Family—He becomes decidedly attached to the Study of Nature, enters the University of Lund, and is patronised by Professor Stobæus—When on an Excursion is attacked by a dangerous Malady—Stobæus surprises him in his nocturnal Studies—He goes to Upsal—Is reduced to extreme Poverty, from which he is relieved by Professor Celsius, whom he assists—Is next patronised by Rudbeck, and delegated to read his Lectures—Forms a Friendship with Artedi, [193]

SECTION II.

JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.

Linnæus, chosen by the Royal Society of Upsal to travel in Lapland, sets out in May 1732—Enters Lycksele Lapland—A Lapland Beauty—Beds made of Hair-moss—Conversation of a Curate and a Schoolmaster—The Lapland Alps—Their Vegetation—Brief Account of the Rein-deer—Passing over the alpine Region, he enters Norway—Again visits the mountainous Region—Difficulties of the Journey—Pearl-fishery—Forests set on Fire by Lightning—At Lulea he discovers the Cause of an epidemic Distemper among the Cattle—Returns through East Bothland—Concluding Remarks, [204]

SECTION III.

STUDIES, ADVENTURES, AND TRAVELS OF LINNÆUS, FROM 1733 to 1738.

Linnæus returns to Upsal—Is prevented from lecturing by Rosen, whom he attempts to assassinate—Accompanies some young Men on an Excursion to Fahlun, where he is introduced to the Governor of the Province, with whose Sons he travels to Norway—Returning to Fahlun, he delivers Lectures, falls in Love, is furnished with Money by his Mistress, and prepares to go Abroad for his Degree—He visits Hamburg, detects an Imposture there, and is obliged to make his Escape—Obtains his Degree at Harderwyk—Proceeds to Leyden, where he publishes his Systema Naturæ, and waits upon Boerhaave—Goes to Amsterdam, is kindly received by Burmann, and lodges with him—Is employed by Cliffort, publishes various Botanical Works—Goes to England, visits Sir Hans Sloane, Miller, and Dillenius—Returns to Holland, publishes several Works—Goes to Leyden, and resides with Van Royen—Publishes the Ichthyologia of Artedi, who was drowned in Amsterdam—Becomes melancholy, and falls into a violent Fever—On his Recovery goes to Paris, where he is kindly received by the Jussieus—Returns to Sweden after an Absence of Three Years and a Half, [218]

SECTION IV.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS FROM 1738 TO 1741.

Linnæus is treated with Neglect at Stockholm—Is offered a Botanical Professorship at Gottingen, but prefers remaining in Sweden—His medical Practice is at length extended—He prescribes for the Queen, and becomes acquainted with Count Tessin, who procures for him the Offices of Lecturer to the School of Mines and Physician to the Admiralty—He marries Miss Moræus, delivers Lectures on Botany, and becomes a Candidate for the Botanical Chair at Upsal, which, however, is given to Rosen—Is sent to examine the Islands of Oeland and Gothland—Being appointed to succeed Roberg in the Chair of Medicine and Anatomy, he goes to Upsal, is reconciled to Rosen, and delivers his Introductory Discourse—Linnæus and Rosen exchange Professorships—The Botanic Garden is restored, and a House erected for the Professor, who enters upon his Duties with Ardour, [234]

SECTION V.

COMMENCEMENT OF LINNÆUS'S ACADEMICAL CAREER.

Linnæus restores the Botanic Garden at Upsal—Takes Possession of his new Residence—Founds a Natural History Museum—Publishes Catalogues of the Plants and Animals of Sweden—In 1746, makes a Journey to West Gothland—Medal struck to his Honour—He publishes a Flora of Ceylon from the Herbarium of Hermann—His alleged Discovery of a Method of producing Pearls—Success as a Professor—Malice of his Enemies—Journey to Scania—Is appointed Rector of the University—Attacked by Gout—Sends several of his Pupils to travel in foreign Countries, [243]

SECTION VI.

TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINNÆUS.

Enthusiasm excited by the Lectures of Linnæus—Ternstroem dies on his Voyage to China—Hasselquist, after travelling in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, dies at Smyrna—Forskal perishes in Arabia; Lœfling in South America; Falk in Tartary—Kalm sent to Canada; Rolander to Surinam; Toren to Malabar; Osbeck to China—Sparrmann travels in the Cape, and accompanies Cook on his second Voyage—Thunberg visits Japan, Ceylon, and other Countries—Various parts of Europe visited by Pupils of Linnæus—Remarks on the Accumulation of Facts produced by their Exertions, [251]

SECTION VII.

LINNÆUS'S OCCUPATIONS FROM 1750 TO 1770.

Publication of the Philosophia Botanica—General Account of that Work—Linnæus engaged in arranging the Collections of the Queen and Count Tessin—The Species Plantarum—Sir J. E. Smith's Remarks on it—Quotation from the Preface, with Remarks—Linnæus publishes improved Editions of his Works—Obtains Prizes for Essays from the Royal Societies of Stockholm and Petersburg—Is elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences of Paris—Receives Plants and Seeds from various Quarters—Purchases two Estates—Delivers private Lectures at his Museum—His Emoluments—His Son appointed his Assistant and Successor—He receives Letters of Nobility; and is rewarded for his Discovery of the Art of producing Pearls—His domestic Troubles, Infirmities, and sincere Reconciliation to his old Antagonist Rosen, who attends him in his Sickness, [260]

SECTION VIII.

ACCOUNT OF THE SYSTEMA NATURÆ OF LINNÆUS.

Linnæus's Classification of the Animal Kingdom—Remarks on the Gradations employed, and on Nomenclature—Classification of the Animal Kingdom—General Remarks—Method of Tournefort—Method of Linnæus—Classification of the Vegetable Kingdom—Theory of the Formation of Minerals and Rocks, [272]

SECTION IX.

DECLINE AND DEATH OF LINNÆUS.

Review of the Medical Writings of Linnæus—His Materia Medical System of Nosology, Theory of Medicine—His last Work, a Continuation of the Mantissa, published in 1771—Declining State of his Health—In 1774, has an Attack of Apoplexy, followed by Prostration of his Intellectual Powers—Another Attack in 1775, from the Effects of which, and Tertian Fever, he never recovers—His Death in 1778—Honours paid to his Memory, [307]

SECTION X.

CORRESPONDENCE OF LINNÆUS.

Linnæus's first Letter, addressed to Rudbeck in 1731—His last, to Dr Cusson in 1777—Correspondence with Haller—With Dillenius, Ellis, and other English Naturalists, [322]

SECTION XI.

CHARACTER OF LINNÆUS.

Specific Character of Linnæus—Remarks of Condorcet—Linnæus's Appearance and bodily Conformation—His Habits, mental Characteristics, Sociality, domestic Relations, Parsimony, and Generosity—His Forbearance towards his Opponents, Inaptitude for the Acquisition of Languages, Love of Fame, moral Conduct, religious Feelings—Character of his Writings—Remarks on his Classifications, [361]

SECTION XII.

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF LINNÆUS.

Hortus Uplandicus—Florula Lapponica—Systema Naturæ—Hypothesis Nova de Febrium Intermittentium Causa—Fundamenta Botanica—Bibliotheca Botanica—Musa Cliffortiana—Genera Plantarum—Viridarium Cliffortianum—Caroli Linnæi Corollarium Generum Plantarum—Flora Lapponica—Hortus Cliffortianus—Critica Botanica—Petri Artedi, Sueci Medici, Ichthyologia—Classes Plantarum, seu Systema Plantarum—Oratio de Memorabilibus in Insectis—Orbis Eruditi Judicium de C. Linnæi Scriptis—Oratio de Peregrinationum intra Patriam Necessitate—Oratio de Tellurus Habitabilis Incremento—Flora Suecica—Animalia Sueciæ—Oeländska och Gothländska Resa—Fauna Sueciæ Regni—Flora Zeylanica—Wästgötha Resa—Hortus Upsaliensis—Materia Medica Regni Vegetabilis—Materia Medica Regni Animalis—Skänska Resa—Philosophia Botanica—Materia Medica Regni Lapidei—Species Plantarum—Museum Tessinianum—Museum Regis Adolphi Suecorum—Frederici Hasselquist Iter Palestinum—Petri Lœflingii Iter Hispanicum—Oratio Regia—Disquisitio Quæstionis, ab Acad. Imper. Scientiarum Petropolitanæ, in annum 1759 pro Præmio, Propositæ—Genera Morborum—Museum Reginæ Louisæ Ulricæ—Clavis Medica Duplex—Mantissa Plantarum—Mantissa Plantarum altera—Deliciæ Naturæ—Essays printed in the Transactions of the Academies of Upsal and Stockholm, [375]

SECTION XIII.

A BRIEF NOTICE OF LINNÆUS'S SON.

Unnatural Conduct of the Mother of the Younger Linnæus—His Birth and Education—In his eighteenth Year he is appointed Demonstrator of Botany, and, three Years after, Conjunct Professor of Natural History—He visits England, France, Holland, Germany, and Denmark—On returning engages in the Discharge of his Duties; but at Stockholm is seized with Fever, which ends in Apoplexy, by which he is carried off—His Character and Funeral, [386]

LIVES
OF
EMINENT ZOOLOGISTS.

Introduction.

At no period in the progress of civilisation have the advantages to be derived from the study of nature been so highly appreciated as at the present day, when descriptions and representations of the various objects by which we are surrounded, or which have been observed in distant countries, are issuing from the press in a variety of forms calculated to attract the attention and to gratify the taste of almost every class of society. Only a few years ago, Natural History was held in some degree of contempt by the enlightened as well as by the ignorant; its cultivators were considered as triflers, wasting their energies upon that which could profit nothing; and the information which it affords was looked upon as unworthy of the attention of persons fitted for intellectual pursuits. Now, it is raised in popular estimation to the highest dignity, and is pronounced to be a science capable of exercising the most splendid talents, and of affording pleasure to the most improved minds.

Of the several changes that have recently taken place in society this is not the least important. The diversified productions of Nature,—those objects, in the formation of which have been exercised unlimited wisdom and power,—are not now considered beneath the notice of the wisest of the sons of men. It still, however, remains to be perceived, that in the construction of the familiar fly that buzzes through our apartments, not less than in the frame of the mighty elephant,—in the simple blade of grass that springs from between the stones of the pavement, not less than in the knotted oak or the graceful palm,—in the small cube of salt, not less than in the granitic mountain or the volcanic cone,—there is something of a mysterious nature, the comprehension of which would be a much more glorious achievement than any that the human intellect has yet performed. The ship that carries the adventurous merchant over the great ocean is an object worthy of our admiration; but how complicated is its apparatus, compared with the fins of the most common fish! The balloon that floats calmly in the atmosphere,—what an unwieldy instrument is it, compared with those beautiful organs of Divine workmanship by which the swallow is conveyed from the equatorial to the polar lands, or pursues its prey through the pathless air!

Man, in the early stages of his existence, is drawn by an instinctive power to observe and admire nature. The love of it, too, glows in the breast of every child. We have never, indeed, witnessed the actions of men in the infancy of society, and therefore cannot estimate the influence exercised upon them by external objects; for the savages whom the European, wandering over the globe in quest of gold or knowledge, finds in the deserts or in the remote isles of the ocean, are evidently degraded beings who have degenerated from a nobler stock. But the history and traditions of most of the tribes with which we are acquainted, and especially of those inhabiting the American continent, show that at some remote period they must have possessed more knowledge than they exhibited at our first acquaintance with them. Revelation, too, assures us that man was made perfect; and philosophy has not succeeded in forming a theory to account for the physical or moral diversities exhibited by our race, approaching in consistency to that which may be drawn from the pages of the Sacred Writings.

"Man," says Cuvier, "who was cast feeble and naked on the surface of the globe, seemed created for inevitable destruction. Evils assailed him on all sides; the remedies remained concealed from him, but he had been endowed with genius for discovering them. The first savages gathered in the woods some nutritious fruits, some wholesome roots, and thus satisfied their more urgent wants. The first shepherds perceived that the stars follow a regular course, and were directed by them in their journeys over the plains of the desert. Such was the origin of the mathematical and physical sciences.

"When the genius of man had discovered that it could combat Nature by her own means, it no longer rested; it watched her incessantly, and continually wrested from her new conquests, each marked by some improvement in his condition. Then succeeded, without interruption, meditating minds, which, being the faithful depositaries of acquired knowledge, and continually occupied with connecting and giving a vivifying unity to its parts, have led us, in less than four thousand years, from the first attempts of those pastoral observers to the profound calculations of Newton and Laplace, and to the learned classifications of Linnæus and Jussieu. This precious inheritance, always augmenting, borne from Chaldea to Egypt, from Egypt to Greece, hidden during periods of misfortune and darkness, recovered in a happier age, unequally dispersed among the nations of Europe, has been every where followed by riches and power; the nations which have welcomed it have become the mistresses of the world, while those which have neglected it have fallen into feebleness and obscurity."

Had man, in his original state, been cast feeble and naked on the surface of the globe, he could not have survived a single week, with all the elements of nature combined against him. His first experiment on the tiger or the asp, even his first morsel of food, might have been fatal to him. He must have been formed perfect in knowledge; or, being formed in ignorance and feebleness, he must have been protected by a power capable of controlling the influences of surrounding nature. But before we proceed to offer a few remarks on the origin and progress of zoological science, it seems expedient to mark the subjects to which the attention of the naturalist is directed.

If we cast our eyes around, and survey, in a comprehensive manner, the objects which exhibit themselves to our view, we may form some idea of the occupations of those individuals who devote themselves to the examination of nature. The surface of the globe presents in part a vast expanse of water bounded by the sinuosities of the shores, and in part an undulating succession of plains and mountains. It is enveloped with an aërial fluid, which extends to a considerable height, sometimes transparent, and sometimes obscured with masses of floating vapour.

The land is diversified by slopes of every degree of inclination,—extensive plains, depressions and hollows, ridges and protuberances of various forms; the highest, however, bearing a very insignificant proportion to the earth's diameter. The waters, which cover more than two-thirds of the globe, separate the land into unequal portions, dividing it into continents and islands. Tracts of elevated ground traverse these in various directions, constituting the elongated mountain-groups named chains; which, being intersected by valleys and containing the sources of numberless streams, slope towards the adjacent countries. Other portions of the surface consist of irregularly-grouped eminences, of inferior height, interspersed with corresponding valleys. Elevated platforms are sometimes met with, and the plains and slopes are not unfrequently diversified with hills. The depressed parts of mountainous regions present great diversity of form, extent, and direction, and often exhibit basins or hollows, which are occasionally filled with water.

Descending into the plains, we find that they are seldom perfectly level, but are formed into slopes of small inclination and of various extent. The pampas of South America, for example, stretch from the base of the Andes to Buenos Ayres, over a space of 900 miles; and in Africa are vast expanses of nearly level land, where the traveller, day after day, sees the horizon preserving the same distance as he proceeds, and bounding an ocean of arid sand. Large flats are also found at great elevations above the sea, such as those of Tartary, Thibet, and Mexico.

Of the other inequalities of the land, the more remarkable are the cavities forming lakes, and the grooves occupied by the beds of rivers. The former are of all sizes, from several hundred miles in circumference down to very small dimensions, and occur in all situations,—between mountain-chains, like the Caspian,—in plains, like Onega,—and along the course of rivers, like those of Canada. The streams necessarily flow in the line which marks the greatest depression of the valleys; although, in some instances, towards their mouths, they occupy a higher level, their beds having been raised by the deposition of the debris carried down by the torrent.

The bottom of the ocean, being merely the continuation of the surface of the land, may be supposed to present inequalities of a similar nature, although, owing to the action of currents, they are probably not so distinctly marked. The transition from what is above to that which is under the water is not in general denoted by any striking phenomenon, excepting the not unfrequent occurrence of long ranges of cliffs, pebbly beaches, and accumulations of sand. When the coast is low and flat, the depth of the sea in its vicinity is usually small; whilst along a rocky and abrupt shore it generally presents a depression in some measure corresponding to the height of the land. The existence of submarine chains of mountains is established by the numerous shoals and rocks which are to be considered as their summits. On these, coral reefs and islands have been gradually raised by myriads of zoophytes.

The mighty mass of waters, which is collectively termed the sea, occupies, as has been already mentioned, more than two-thirds of the surface of the globe. Its chemical composition, its tides, its currents, and all the varied phenomena which it presents, afford subjects of highly-interesting research.

The atmosphere, in like manner, which envelopes the earth, supplies, in its ever-varying aspects, its motions, its electrical phenomena, and the influence which it exercises on animal and vegetable life, an object of investigation pregnant with curious and useful knowledge.

The mysterious agency of subterranean fire has elevated great masses of rocky matter in various parts of the globe. Earthquakes have effected extensive and remarkable changes upon its surface; the waters of the ocean have alternately worn away the shores and eked them out by depositions of sand and mud; the rivers have furrowed the land, and carried the debris of the higher regions to the valleys and plains; while air and moisture have exercised their decomposing influence upon the hardest substances. By the action of these powers the earth has become a fit receptacle for the varied forms of animal and vegetable existence with which we see it so profusely stored.

The variable distribution of heat has produced a striking effect in modifying the earth's surface. The cold of the polar regions covers them at all seasons with an extensive deposite of snow and ice, the margins of which are periodically dissolved by the increasing warmth of summer, to be repaired during the succeeding winter. The numberless icebergs, originally formed on the land or in its vicinity, floating on the ocean, and drifted by winds and currents, often pass into more genial regions, producing occasional variations of temperature. The elevated ridges of mountains experience a similar degree of cold, and in all climates, even in the torrid zone, are covered towards their summits with perennial snow.

Limited as are our powers of examining the interior of the globe, we yet find in its crust indications of a power which, by operating so as to produce apparent confusion, has effected results highly beneficial to the beings by whom the earth has been peopled. The strata, at first regularly superimposed upon each other, and consisting of those diversified materials which are supplied by the disintegration of pre-existing rocks, have been broken up, and inclined in every possible degree, so as to form those depressions and elevations which we every where observe on the surface. These inequalities have been increased by the protrusion of masses from the more central regions, and the whole has been subjected to the agency of powerful currents of water, by means of which the angular cavities and projections have been smoothed or filled up. The consideration of these phenomena constitutes a distinct branch of natural science.

The mountains, rocks, and strata, are composed of ingredients which in themselves are worthy of examination, and capable of affording intense interest. The extremely-diversified forms which these substances assume, their various properties, their uses in the economy of nature, and the purposes to which they may be applied by man, render their investigation not less useful than pleasant.

A most extensive and delightful field of observation presents itself to us in the vegetable bodies with which the surface of the land, and even the depths of the ocean, are so profusely furnished. The various regions of the globe are not less characterized by the form and grouping of the plants which have been allotted to them, than by the comparative activity of their vegetating power. The wastes of Europe, covered by ling, heaths, rushes, and sedges, exhibit little change of aspect under the variations of temperature and the revolutions of the year; while the plains of Venezuela, which during the drought are covered with a layer of sand, and present only a few withered palms scattered along the margins of muddy pools, are converted in the rainy season into an ocean of luxuriant vegetation. In the equinoctial regions of the globe, palms, arborescent ferns, and a multitude of magnificent trees, intertwined with flowering lianas hanging in festoons, form themselves into impenetrable forests, whereas the frigid regions of the arctic circle hardly produce plants a foot in height. The solemn and stately pines of the north of Europe have a very different aspect from the slender-twigged beeches and chestnuts of its temperate regions, or the laurels and fan-palms of its southern shores.

Viewed in relation to their productions, the gelid regions of the globe are not confined to the circumpolar zone, but extend along the summits of the lofty mountains, following the line of perennial snow, which rises from the level of the sea, in Greenland and Spitzbergen, to the height of 14,000 feet in the Andes. These steril tracts nourish only a few species of plants, although the individuals belonging to them are frequently numerous. In the valleys, and on the southern slopes, no sooner has the returning heat of summer melted the snow, than a beautiful carpeting of verdure, diversified by flowers of various tints, spreads over the soil, displaying an astonishing rapidity of development, while the rocks in many places appear covered with cryptogamic plants. Besides mosses, lichens, and other inferior tribes, multitudes of ferns make their appearance. Grasses and creeping dicotyledonous plants are fully matured; and a rich pasturage affords, during the warm season, abundant nourishment to herbivorous animals. Some trees of small size also appear here and there, or even form themselves into thickets and woods. But, in general, the vegetation of these dreary regions, placed on the limits of the habitable earth, is characterized by a paucity of species and a stunted growth.

Firs and pines, existing in vast numbers, and retaining a perpetual though gloomy verdure, characterize the transition from the frigid to the northern temperate zone. This last extends from the parallels of 50° to 40° north latitude, and in its southern borders, the beech, the lime, and the chestnut, mingle with the trees peculiar to more southern regions. The meadows and pastures, especially those in the vicinity of the sea and in the mountain-valleys, are clothed with a brilliant verdure, which we in vain look for in the other sections of the globe.

The warm temperate zone, extending to 25°, presents in general a less beautiful vegetation; for although the heat is greater the humidity is less constant. But it is in the torrid latitudes that Nature displays all her magnificence. There the species of tribes, which in other climates are herbaceous, become shrubs, and the shrubs trees. Ferns rise into trunks equal to those of pines in the northern regions of Europe; balsams, gums, and resins, exude from the bark; aromatic fruits and flowers abound; and the savage, as he roams the woods, satisfies his hunger with the spontaneous offerings of the soil. Here also are all the climates of the globe, and almost all their productions united; for, while the plains are covered with the gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, the lofty mountains display the forms that occur in the colder regions, and the places intermediate in elevation all the graduated transitions from these to the warmest parallels.

The vegetation of the seas presents much less diversity than that of the land. It is less luxuriant, less elegant, less ornamented, and less productive of substances directly useful to man. There is also less distinction between marine plants of different latitudes; for the great currents of the ocean, and other causes, render its temperature more equable than that of the atmosphere.

The numerous and diversified forms which plants assume, their distribution over the globe, their various qualities and uses, and their internal organization, are subjects which have long occupied the attention of observers. In their reproduction, growth, and maturation, phenomena are presented to us, which are well calculated to excite our admiration; and the curious and diversified apparatus of tubes and cells, in which are circulated the fluids derived from the atmosphere and the earth, although apparently more simple than that of the animal economy, affords a profound as well as an interesting subject of research.

All parts of the earth's surface, even the deep recesses of caves and mines, the snows of the polar and alpine regions, and the bottom of the sea, are more or less covered with plants. The same may be said respecting animals, which, being much more diversified in their forms and internal structure, and endowed with more wonderful faculties, lead the mind, by the contemplation of their mechanism and habits, to a nearer approach to the great Creator of all things.

From the gigantic elephant that roams among the splendid forests of the warmer regions of the earth, the unwieldy hippopotamus that plunges in the pools and marshes of the African wilds, and the timid and graceful giraffe that bounds over the sandy desert, down to the little dormouse that we find slumbering in its winter retreat, to the lemming that in congregated myriads overruns the fields of the North, or to the mole that burrows under our feet, we find an astonishing variety of beings, exhibiting forms, instincts, passions, and pursuits, which adapt them for the occupation of every part of the globe. The woods, the plains, the mountains, and the sands of the sea, are replete with life. The waters, too, whether of the ocean or of the land, teem with animated beings. Scarcely is a particle of matter to be found that does not present inhabitants to our view; and a drop of ditch-water is a little world in itself, stored with inmates of corresponding magnitude.

The consideration of the anatomical structure and external conformation of the many thousands of living creatures that come under our view, would of itself occupy many volumes, were it presented in detail; and even the simplest outline in which it could be produced would require more space than can be devoted to it here. All departments of Nature are full of wonders; but this excels the rest in interest, and is proportionally more difficult to be studied; although men, contented with superficial knowledge, may fancy themselves masters of her secrets when they have merely learned to distinguish some hundreds of objects from each other.

Man, separated from all other animals by peculiarities of corporeal organization, not less than by those intellectual faculties which are not in any considerable degree participated by the other inhabitants of the globe, and who is capable of subsisting in every climate, from the arid regions of the torrid zone to the frozen confines of the poles, also belongs in some measure to the study of nature. But the consideration of man includes a multitude of subjects that do not properly belong to Natural History, in the limited sense in which we use the term. It might even be said that it embraces all human knowledge. Thus, the constitution of the human mind, and the structure of the human body, as well as its healthy and morbid phenomena, together with the means of regulating the former and of counteracting the latter, may certainly be included in it.

Natural history, however, in its more limited acceptation, may be considered as comprehending the three great kingdoms of Nature,—the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal,—the sciences treating of which are named Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology. The first of these departments of knowledge comprehends, along with the consideration of simple minerals, that of the masses produced by the aggregation of these substances, and the changes effected upon them by natural causes. Botany teaches us to distinguish and arrange the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, points out the forms and functions of their organs, investigates their internal structure, traces them in their distribution over the surface of the globe, and makes known the various properties which render them noxious or useful to us. Zoology treats of the various tribes of animals, marks their external forms, compares their various organs, describes their habits, discloses the laws which regulate their distribution over the continents and islands, arranges them into families according to principles deduced from their structure, and in general makes us acquainted with all that belongs to their history. Although it is unnecessary here to offer any extended remarks on the cultivation of the vast field which is thus opened up to us, yet, the science of animals being intimately connected with the Series of Lives which we propose to offer to the public, it may not be improper to give a short account of its origin and progress.

In the History of Zoology, four eras are marked by the names of four great cultivators of that science. All knowledge of nature must have commenced in the observation of individuals, or in an intuitive perception of their properties bestowed upon the first man. We may suppose, however, that at some period not remote from the creation of the human race men were left to their own resources, when they were necessarily forced to examine the nature and qualities of plants and animals, as well as of all natural objects with which they came into contact. The son would learn from the father, and impart to his descendants a certain degree of knowledge acquired by observation. Where the art of writing was unknown, science would advance but slowly; and even where it was practised, the privilege would probably belong to individuals or families, so that the mass would still be left to their ordinary resources. Those who lived in the remote ages antecedent to the Christian era probably knew as much of natural history as the unlettered peasant of our own age and country. Whatever may have been the acquirements of the priests, the sole depositaries of science in ancient India, Chaldea, and Egypt, they perished amid the revolutions of empires. The Sacred Scriptures, however, show that Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, had bestowed considerable attention on the animal world; but as these writings were not intended for our instruction in natural knowledge, the observations which they contain on the subject have no reference to systematic arrangement. In short, whatever may have been the knowledge possessed by the subjects of the Pharaohs, or the Hebrews and Greeks of the earlier ages, we do not find that it had assumed any definite form, or constituted a body of doctrine, until the time of Alexander the Great. At this epoch the illustrious Aristotle collected the observations of his predecessors; added to them those, more extensive and more important, which were made by himself; and, although deeply engaged in the study of other subjects, succeeded in collecting a mass of facts, and in eliciting from them general principles, the accuracy of many of which might surprise us, did we not reflect that, in this department at least, he followed the true method by which the physical sciences have in our times received so vast an augmentation. He, however, stands alone among the writers of remote antiquity in this field; for, if others followed in his steps, their works have been lost.

Among the Romans, by whom the sciences were carried from Greece to Western Europe, there must have been many naturalists of considerable attainments; but the only writer of that nation whose descriptions have come down to us is Pliny the Elder, who flourished under Vespasian. His books on natural history are compiled from the writings of others, and may be considered as a general collection of all that was known in his time. Although he must have possessed opportunities of observing the many rare animals that were brought from all parts of the world to Rome, it does not appear that, by original observation, he added much to the mass of facts; still he may be viewed as marking the second epoch in the history of zoology, more especially as his works supplied the materials out of which naturalists in later ages have constructed their systems. As to Ælian, a Greek writer, whose treatise was also a compilation, his merits were much fewer, and his absurdities more numerous than those of his predecessor. Both were fond of the marvellous, but he was eminently addicted to falsehood.

During the long ages of barbarism that succeeded the destruction of the Roman empire all the sciences were lost. On the revival of learning some feeble efforts were made to rescue natural history from its degraded condition; and at the commencement of the sixteenth century appeared several works on fishes, by Paolo Giovio, Pierre Belon, Rondelet, and Salviani. Belon wrote on birds also, and his observations are remarkable considering the period at which he lived. Conrad Gesner, a physician of Zurich, in his History of Animals, presented a compilation, arranged in alphabetical order, of all that the ancients had left on the subject; and Aldrovandi, after the labour of sixty years, left behind him an immense work on natural history, comprising no less than fourteen folio volumes. In the seventeenth century, we find our own Ray and Willughby among the most successful students of nature. Besides these celebrated individuals, there were others, such as Jonston and Redi, who laboured in the field of zoology; but perhaps the most original authors of this period were Swammerdam and Reaumur, whose minute observations, in entomology especially, have not been excelled in accuracy by those of any subsequent writers. It was not, however, until the middle of the eighteenth century, that a new era was formed by the labours of Linnæus, who was the first to collect all the known productions of nature, to class them according to simple principles derived from the observation of facts, and to invent a nomenclature at once efficient and comprehensive.

Since the time of that philosopher natural history in all its branches has been cultivated with extreme ardour. The writers of this period have been numerous beyond those of any former epoch; and as anatomical investigation was successfully applied to the study of zoology, while the objects known were immensely increased, it was soon found that the classifications of the great reformer of the science were in many respects deficient, and that he had frequently associated objects which have too little affinity to be grouped together in the same class or order. The Systema Naturæ, in place of forming a complete catalogue of all the objects of nature, "became," to use the words of an accomplished author, "a mere sketch of what was to be done afterwards. Even more recent naturalists touched with a timid hand upon the natural grouping of the highest branches of the science, and it was reserved for a mighty genius of our own time to open the path to us, and to smooth the difficulties of that path, by precisely determining the limits of the great divisions, by exactly defining the lesser groups, by placing them all according to the invariable characters of their internal structure, and by ridding them of the accumulations of synonymes and absurdities which ignorance, want of method, or fertility of imagination, had heaped upon them."[A] This "mighty genius," it is almost unnecessary to add, was the illustrious Cuvier, who, although by no means the only great, and possibly not even the greatest zoologist of his time, may, if we are disposed to mark an epoch by a single name, be selected for that purpose. But even this celebrated writer has, in his Règne Animal, merely presented a sketch, leaving to others the task of completing the various departments. They who think otherwise forget that the generic and specific characters of the systematist, necessarily condensed, are very inadequate to convey any other than the most superficial knowledge of the diversified objects of nature.

These, then, were the men who progressively reared the structure of zoology. Aristotle was a universal genius; but with respect to natural history he is to be looked upon chiefly as a zoologist. Pliny was a collector of every thing known in his time, whether true or fabulous, that related to animals, minerals, and plants. Linnæus arranged all the objects of nature. He was perhaps greater as a zoologist than as a botanist, although, in the latter capacity, his labours have been more highly appreciated, because there have been more cultivators of the science of plants, of which the study requires less laborious investigation, and to many persons is more attractive. Lastly, Cuvier, an original genius, an acute observer, and an accurate reasoner, profiting by the accumulated knowledge of ages, remodelled the system of zoology, and, in his Règne Animal, arranged the series of animals according to principles elicited from the investigation of their structure and relations.

The present volume includes the lives of the more eminent zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus. Those who succeeded the latter will furnish ample materials for another.

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that these volumes may either be considered as complete in themselves, or as introductory to a general and particular description of the various tribes of animals. A work on this most extensive subject is a great desideratum in English literature,—not that books on this department of science are wanting, but because we have none that present a continuous view of the families end species of the different classes, at once intelligible to the student of nature, attractive to the general reader, and free from that meagreness of phraseology necessarily peculiar to the composers of systematic catalogues.

It is not now required of us to point out the advantages that might result from the establishment of natural history as a branch of popular education. These advantages have been repeatedly pressed on the notice of the public; and, although the system has not been as yet adopted, the time cannot be far distant when the elements of mineralogy, botany, and zoology shall be taught in our schools, along with those branches of knowledge which at present occupy the field, to the exclusion of others not less adapted for the improvement of the youthful mind. "To constitute such pursuits a prominent part of elementary education," says a popular writer, "would without doubt be erroneous: it is, however, certain that none are more eminently fitted to fill the minds of youth with admiration of the numerous contrivances and proofs of design afforded in every part of the creation, and to inspire them with exalted conceptions of the Supreme Being."[B] We are of opinion, notwithstanding, that they ought to occupy a distinct place in elementary education, because they possess many important recommendations, of which those mentioned are certainly not the least. The study of nature may be pursued in any degree, as a relaxation from other studies, as a pleasing occupation invigorating alike to the mind and the body, or as a science capable of calling into action the noblest faculties of man, and of affording employment to intellects of even a higher order than any of those who have hitherto acquired distinction in the walks of literature. Natural history has already to boast of an Aristotle, a Ray, a Reaumur, a Linnæus, a Haller, a Hunter, and a Cuvier. What other science can rank abler men among its cultivators? And, as is remarked by one of the most eminent naturalists that this country has produced, the late president of the Linnæan Society, "How delightful and how consolatory it is, among the disappointments and anxieties of life, to observe science, like virtue, retaining its relish to the last!"

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Mrs R. Lee's Memoirs of Baron Cuvier, p. 51.

[B] Quarterly Review, vol. xxxvi. p. 219.

ARISTOTLE.

SECTION I.

Remarkable Events in the Life of Aristotle.

Natural History, considered as a science or body of doctrine, commenced with Aristotle, the founder of the Peripatetic School, and one of the most illustrious philosophers of antiquity. His writings were held in the highest estimation by his own countrymen the Greeks, as well as by the Romans: they were considered as the most authentic sources of knowledge, after the revival of learning in Europe; and even at the present day their influence may be traced in the works of many who have not so much as bestowed upon them a cursory glance. It is therefore fit that we should begin our biographical sketches with that celebrated author, the more especially as he did not confine himself to a single branch of natural history, but, like all great minds, possessed an extensive acquaintance with objects of various classes. It is he only, whose comprehensive glance seizes upon what is common to numerous tribes, that can duly estimate what ought to be considered as distinctive of a particular group, or can form rules for the arrangement and description of the beings which compose it. The three greatest naturalists whom the world has produced, Aristotle, Linnæus, and Cuvier, were men whose conceptions were enlarged by the most expanded views. Others have excelled them in particular departments, but none have equalled them in general knowledge.

Aristotle was born at Stagira, a city of the Thracian Chersonesus, in the first year of the 99th Olympiad, or the 384th before the Christian era. His father, Nicomachus, was physician to Amyntas, king of Macedonia, the father of Philip, and grandfather of Alexander the Great. Of his mother, we only know that her name was Phestis, and that, like her husband, she was originally from Chalcis. His family claimed descent from Machaon, the son of Esculapius. Having lost his parents at an early age, he went to reside with Proxenus, a citizen of Atarneus in Mysia, the friend to whose guardianship he had been left. According to some authorities, not being observed very strictly by those who had the immediate charge of his education, he spent a great part of his youth in licentious indulgences, by which he dissipated nearly the whole of a large patrimony. It is also said that he entered into the military profession, but finding it disagreeable soon renounced it, and, as a means of subsistence, sold medicines at Athens. But most of these reflections on his juvenile character may perhaps be attributed to slander.

However this may be, it became necessary for him to choose an employment; and, on going to Delphi to consult the oracle, he was directed to proceed to Athens, and apply himself to the study of philosophy. This he accordingly did, and at the age of seventeen commenced his career as a pupil of Plato.

Being of an ardent temperament, he addicted himself to his new pursuit with so much energy, that he determined to reduce his hours of repose to the smallest possible limits. For this purpose he placed a metallic basin beside his couch, and on lying down held out one of his hands with an iron ball in it, that the noise produced by the collision might awake him should he happen to slumber. Such intensity of application, in a penetrating and subtile mind, could not fail to render him highly successful in his studies. We accordingly find that he had not been long in the academy when he was distinguished above all the other scholars; and it is said that Plato used to call him the mind of his school, and to compare him to a spirited colt that required the application of the rein to restrain its ardour.

He has been accused of disrespect and ingratitude to his aged master, and with having set up a school in opposition to him. The author of this charge was Aristoxenus, his own pupil; but it is well known that he was personally an enemy to Aristotle, because that philosopher, in choosing a successor, had preferred Theophrastus. It is doubted, besides, whether he taught publicly until after Plato's death, which happened in 348 B. C.

Speusippus, the nephew of the sage just named, having been appointed to succeed him in his school, Aristotle, retiring from Athens, went to reside with Hermeias, governor of Assus and Atarneus in Mysia. Here he remained three years; but his friend having been executed, by command of Artaxerxes, as a rebel against Persia, he was obliged to seek refuge in Mytelene, taking with him Pythias, the kinswoman and adopted daughter of Hermeias, to whose memory he afterwards erected a statue in the temple of Delphos. This lady, endeared to him by the gratitude which he felt towards her father, and by the distress to which she had been reduced by his death, he married in the thirty-seventh year of his age. She died, however, soon after their union, leaving an infant daughter, who received the same name.

A short time having elapsed, he was invited by Philip to superintend the education of his son. This distinction he no doubt owed in part to his previous intimacy with the King of Macedonia; but it must also have arisen from the great celebrity which he enjoyed, as excelling in all kinds of science, and especially in the doctrine of politics. Alexander had attained the age of fifteen when the management of his studies was confided to Aristotle, then in his forty-second year. There is ground, however, for presuming that previous to this period the philosopher had been consulted respecting the instruction of the young prince.

The master, it has been said, was worthy of his pupil, and the pupil of his master. In our opinion the master was worthy of a better pupil, and the pupil might have had a better master. At all events, Alexander, who was ambitious of excelling in every pursuit, must have profited greatly in the acquisition of knowledge by the lessons of the most eminently-endowed philosopher of his age. According to Plutarch and Aulus Gellius, he was instructed by him in rhetoric, physics, ethics, and politics; and so high was the estimation in which he held his preceptor, that he is said to have declared, that "he was not less indebted to Aristotle than to his father; since if it was through the one that he lived, it was through the other that he lived well." It is also supposed that he had been initiated in the abstruse speculations respecting the human soul, the nature of the Divinity, and other subjects, on which his master had not yet promulgated his notions to the world.

During his residence at the court of Macedonia, Aristotle did not exclusively devote himself to his duties as instructor of the young prince, but also took some share in public business, and continued his philosophical researches. For the latter purpose Philip is said to have granted him liberal supplies of money. In consideration of his various merits the king also rebuilt his native city, Stagira, which had been destroyed in the wars, and restored it to its former inhabitants, who had either been dispersed or carried into slavery.

Alexander had scarcely completed his twentieth year when the assassination of his father, by Pausanias, one of the officers of the guard, called him to the throne. Aristotle, however, continued to reside at the court two years longer; when some misunderstanding having arisen, he left the young monarch at the commencement of his celebrated expedition into Asia, and returned to Athens. It has been alleged that he accompanied his former pupil as far as Egypt; but the fact is not certain, although circumstances would seem to render it probable.

He was well received at Athens, on account of the benefits which Philip had conferred, for his sake, on the inhabitants of that city; and, obtaining permission from the magistrates to occupy the Lyceum, a large enclosure in the suburbs, he proceeded to form a school. It was his custom to instruct his disciples while walking with them; and for this reason the new sect received the name of Peripatetics, or walking philosophers. In the morning he delivered his acroatic lectures to his select pupils, imparting to them the more abstruse parts of metaphysical science; and in the evening gave to his visiters or the public at large exoteric discourses, in which the subjects discussed were treated in a popular style. As the Lyceum soon acquired great celebrity, scholars flocked to it from all parts of Greece. Xenocrates, who shared with him the lessons of Plato, had by this time succeeded Speusippus in the Academy, and it has been alleged that Aristotle established his seminary in contemptuous opposition; observing, that it would be shameful for him to be silent while the other taught publicly. But although the rival sages of those days cannot be supposed to have been influenced by a gentler spirit than animates those of our own times, there is no reason for attributing to the Stagirite in this matter any other motive than a laudable desire of seeking his own interest by communicating knowledge to those who were desirous of receiving it.

In this manner he gave public lectures at Athens thirteen years, during the greater part of which time he did not cease to correspond with Alexander. That celebrated prince had placed at his disposal several thousand persons, who were occupied in hunting, fishing, and making the observations which were necessary for completing his History of Animals. He is moreover said to have given the enormous sum of 800 talents for the same purpose; while he also took care to send to him a great variety of zoological specimens, collected in the countries which he had subdued.

The misunderstanding which had begun before Aristotle parted from his royal pupil, but which had not prevented the good offices of the latter, increased towards the end of his career. One of the first occasions seems to have been offered by the philosopher, who, having published his works on physics and metaphysics, received from Alexander, who was piqued at his having divulged to the world the valuable knowledge which he had obtained from him in his youth, the following letter:—

"Alexander to Aristotle, wishing all happiness. You have done amiss in publishing your books on the speculative sciences. In what shall I excel others if what you taught me privately be communicated to all? You know well that I would rather surpass mankind in the more sublime branches of learning than in power. Farewell."

This epistle exhibits the king as a very exclusive personage; and, joined to what history has recorded of his actions, tends to show that selfishness, however refined or disguised, was the main source of his insatiable ambition. One of the sincerest pleasures of a great mind is to communicate to others all the blessings that it possesses. On other occasions he appeared to entertain a wish to mortify the philosopher by exalting his rival Xenocrates, who had nothing to recommend him besides a respectable moral character. It has even been asserted by some, that the conqueror, after he had put Callisthenes to death, intended the same fate for Aristotle.

This Callisthenes was a kinsman and disciple of the other, through whose influence, it is said, he was appointed to attend the king on his Asiatic expedition. His republican sentiments and independent spirit, however, rendered him an indifferent courtier; while his rude and ill-timed reflections finally converted him into an object of suspicion or dislike. The conspiracy of Hermolaus affording Alexander a plausible pretext for getting rid of his uncourtly monitor, he caused him to be apprehended and put to death. Some say that he was exposed to lions, others that he was tortured and crucified; but, in whatever way he met his end, it is generally agreed that his life was sacrificed to gratify the enmity of his sovereign. Aristotle naturally espoused the cause of his relative, and from that period harboured a deep resentment against his destroyer. It has even been alleged that he was privy to the supposed design of murdering the victorious prince; but of this there is no satisfactory evidence.

Notwithstanding the coolness which thus existed between "Macedonia's madman" and "the Stagirite," the latter continued to enjoy at least an appearance of protection, which prevented his enemies from seriously molesting him. But as the splendour of his talents, his success in teaching, and the celebrity which he had acquired in all parts of Greece, had excited the animosity of those who found themselves eclipsed by the brightness of his genius, no sooner was Alexander dead, than they stirred up a priest, named Eurymedon, with whom was associated Demophilus, a powerful citizen, to prefer a charge of impiety against him before the court of Areopagus, on the ground that he had commemorated the virtues of his wife and of his friend Hermeias with such honours as were exclusively bestowed on the gods. Warned by the fate of Socrates under similar circumstances, he judged it prudent to retire; remarking, that he wished to spare the Athenians the disgrace of committing another act of injustice against philosophy.

He effected his escape, with a few friends, to Chalcis in Eubœa, where he died soon after, in the year 322 b.c., and the 63d of his age; having, on his deathbed, appointed Theophrastus of Lesbos, one of his favourite pupils, his successor at the Lyceum. Various accounts are given of his demise; but it is probable that an overexcited mind, and a body worn out by disease, were the real causes of his dissolution.

According to Procopius and others, Aristotle drowned himself in the Eubœan Euripus, because he could not discover the cause of its ebbing and flowing, which are said to take place seven times a-day. Sir Thomas Browne, in his Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, refutes this assertion on the following grounds:—In the first place, his death is related to have taken place in two ways by Diogenes Laertius; the one, from Eumolus and Phavorinus, that being accused of impiety for composing a hymn to his friend Hermeias, he withdrew to Chalcis, where he drank poison; the other, by Apollodorus, that he died of a disease in his stomach, in his sixty-third year. Again, the thing is in itself unreasonable, and therefore improbable; for Aristotle was not so apt to be vexed by the difficulty of accounting for natural phenomena, nor is there any evidence that he endeavoured to discover the ebb and flow of the Euripus, for he has made no mention of it in his works. Lastly, the phenomenon itself is disputable; and it appears from a comparison of testimonies on the subject, that the stream in question flows and ebbs only four times a-day, as is the case with other parts of the sea, though it is subject to irregularities dependent upon the winds and other causes. "However, therefore, Aristotle died," concludes our author, "what was his end, or upon what occasion, although it be not altogether assured, yet that his memory and worthy name shall live, no man will deny, nor gratefull schollar doubt: and if, according to the Elogie of Solon, a man may be onely said to be happy after he is dead, and ceaseth to be in the visible capacity of beatitude: or if, according unto his own Ethicks, sence is not essentiall unto felicity, but a man may be happy without the apprehension thereof; surely in that sence he is pyramidally happy, nor can he ever perish but in the Euripe of ignorance, or till the torrent of barbarisme overwhelme all."

With respect to personal appearance, Aristotle was not highly favoured. He was of short stature, with slender legs, and remarkably small eyes. His voice was shrill, and his utterance hesitating. Although his constitution was feeble, he seems to have enjoyed good health. His moral character has been impeached by some; but we may presume that it was not liable to any serious imputation, otherwise his faults would not have escaped the observation of his numerous enemies, who yet could only prefer against him some vague charges of impiety.

Aristotle was not merely a philosopher; he was also what would at the present day be called a gentleman and a man of the world. In accordance with this character he dressed magnificently, wore rings of great value, shaved his head and face, contrary to the practice of the other scholars of Plato, and freely indulged in social intercourse. He was twice married. By his first wife, Pythias, he had a daughter of the same name, who was married to Nicanor, the son of Proxenus. His second wife was Herpylis, a native of Stagira, by whom he had a son, called Nicomachus.

It is difficult to determine his real character. Those who seem to find pleasure in reviling him, assert that he was a parasite, a habitual glutton and drunkard, a despiser of the gods, a vain person, whose chief care was to ornament his person, and thereby counteract the unfavourable impression which his disproportioned figure might make. It has been said, with perhaps more truth, that he taught his pupil Alexander principles of morals and policy which were not the best adapted for a prince of his ambitious temper; and that his desire of standing forth as the founder of a philosophical sect, induced him to prefer abstract disquisitions to solid knowledge, and to indulge in a spirit of contradiction and innovation. On the other hand, he has been extolled as a prodigy of knowledge and intellect, and represented as "the secretary of nature." Jews have laid claim to his philosophy as derived from Solomon, and Christians have held him up as a person ordained to prepare the way for a Divine revelation. It is certain, however, that he was a very remarkable individual, possessed of great powers of observation and discrimination, and one who, had he devoted himself to the study of natural objects with a sincere desire of ascertaining their properties and a resolution to adhere to truth, might have succeeded in laying on a solid basis the foundations of physical science.

Diogenes of Laertes in Cilicia, who lived about the end of the second century, and who wrote an account of the lives of the philosophers, has preserved his testament, the substance of which is as follows:—Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, is appointed his executor. To his wife Herpylis he leaves the choice of two houses, the one in Chalcis, the other at Stagira. He commends her domestic virtues, and requests his friends to distinguish her by the kindest attention. To Nicomachus, his son by Herpylis, and to Pythias, his daughter by his first wife, he bequeaths the remainder of his fortune, excepting his library and writings, which he leaves to Theophrastus. He desires that his daughter shall be given in marriage to Nicanor, the son of his benefactor Proxenus, or, should he not be inclined to receive her, to Theophrastus, his esteemed pupil. The bones of Pythias he orders to be disinterred and buried with his own body, as she herself had desired. None of his slaves are to be sold; they are all either emancipated by his will, or ordered to be set free by his heirs whenever they shall become worthy of liberty. Finally, he orders that the dedications which he had vowed for the safety of Nicanor be presented at Stagira to Jupiter and Minerva.

The same writer gives the titles of 260 works of Aristotle. Many of these, however, have perished. From his situation in society, and the munificent patronage of Alexander, he possessed more ample resources than any other man of science that could be named; and, considering the age in which he lived, his success in the investigation of nature may be considered as almost unrivalled. It is to be regretted that so many of his treatises have been lost, and that even those which have been transmitted to us have not been preserved in a perfect state.

Strabo has given a melancholy history of these works, in the ninth book of his geography. Aristotle, as we have stated above, had bequeathed them to Theophrastus, the most distinguished of his pupils, and his successor in the school. That philosopher left them, together with his own works, to his scholar Neleus, who carried them to his native city, Scepsis in Asia Minor. The heirs of Neleus, who were unlettered men, kept them locked up; and when they understood that the King of Pergamos, to whom the town belonged, was collecting books, to form a library on the plan of the Alexandrian, they concealed them in a vault or cellar, where they lay forgotten 130 years. When accidentally discovered, at the end of that period, they were found to be greatly injured by damp and vermin. At length they were sold to an inhabitant of Athens, named Apellicon, who, however, was not so much a lover of philosophy as a collector of manuscripts, and who adulterated the original text by his injudicious emendations and interpolations. Several copies thus altered were published by him. When Athens was taken by Sylla, the library of this citizen was carried to Rome, where the works of Aristotle were corrected by Tyrannion, a grammarian. Andronicus of Rhodes afterwards arranged the whole into sections, and gave them to the world.

According to Dr Gillies, Aristotle must have "composed above 400 different treatises, of which only forty-eight have been transmitted to the present age. But many of these last consist of several books; and the whole of his remains together still form a golden stream of Greek erudition, exceeding four times the collective bulk of the Iliad and Odyssey."

He was scarcely less ambitious than his pupil Alexander, and his works embrace nearly the whole range of human knowledge as it existed in his day. He was the inventor of the syllogistic mode of reasoning, the principles of which he lays down in his work on logic. In his books on rhetoric, he has investigated the principles of eloquence with great accuracy and precision, insomuch that they form the basis of all that has since been written on the subject. His work on poetics, or rather the fragment which has come down to us under that name, although almost entirely confined to the consideration of the drama, contains principles applicable to poetical composition in general, and is equally distinguished for precision and depth of thought. Those on ethics and politics are also remarkable productions; and although the former has been effectually superseded by a more perfect system, the latter contains much that is interesting even at the present day. In his metaphysics, he expounds the doctrine of Being abstracted from Matter, and speaks of a First Mover,—the life and intellect of the universe, eternal and immutable, but neither omnipresent nor omnipotent. When treating of physics, he does not in general lay down rules a priori, but deduces them from the observation and comparison of facts. This being the case, we might expect that such of his writings as relate to natural history should contain much truth.

He holds that all terrestrial bodies are composed of four elements,—earth, water, air, and fire. Earth and water are heavy, because they tend towards the earth's centre; while air and fire, which tend upwards, are light.

Besides these four elements, he has admitted a fifth, of which the celestial objects were composed, and whose motion is always circular. He supposed that there is above the air, under the concave part of the moon, a sphere of fire to which all the flames ascend, as the brooks and rivers flow into the ocean.

He maintains that matter is infinitely divisible; that the universe is full, and that there is no vacuum in nature; that the world is eternal; that the sun, which has always revolved as it does at present, will for ever continue to do so; and finally, that the generations of men succeed each other without having had a beginning or foreseeing an end.

He alleges that the heavens are incapable of decay; and that although sublunar things are subject to corruption, their parts nevertheless do not perish; that they only change place; that from the remains of one thing another is made; and that thus the mass of the world always remains entire. He holds that the earth is in the centre of the world; and that the First Being makes the skies revolve round the earth, by intelligences which are continually occupied with these motions.

He asserts that all of the globe which is now covered by the waters of the sea was formerly dry land; and that what is now dry land will be again converted into water. The reason is this: the rivers and torrents are continually carrying along sand and earth, which causes the shores gradually to advance, and the sea gradually to retire; so that in the course of innumerable ages the alleged vicissitudes necessarily take place. He adds, that in several parts which are considerably inland, and even of great elevation, the sea, when retiring, left shells, and that, on digging in the ground, anchors and fragments of ships are sometimes found. Ovid attributes the same opinion to Pythagoras.

Aristotle farther remarks, that these conversions of sea into land, and of land into sea, which gradually take place in the long lapse of ages, are in a great measure the cause of our ignorance of past occurrences. He adds, that besides this other accidents happen, which give rise even to the loss of the arts; and among these he enumerates pestilences, wars, famines, earthquakes, burnings, and desolations, which exterminate all the inhabitants of a country, excepting a few who escape and save themselves in the deserts, where they lead a savage life, and where they give origin to others, who in the progress of time cultivate the ground, and invent or rediscover the arts; and that the same opinions recur, and have been renewed times without number. In this manner, he maintains that, notwithstanding these vicissitudes and revolutions, the machine of the world always remains indestructible.

If an apology were necessary for the brevity of the above sketch, it might be urged, that it probably contains all that is authentic respecting the life of this eminent philosopher; and that our object is to condense, not to expand; to direct the attention to characteristic features, not to lead the mind to expatiate vaguely upon the general surface.

SECTION II.

Account of Aristotle's History of Animals.

Of all the sciences, it has been remarked, that which owes most to Aristotle is the natural history of animals. Not only was he acquainted with numerous species, he also described them according to a comprehensive and luminous method, which perhaps none of his successors have approached; arranging the facts observed, not according to the species, but according to the organs and functions, which affords the only means of establishing comparative results. It may in fact be said, that besides being the oldest author on comparative anatomy whose writings we possess, he was likewise one of those who have treated that part of natural history with most genius, and best deserves to be taken as a model. The principal divisions which are still adopted by naturalists in the animal kingdom are those of Aristotle, and he proposed some which have been resumed after having been unjustly rejected. If we examine the foundation of these great labours, we shall find that they all rest on the same method, which is itself derived from the theory respecting the origin of general ideas. He always observes facts with attention, compares them with great precision, and endeavours to discover the circumstances in which they agree. His style, moreover, is suited to his method: simple, precise, unstudied, and calm, it seems in every respect the reverse of Plato's; but it has also the merit of being generally clear, except in some places where his ideas themselves were not so.[C]

In one of his treatises, Aristotle divides natural bodies into those possessing life, and those destitute of that principle,—into animate and inanimate. He considers soul as the vital energy or vivifying principle common to all organized bodies; but distinguishes in it three species. Thus, in plants there is a vegetative, in animals a vegetative and a sentient, in man a vegetative, a sentient, and a rational soul. The functions of nutrition and generation in plants and animals he attributes to the vegetative soul; sense, voluntary motion, appetite, and passion, to the sentient soul; the exercise of the intellectual faculties, to the rational soul.

His ideas of anatomy and physiology were extremely imperfect. Thus, he supposed the brain to be a cold spongy mass, adapted for collecting and exhaling the superfluous moisture, and intended for aiding the lungs and trachea in regulating the heat of the body. The heart is the seat of the vital fire, the fountain of the blood, the organ of motion, sensation, and nutrition, as well as of the passions, and the origin of the veins and nerves. The blood is confined to the veins; while the arteries contain an aërial spirit; and by nerves he means tendons, nerves, and arteries,—in short, strings of all kinds, as the name implies. The heart has three cavities; in the larger animals it communicates with the windpipe, or the ramifications of the pulmonary artery receive the breath in the lungs and carry it to the heart. Respiration is performed by the expansion of the air in the lungs, by means of the internal fire, and the subsequent irruption of the external air to prevent a vacuum. Digestion is a kind of concoction or boiling, performed in the stomach, assisted by the heat of the neighbouring viscera.

It is perhaps impossible at the present day, when the investigation of nature is so much facilitated by the accumulated knowledge of ages in every department of physical science, by the commercial relations existing between countries in all parts of the globe, by a tried method of observation, experiment, and induction, and finally, by the possession of the most ingenious instruments, to form any adequate idea of the numerous difficulties under which the ancient naturalist laboured. On the other hand, he had this great advantage, that almost every thing was new; that the most simple observation correctly recorded, the most trivial phenomenon truly interpreted, became as it were his inalienable property, and was handed down to succeeding ages as a proof of his talents,—a circumstance which must have supplied a great motive to exertion.

The History of Animals is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable performances of which physical science can boast. It must not, however, be imagined that it is a work which, replete with truth and exhibiting the well-arranged results of accurate observation and laborious investigation, is calculated to afford material aid to the modern student. To him more recent productions are the only safe guides; nor is it until he has studied them, and interrogated nature for himself, that he can derive benefit from the perusal of the treatise which we now proceed to examine.

The first book contains a brief description of the parts of which the bodies of animals are composed. The introduction consists of general propositions; of which we shall present a few of the more remarkable as a specimen.

Some parts, he observes, are simple, and divided into similar particles; while others are compound, and consist of dissimilar elements. The same parts in different animals vary in form, proportion, and other qualities; and there are many creatures which, although they have the same parts, have them in different situations. Animals differ in their mode of living, actions, and manners: thus, some reside on land, others in water; and of the latter some breathe water, others air, and some neither. Of aquatic animals, some inhabit the sea, others the rivers, lakes, or marshes. Of those which live in the sea, some are pelagic, others littoral, and others inhabit rocks. Of land-animals, some respire air, as man; others, although they live on the land and obtain their food there, do not breathe air, as wasps, bees, and other insects.

We know no animal, says he, that flies only, as the fish swims; for those which have membranous wings walk also; and bats have feet, as have seals, although imperfect. But some birds have the feet weak; in which case the defect is compensated by the superior action of the wings, as in swallows. There are many species which both walk and swim. Animals also differ in their habits; thus, some are gregarious, others solitary,—a distinction applicable to them whether they walk, fly, or swim. Some obey a leader, others act independently; cranes and bees are of the former, ants of the latter kind. Some feed on flesh, others on fruits, while others feed indiscriminately; some have homes, others use no covering of this kind, but reside in the open air. Some burrow, as lizards and snakes; others, as the horse and the dog, live above ground. Some animals seek their food at night, others by day; some are tame, others wild; some utter sounds, others are mute, and some sing; all of them, however, sing or cry in some way at the season of pairing.

In this way he proceeds, stating briefly the various circumstances in which animals differ from each other, and in conclusion asserting that man is the only one capable of design; for, says he, although many of them have memory and docility, none but man have the faculty of reflection.

These general propositions or aphorisms are not so simple or so easily attained as one might imagine on reading them inattentively. Let any person who has a tolerably comprehensive idea of the series of animated beings reflect a little, and he will perceive, that such as the following must be derived from the observation of a great number of facts:—Those parts which seize the food, and into which it is received, are found in all animals. The sense of touch is the only one common to all. Every living creature has a humour, blood or sanies, the loss of which produces death. Every species that has wings has also feet.

In this chapter Aristotle divides animals into such as have blood, and such as have it not. Of the former (the red-blooded) some want feet, others have two of these organs, and others four. Of the latter (the white-blooded) many have more than four feet. Of the swimming-animals, which are destitute of feet, some have fins, which are two or four; others none. Of the cartilaginous class, those which are flat have no fins, as the skate. Some of them have feet, as the mollusca. Those which have a hard leathery covering swim with their tail. Again, some animals are viviparous, others produce eggs, some worms. Man, the horse, the seal, and other land-animals, bring forth their young alive; as do the cetacea and sharks. Those which have blow-holes have no gills, as the dolphin and whale. In this department, the observations of the great philosopher are often minute, and generally accurate, although usually too aphoristic and unconnected to be of much use to the student.

Of flying-animals, some, as the eagle and hawk, have wings; others, in place of wings, have membranes, as the bee and the beetle; others a leathery expansion, as the bat. Those which have feathered or leathery wings are blooded (red-blooded); but those which have membranous wings, as insects, are bloodless (white-blooded). Those which fly with wings or with leathery expansions, either have two feet or none; for, says he, it is reported that there are serpents of this kind in Ethiopia. Of the flying bloodless animals, some have their wings covered by a sheath, as beetles; others have no covering, and of these some have two, others four wings. Those which are of large size, or bear a sting behind, have four; but the smaller and stingless, two only. Those which have sheaths to their wings, have no sting; but those which have two wings are furnished with a sting in their fore part, as the gnat.

Animals are distinguished from each other, so as to form kinds or families. These, according to our author, are quadrupeds, birds, fishes, cetacea, all which he says have (red) blood. There is another kind, covered with a shell, such as the oyster; and another, protected by a softer shell, such as the crab. Another kind is that of the mollusca, such as the cuttlefish; and lastly, the family of insects. All these are destitute of (red) blood.

Here, then, we have a general classification of animals, which it is important to notice, as we may have occasion afterwards to compare it with arrangements proposed by other naturalists. It may be reduced to the following form:—

Red-blooded Animals.

Quadrupeds, Serpents, Birds, Fishes, Cetacea.

White-blooded Animals.

Testacea, Crustacea, Mollusca, Insects.

It must, however, be understood, that Aristotle proposes no formal distribution of animals, and that his ideas respecting families, groups, or genera, such as those of our present naturalists, are extremely vague.

His quadrupeds include the mammalia and the quadrupedal reptiles. He divides them into those which are viviparous, and those which are oviparous; the former covered with hair, the latter with scales. Serpents are also scaly, and, excepting the viper, oviparous. Yet all viviparous animals are not hairy; for some fishes, he remarks, likewise bring forth their young alive. In the great family of viviparous quadrupeds also, he says, there are many species (or genera), as man, the lion, the stag, and the dog. He then mentions, as an example of a natural genus, those which have a mane, as the horse, the ass, the mule, and the wild-ass of Syria, which are severally distinct species, but together constitute a genus or family.

This introduction to the History of Animals the philosopher seems to have intended, less as a summary of his general views respecting their organization and habits, than as a popular exordium, calculated to engage the attention of the reader, and excite him to the study of nature. Whatever errors it may contain, and however much it may be deficient in strictly methodical arrangement, it is yet obviously the result of extensive, and frequently accurate observation. He then proceeds to the description of the different parts of the human body, first treating of what anatomists call the great regions, and the exterior generally, and then passing to the internal organization. His descriptions in general are vague, and often incorrect. As an example, we may translate the passage that refers to the ear.

This organ, he says, is that part of the head by which we hear; but we do not respire by it, for Alcmeon's opinion, that goats respire by the ears, is incorrect. One part of it has no name, the other is called lobos; it consists entirely of cartilage and flesh. The internal region is like a spiral shell, resembling an auricle at the extremity of the bone, into which as into a vessel the sound passes. Nor is there any passage from it to the brain, but to the palate; and a vein stretches from the brain to it. But the eyes belong to the brain, and each is placed upon a small vein. Every animal that has ears moves them, excepting man; for of those which are furnished with the sense of hearing, some have ears, others none, but an open passage; of which kind are feathered animals, and all that are covered with a scaly skin. But those which are viviparous, the seal, the dolphin, and other cetacea excepted, have external ears, as well as the viviparous cartilaginous animals. The seal has a manifest passage for hearing; but the dolphin, although it hears, yet has no ears. The ears are situated at the same level as the eyes, but not higher, as in certain quadrupeds. The ears of some persons are smooth, of others rough, or partly so; but this furnishes no indication of disposition. They are also large, small, or of moderate size, projecting, or flat, or intermediate. The latter circumstance indicates the best disposition. Large and projecting ears are indicative of a fool and babbler.

From this passage we perceive that Aristotle was acquainted with the Eustachian tube; although his anatomical knowledge of the ear is certainly of the most superficial kind, and his physiognomical notions respecting it sufficiently ludicrous. He divides the body into head, neck, trunk, arms, and legs, much as we do at the present day. The head consists of the calvaria, or part covered with hair, which is divided into three regions, the bregma or fore part, the crown, and the occiput. Under the bregma is the brain; but the back part of the head is empty. When speaking of the face, he remarks, that persons having a large forehead are of slow intellect, that smallness of that part indicates fickleness, great breadth stupidity, and roundness irascibility. The physiognomists of our day have a different opinion. The neck contains the spine, the gullet, and the arteria (or windpipe). The trunk consists of the breast, the belly, &c.;—and in this manner he passes over the different external regions.

In describing the brain, he states that all red-blooded animals have that organ, as have also the mollusca, and that in man it is largest and most humid. He had observed its two membranes, as well as the hemispheres and cerebellum; but he asserts that it is bloodless, that no veins exist in it, and that it is naturally cold to the touch. He was ignorant of the distribution of the nerves, was not aware that the arteries contain blood, imagined that the heart being connected with the windpipe is inflated through it, and, in a word, manifests extreme ignorance of every thing that relates to the internal organization.

Judging from this specimen, the reader may suspect that his time would not be profitably employed in separating the few particles of wheat from the great mass of chaff which the writings of Aristotle present to us. Nor must it be concealed that the modern naturalist does not consult his volumes for information, but merely to gratify curiosity. There is to be found, indeed, in the most imperfect of our elementary works on anatomy, whether human or comparative, more knowledge than was probably contained in the Alexandrian library.

In his second book, he treats more particularly of animals. At its commencement we unfortunately meet with a stumbling-block, in the shape of an assertion, that the neck of the lion has no vertebræ, but consists of a single bone. In speaking of limbs, he takes occasion to describe the proboscis of the elephant, and to enter generally into the history of that gigantic quadruped. He then speaks with reference to the distribution of hair, remarking, that the hair of the human head is longer than that of any other animal; that some are covered all over with long hair, as the bear; others on the neck only, as the lion; and others only along the back of the neck, as the horse and the bonasus. He describes the buffalo and the camel; of the latter of which he mentions the two species, the Arabian and the Bactrian. The subject of claws, hoofs, and horns, is next discussed. He states that some quadrupeds have many toes, as the lion; while others have the foot divided into two, as the sheep; and others again have a single toe or hoof, as the horse. His aphorisms on the subject of horns are in general correct. Thus, he states that most creatures furnished with them have cloven hoofs, and that no single-hoofed animal has two horns.

He then proceeds to speak of teeth, which he says are possessed by all viviparous quadrupeds. Some have them in both jaws, others not; for horned animals have teeth in the lower jaw only, the front ones being wanting in the upper. Yet all animals which have no teeth above are not horned; the camel, for example. Some have projecting teeth, as the boar; others not. In some they are jagged, as in the lion, panther, and dog; in others even, as in the horse and cow. No animal has horns and protruded teeth; nor is there any having jagged teeth that has either horns or projecting teeth. The greater part have the front teeth sharp, and those behind broad; but the seal has them all jagged for it partakes of the nature of fishes, which have that peculiarity. His remarks on the shedding of the teeth are in general erroneous. The elephant, he says, has four grinders, together with two others, the latter of which are of great size and bent upwards in the male, but small and directed the contrary way in the female. This circumstance Cuvier states to be correct with respect to the African variety, although the case is different in the Asiatic. His account of the hippopotamus, however, is inaccurate in almost every particular. Thus, he says it has a mane like a horse, cloven feet like an ox, and is of the size of an ass,—a description which answers better to the gnu. In speaking of monkeys, of which he mentions several kinds, he remarks their resemblance to the human species, and the peculiar formation of their hind feet, which may be used as hands.

He then gives a general account of the oviparous quadrupeds, particularly of the Egyptian crocodile and the chameleon, concerning which he relates many interesting circumstances.

In treating of birds, he remarks that they are bipedal, like man, destitute of anterior limbs, but furnished with wings, and having a peculiar formation in the legs. Those birds which have hooked claws, he says, have the breast more robust than others. He then describes the differences in the structure of their feet; remarking, that most of them have three toes before and one behind, although a few, as the wryneck, have two only before. Birds, he adds, have the place of lips and teeth supplied by a bill; and instead of external ears and nostrils properly so called, they have passages for hearing and smelling in different parts of the head. The eyes have no lashes, but are furnished with a membrane like lizards. The other remarkable peculiarities, such as the feathers and the form of the tongue, are then mentioned. No birds, he observes, that have hooked claws are furnished with spurs. In his remarks on this family he is generally correct; though here, as elsewhere, he is not merely brief, but vague and superficial. His division of birds would seem to be the following:—Those with hooked claws; those with separated toes; and such as are web-footed.

Fishes are next discussed with nearly equal brevity. He remarks, that they have a peculiar elongated form, are destitute of mammæ, emit by their gills the water received at the mouth, swim by means of fins, are generally covered with scales, and are destitute of the organs of hearing and smelling.

His description of the internal parts of these tribes of animals contains a mixture of truth and error. This book terminates with remarks on the structure of serpents.

The third commences with observations on those parts of animals which are homogeneous, such as the blood, the fibres, the veins, the nerves, and the hair. Under the general title of nerve, he confounds the columnæ carneæ of the heart, the tendons and fasciæ; and it does not appear that he had any idea of what modern anatomists call nerves. In speaking of hair, he remarks that it grows in sick persons, especially those labouring under consumption, in old people, and even in dead bodies. The same remark applies to the nails. The blood is contained in the veins and heart, is, like the brain, insensible, flows from a wound in any part of the flesh, has a sweet taste and a red colour, coagulates in the air, palpitates in the veins, and when vitiated is productive of disease. On the subject of milk, his observations deserve attention. Thus, he says that all viviparous animals which have hair are furnished with mammæ, as are also the whale and the dolphin; but those which are oviparous are not so provided. All milk has a watery fluid, called serum, and a thick part, called cheese; while that produced by animals which are destitute of fore teeth in the upper jaw coagulates. On this subject he mentions some curious circumstances. Some kinds of food occasion the appearance of a little milk in women who are not pregnant. There have even been instances of it flowing from the breasts of elderly females. The shepherds about Mount Œta rub the udders of unimpregnated goats with nettles, and thus obtain abundance of milk from them. It sometimes happens that male animals secrete the same fluid; thus, there was a he-goat in the island of Lemnos, which yielded so much that small cheeses were made of it. A little may be pressed from the breasts of some men after the age of puberty; and there have been individuals who on being sucked have yielded a large quantity. Instances of this have been recorded by other observers; and Humboldt met with a similar case in South America.[D]

In the fourth book, Aristotle treats of the animals which are destitute of red blood. Of these, he says there are several genera: the mollusca, such as the cuttlefish, which is externally soft with an internal firm part; the crustacea, internally soft and covered with a firm integument, such as the crab; the testacea, internally soft and externally hard and solid, as the limpet and oyster. The insects form the fourth genus; and are distinguished by their being externally and internally formed of a hardish or cartilaginous substance, and divided into segments; some of them having wings, as the wasp; while others have none, as the centipede. He then gives a pretty full account of the cuttlefish and nautilus, treats of the crustaceous animals generally, and enters into details respecting the other two classes. After this he enumerates the organs of sensation, stating that man, and all the red-blooded and viviparous animals, possess five senses, although in the mole vision is deficient. He describes correctly the eye of that creature, showing that it is covered by a thickish skin, but presents a conformation similar to that of other animals, and is furnished with a nerve from the brain. He shows that although fishes have no visible organs of smelling or hearing, they yet possess both senses, and, in treating of this subject, states many interesting facts relative to the mode employed in catching dolphins. He also shows that insects have the faculty of hearing and smelling. The testacea, he says, besides feeling, which is common to all animals, have smell and taste; but he also asserts that some of them, the solen and pecten, are capable of seeing, and others of hearing.

All viviparous quadrupeds not only sleep, but also dream; but whether the oviparous dream is uncertain; although it is plain that they sleep, as do the aquatic animals, fishes, mollusca, testacea, and crustacea. A transition is then made to the subject of sex, for the purpose of showing that in the mollusca, crustacea, testacea, and eels, there is no difference in that respect between individuals of the same species.

The subjects of generation and parturition occupy the fifth, sixth, and seventh books. From the comparatively large space which he has devoted to the result of his inquiries in these departments, the minuteness with which he describes the phenomena presented by them in man and the domestic animals, and the accurate knowledge which he frequently exhibits, it may be inferred that they were favourite subjects with Aristotle. It is sufficient for our purpose to mention some of the cases in which he attained the truth, and others in which he failed.

He describes the membranes with which some of the mollusca envelope their eggs, mentions the changes through which insects pass before they acquire the perfect state, and speaks with tolerable accuracy of the economy of bees and wasps. He states, however, that the former make wax from flowers, but gather their honey from a substance which falls from the air upon trees. The eggs of tortoises, he says, are hard, like those of birds, and are deposited in the ground. His remarks on those of lizards and the crocodile are also correct. He states accurately that some serpents bring forth their young enclosed in a soft membrane, which they afterwards burst; but that sometimes the little animals escape from the egg internally, and are produced free. Other serpents, he observes, bring forth eggs cohering in the form of a necklace. On the eggs of birds his observations are nearly as correct as those which we find in books at the present day. He was acquainted with their general structure, and the development of the chick, which he minutely describes. He remarks of the cuckoo, that it is not a changed hawk, as some have asserted; that, although certain persons have alleged that its young have never been seen, it yet certainly has young; that, however, it does not construct a nest, but deposites its eggs in the nest of other birds, after eating those which it finds there.

He remarks that the cartilaginous fishes are viviparous, but that the other species bring forth eggs, and states correctly that they have no alantoid membrane. He then passes to the cetacea, with which he seems to be nearly as well acquainted as modern naturalists, and reverts to the oviparous fishes, respecting which he presents numerous details. He maintains, however, that the eel is produced spontaneously, and that no person had ever detected eggs or milt in it.

Having discussed the subject of generation, he proceeds, in the eighth book, to treat of the food and actions of animals, their migrations, and other circumstances. The ninth consists of a multitude of topics without any direct relation to each other, but apparently treated as they had successively presented themselves to the author. Thus, at the commencement we find remarks on the peculiarities of disposition observed in the males and females of different animals, the combats of hostile species, the actions of animals, nidification, generation, and other matters. Several species of different classes are then described, such as the kingfisher, the black-bird, the cuckoo, the marten, eagles, owls, fishes, insects, and quadrupeds.

The fragments which remain of Aristotle's History of Animals may, perhaps, be considered as presenting the general views which he had intended to precede his more particular descriptions; but, regarded even in this light, it cannot be denied that they are extremely deficient in method. There is in them no approach to a regular classification, we do not say of animals, but of subjects to be discussed. He is continually making abrupt transitions, seems to lose sight of the object more immediately in view, to indulge in digressions foreign to it, and frequently repeats a circumstance which he had related before. His work resembles the rude notes which an author makes previous to the final arrangement of his book; and such it may possibly have been. Of descriptions, properly so called, there are few,—those of the elephant, the camel, the bonasus, the crocodile, the chameleon, the cuckoo, the cuttlefish, and a few others, being all that we find.

It may appear strange, that the statements of naturalists should so frequently prove incorrect. In how many works, even of the present day, are errors to be discovered, which might have been avoided by a proper use of the organs of vision, and a resolution to take nothing on trust! But it is much easier to employ the imperfect remarks of others, to collect from books, compare and arrange, than to seek or make opportunities of observation for one's self; and of so little consequence do some men hold the actual inspection of natural objects, that, without practising it to any extent, they nevertheless arrogate to themselves the title of philosophical inquirers.

In fine, the observations of Aristotle, considering the period at which he lived, and the proneness of the human intellect to wander from the true path, are remarkable for the great proportion of truth which they present to us. Whatever may be their actual merits, they are certainly superior to those of any other naturalist whose works have come down to us from the remote ages of classical antiquity; and we may take leave of this distinguished man by observing, in the words of Dr Barclay, that, "notwithstanding his many imperfections, he did much both for anatomy and natural history, and more, perhaps, than any other of the human species, excepting such as a Haller or Linnæus, could have accomplished in similar circumstances."

The best edition of his History of Animals ([Greek: Peri Zôôn Historia]), is that of Schneider, in 4 vols 8vo, which issued from the press at Leipsic in 1811. Many editions of his works have been published; but the most complete is said to be Sylburge's, printed at Frankfort, containing,—Organon, 1585; Rhetorica et Poetica, 1584; Ethica ad Nicomachum, 1584; Ethica Magna, &c. 1584; Politica et Œconomica, 1587; Animalium Historia, 1587; De Animalium Partibus, &c. 1585; Physicæ Auscultationis, lib. viii. et Alia Opera, 1596; De Cœlo, lib. iv.; De Generatione et Conceptione; De Meteoris, lib. iv.; De Mundo; De Anima; Parva Naturalia; Varia Opuscula, 1587; Alexandri et Cassii Problemata, 1585; Aristotelis et Theophrasti Metaphysica, 1585.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Biogriphie Universelle.

[D] See Edinburgh Cabinet Library, No. X. Travels and Researches of Alexander Von Humboldt, p. 91.

PLINY THE ELDER.

Account of his Life and Works.

Between the death of Aristotle and the birth of the celebrated naturalist whose life and writings we now proceed to delineate, there elapsed nearly three centuries and a half. It was in the reign of Tiberius in the 774th year of Rome and the 20th of the Christian era, that Pliny was born. Some assert that he was a native of Verona; others maintain that Comum was his birthplace; while Hardouin labours to prove that the honour belongs to Rome. Of his history little, except the circumstances of his death, is known that could afford any interest to those who look into biographies for marvellous adventures, although it would appear that he had travelled extensively, having visited Germany, Spain, the coast of Africa, and perhaps Britain, Egypt, and Judea. There are only two brief notices respecting him to be found among the ancient writers, besides those contained in the works of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, and the incidental remarks that occur in his own books on natural history. From these, together with a few casual observations by other authors, have been elaborated all the lives of this illustrious naturalist that are to be found in our dictionaries and cyclopædias. The first authentic account is contained in the book of Suetonius, De Viris Illustribus, and is to the following effect:—

Caius Plinius Secundus was a native of New Comum. When young he served with distinction in the cavalry. He was intrusted with the most important procuratorships, and on all occasions discharged his office with the greatest integrity. At the same time he engaged with so much assiduity in the study of literature, that hardly any one, though entirely free from public occupations, wrote so many works. Among these was an account of all the wars that had been carried on between his countrymen and the Germans, which he comprehended in twenty volumes. He also compiled thirty-six volumes of natural history.

From his nephew we learn the following interesting particulars respecting his habits:—In summer he usually began his studies about sunset, and in winter generally at one in the morning, never later than two, bestowing very little time on sleep. Before it was day he went to the Emperor Vespasian, who, like himself, was in the practice of using the hours of darkness for philosophy or business. He then proceeded to discharge the duties of his office, and, on returning home, spent the remainder of the morning in reading or contemplation. In summer, when he happened to have any leisure, he often lay in the sunshine, having a book read to him, from which he carefully took notes. It was a saying of his, that no treatise was so meagre but that some part of it might afford instruction. Afterwards he usually took a cold bath, ate a little, and slept a very short time. He then resumed his labours till the hour of dinner. These were his ordinary habits while occupied with his public duties, and amid the tumult of the city. In retirement his studies were still more constant. When travelling, he seemed to set all other cares aside, and employ himself in literary occupations. He had a secretary by his side with a book and tablets, his hands in winter protected by gloves, so that even the inclemency of the weather should not cause any loss of time. For the same reason, when at Rome, he was carried in a sedan chair. By this continued application he accumulated an almost incredible mass of materials, insomuch that his works, had they been preserved, would have formed a library of themselves.

But it is very obvious that the study of books, to which alone he seems to have been addicted, cannot impart all the information necessary to constitute a naturalist; and accordingly the writings of Pliny contain less a description of the objects of which they treat than a compilation of all that had been recorded by observers regarding them. As such, however, they are of considerable value.

At an early age he went to Rome, where he studied under Appion. It does not appear that he could have seen Tiberius, who by this time had retired to Capreæ; but it is probable that he was admitted to the court of Caligula. When twenty-two years of age, he resided some time on the coast of Africa, and afterwards served in the cavalry under Lucius Pomponius, when he had an opportunity of traversing Germany from one extremity to the other. At this time he wrote a treatise, De Jaculatione Equestri, on the art of casting the javelin on horse-back; and afterwards composed an historical work, in which he detailed all the wars carried on by the Romans beyond the Rhine. Returning to Rome at the age of thirty, he pled several causes, and became a member of the college of augurs. Part of his time was spent at Comum in superintending the education of his nephew, for whom, it is probable, he composed his three books entitled Studiosus, in which he described the progress of an orator in the various steps towards perfection. During the greater part of the reign of Nero he seems to have been without any public employment; but towards the end of it he was appointed procurator in Spain, where, it is presumed, he remained pending the civil wars of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. On revisiting the capital he was favourably received by Vespasian, on whom he had the privilege of waiting every morning before sunrise, as already mentioned. It is probable that at this period he wrote the History of his own Times, which consisted of thirty-one books, and completed the work which Aufidius Bassus had left unfinished. His Natural History, which he dedicated to Titus, appears to have been finished about the 78th year of our era.

He was at Misenum, where he commanded the fleet which protected all that part of the Mediterranean comprised between Italy, the Gauls, Spain, and Africa, when a great eruption of Vesuvius took place. His sister and her son, the latter of whom was then about eighteen years of age, were with him. He had just retired to his study, when he was apprized of the appearance of a cloud of the most extraordinary form and size. It resembled a pine-tree, having an excessively elongated trunk, from which some branches shot forth at the top, and appeared sometimes white, sometimes dark and spotted, according as the smoke was more or less mixed with earth and cinders. Anxious to discover the cause of this singular appearance, he ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and was proceeding on board, when he met the mariners belonging to the galleys stationed at Retina, who had just escaped from the danger. They conjured him not to advance and expose his life to imminent peril; but he ordered the fleet immediately to put to sea, for the purpose of rendering aid to such as might require it; and so devoid of fear was he, that he noted all the variations and forms which the cloud assumed. By this time the vessels were covered with ashes, which every moment became hotter and more dense, while fragments of white pumice and stones blackened and split with the heat threatened the lives of the men. They were likewise in great danger of being left aground by a sudden retreat of the sea. He stopped for a moment to consider whether he should return; but to the pilot who urged to this expedient, he replied, "Fortune helps the brave—steer to Pomponianus." That officer was at Stabiæ, and being in sight of the danger, which, although still distant, seemed always coming nearer, had put his baggage on board, and was waiting a more favourable wind to carry him out. Pliny finding him alarmed, endeavoured to recall his firmness. In the mean time the flames were bursting from Vesuvius in many places, so as to illuminate the night with their dazzling glare. He consulted with his friends whether it were better to remain in the house or to flee to the open fields; for the buildings were shaken by frequent and violent shocks, so as to reel backwards and forwards, and in the open air they were not less in danger from the cinders. However, they chose to go forth, as the hazardous alternative, covering their heads with pillows, to protect them from the stones. It was now morning, but the country was enveloped by thick darkness. He proceeded towards the shore by the light of torches, but the sea was still so much agitated that he could not embark; and, seating himself on a sail which was spread for him, he asked for some water, of which he drank a little. The approach of flames, preceded by the smell of sulphur, put his companions to flight, excepting two slaves, who assisted him to rise, when he seems to have immediately fallen, suffocated by the vapours and ashes. On the following day, his body was found in the same place without marks of external violence, and resembling a person asleep rather than one who had suffered death. This event took place on the 24th August, in the seventy-ninth year of the Christian era, and a few months after the demise of Vespasian.

As in the case of almost every writer of eminence, so in that of Pliny, we find panegyrists, whose admiration leads them to lavish the most extravagant praise, and calumniators, who seem resolved to leave nothing to be admired. It is astonishing, says one, that in every department he is equally great. Elevation of ideas, and grandeur of style, give additional exaltation to his profound erudition. Not only was he acquainted with all that was known in his time, but he possessed that facility of forming comprehensive conceptions, which multiplies science; he possessed that delicacy of reflection on which depend elegance and taste; and he communicates to his readers a certain freedom of mind, a boldness of thought, which is the germ of philosophy. His work, which is as varied as Nature, paints her always in a favourable light. It may be said to be a compilation of all that had previously been written, a copy of every thing useful and excellent that existed; but in this copy the execution is so bold,—in this compilation the materials are disposed in a manner so new, that it is preferable to the greater part of the originals which treat of the same topics.[E]

The judgment of a recent author, founded also on an extensive view of his character, is perhaps more worthy of our confidence. It were impossible, it is remarked, that in handling, even in the briefest manner, so prodigious a number of subjects, he should not have made known a multitude of facts, which are not only in themselves remarkable, but so much the more valuable to us, that he is the only author who has made mention of them. Unfortunately, the manner in which he has collected and expounded them detracts much from their value; while, from the mixture of truth and falsehood, but more especially from the difficulty, and even in some cases the impossibility, of making out the objects of which he speaks, the reader is often left in the dark. Pliny was not such an observer as Aristotle; much less was he a man of genius like that great philosopher, capable of apprehending the laws and relations according to which Nature has disposed her productions. He was in general merely a compiler, and even in many instances a compiler who, not having himself any knowledge of the objects concerning which he collected the testimony of others, was unable to appreciate the truth of these testimonies, or even in all cases to comprehend their precise meaning. He is in short an author destitute of critical acumen, who, after occupying a great deal of time in making his extracts and arranging them in certain chapters, has added to them reflections which have no relation to science properly so called, but present alternately the most superstitious impressions, or the declamations of a peevish philosophy, which is continually accusing man, nature, and the gods themselves. The facts which he accumulates ought not, therefore, to be considered in connexion with the opinion which he forms of them; but, on the contrary, ought to be restored in imagination to the writers from whom he has derived them; and the rules of criticism should be applied agreeably to what we know of those writers, and the circumstances in which they were placed. Studied in this manner, the Natural History of Pliny is one of the richest stores; it being, according to his own statement, composed of extracts from more than 2000 volumes, written by authors of all kinds, travellers, historians, geographers, philosophers, and physicians,—authors of whom there remain to us only about forty, and of several of whom we have merely fragments, or works different from those which Pliny used; and, even of those whose labours are lost to us, there are many whose names have escaped from oblivion only through the quotations which he has made from them.

On comparing his extracts with such originals as we still have, and in particular with Aristotle, we find that he was by no means accustomed to select the parts that were most important or most correct. In general, he fixes upon the singular or marvellous; upon those circumstances which answer best for the contrasts which he is fond of making, or for the reproaches which he so often prefers against Providence. He certainly does not place the same confidence in all that he relates; but his doubts and affirmations are made at random, and the most childish stories are not those that most excite his incredulity. For example, there are none of the fables of the Grecian travellers, about headless and mouthless men, men with only one foot, or men with large ears, that he does not place in his seventh book, and with so much confidence in their truth, that he concludes his enumeration with this remark: Hæc atque talia ex hominum genere, ludibria sibi, nobis miracula, ingeniosa fecit natura: "See how nature is disposed for the nones to devise full wittily in this and such like pastimes to play with mankind, thereby not onely to make herselfe merrie, but to set us a wondering at such strange miracles." Any one may judge, from this credulity in respect to the absurd fables about the human species, of the little discernment which he must have exercised in selecting testimonies respecting exotic or little-known animals. Accordingly, the most fabulous creatures, manticores, with the head of a man and the tail of a scorpion, winged horses, catoblepas, the mere sight of which caused death, occupy their station by the side of the elephant and lion. However, all is not false even in those articles which are most replete with falsehoods. We can sometimes come at the truths which have given rise to them, by recollecting that they are extracts from travellers, and supposing that the ignorance of the ancient tourists, and their love of the marvellous, betrayed them into the same exaggerations, and dictated the same vague and superficial descriptions, with which we are shocked in so many of their modern successors. It may likewise be said of Pliny, that he does not always give the true sense of the authors whom he translates, especially when treating of the designation of species. Although we have now very few means of judging with certainty respecting errors of this kind, it is easy to prove, that on several occasions he has substituted for the Greek word which denoted a particular animal in Aristotle, a Latin word which belongs to another species. It is true that one of the great difficulties experienced by the ancients was that of fixing a nomenclature; and the defects of their systems are more perceptible in Pliny than in any other writer. The descriptions, or rather the imperfect indications, which he gives, are almost always insufficient for recognising the species, when tradition has not preserved the names; and there is even a very great number, of which he mentions the names without joining to them any character, or affording any means by which they may be distinguished. Could there be any longer a doubt as to the advantages of the systems invented by the moderns, it would be dissipated by finding that all that the ancients have said of the virtues of their plants is lost to us, from our not being able to distinguish the species to which they assigned them.—Were we to give credit to all that he says in the part of his work devoted to Materia Medica, there is not a disease incident to humanity for which nature has not provided twenty remedies; and unfortunately, during two centuries after the revival of letters, all these absurdities were confidently repeated by physicians. It must therefore be admitted, that with reference to facts the volume of Pliny is of no real interest, excepting in regard to the manners and customs of the ancients, the processes which they followed in the arts, and some particulars respecting geography, of which we should otherwise be ignorant.[F]

The Historia Naturalis was the last work which Pliny wrote, and is the only one that has come down to us. It is not a treatise on natural history, as that term is at present limited; but, besides relating all that he knew of animals, plants, and minerals, it embraces astronomy, geography, agriculture, commerce, medicine, and the arts; so that it may be considered as a cyclopædia rather than a publication on any particular subject. It is divided into thirty-seven books.

The first contains a dedication to the Emperor Titus Vespasian, together with a summary of the following sections, and the names of the authors who contributed to them.

In the second book, he treats of the universe, the elements, and the stars. The world and the heavens, which he says are God, are infinite, without beginning and without end; the form of the latter is spherical, the motion circular, and they are impressed with innumerable forms of animals and other objects. The elements are four; namely, fire, air, earth, and water. There are seven planets, or wandering stars, in the midst of which moves the sun, the ruler of all things. As to God, if indeed there be any Existence distinct from the world, it were absurd, says he, to assign him any form or image, He being all in all; for which reason the gods that the nations worship are mere fancies. It is absurd to imagine that He should have regard to the human race, for by interfering with their affairs he would necessarily be polluted. Men, he observes, are wretchedly prone to superstition of all kinds; however, it is beneficial, he admits, to believe that the gods take care of them, and punish malefactors. The nature of the planets, the moon, eclipses, comets, lightning, winds, clouds, meteoric stones, land, water, earthquakes, and many other subjects, are discussed in this book.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, treat of geography; and the seventh of the different races of men, monsters, great characters, human inventions, longevity, and other matters relating to the human race, disposed without order, and selected without discrimination.

The eighth book, which is devoted to land-animals, contains notices respecting the elephant, dragons, serpents, lions, panthers, tigers, the camel, the camelopard, the rhinoceros, and a multitude of other mammalia, and reptiles. As a specimen of our author's manner of discussing these subjects, we give his account of the wolf:—

It in commonly believed, says he, in Italy, that the sight of wolves is hurtful, and that when they see a man before he observes them, they cause him to lose his voice for the time. Those which are produced in Africa and Egypt are small and sluggish; but in the colder climates they are fierce and cruel. That men are changed into wolves, and afterwards restored to their proper shape, we must either believe to be false, or else at once admit all those tales which have for so many ages been proved to be fabulous. But how this opinion came to be so firmly fixed, that when we would apply the most opprobrious term to one, we call him versipellis (or turn-skin), I shall shew. Euanthes, a respectable Greek writer, reports that he found among the records of the Arcadians, that a person is chosen by lot from the family of Anthus. Being led to a certain pool in that country, he relinquishes his clothes, which are hung up on an oak, swims over, proceeds into the deserts, is transformed into a wolf, and for nine years herds with the wild animals of that race. This period being completed, if he has refrained from eating human flesh, he returns to the same pool, and, recrossing it, is restored to his original form, only looking nine years older than before. Fabius adds, that he finds his clothes again. It is strange to see how far the credulity of the Greeks goes; for there is no lie so shameless that it does not find one of them to vouch for it. Thus, Agriopas, who wrote of the conquerors at the Olympic games, relates that Demœnetus of Parrhasia, at a sacrifice, ate of the entrails of a child that had been offered as a victim (for the Arcadians at that time offered human sacrifices to Lycean Jupiter), and turned himself into a wolf; and that the same person, ten years after, having been restored to his proper shape, fought at the Olympian games, and was proclaimed victor. Besides, it is commonly believed that in the tail of this animal there is a minute hair possessing a power over love, and that the wolf casts it when he is taken; but that it has no efficacy unless it be plucked from him when alive. Wolves pair only during twelve days in the whole year. When famished, they eat earth. With respect to auguries, when one meets a wolf, and the latter turns to the right hand, especially if he have a full mouth, there could not be a better presage. There are some of this kind that are called stag-wolves, such as the one mentioned by us as having been seen in the circus of Pompey the Great. They say that this animal, however hungry he may be, should he happen to look back, forgets the food which he had, and goes to look for some elsewhere.

The following extract from Pliny's account of the lion, "right pleasaunte" as it is in the original, is rendered still more so by Dr Holland. "To come againe to our lions: the signe of their intent and disposition, is their taile; like as in horses, their ears: for these two marks and tokens, certainly hath nature given to the most couragious beasts of all others, to know their affections by: for when the lion stirreth not his taile, hee is in a good mood, gentle, mild, pleasantly disposed, and as if hee were willing to be plaied withall; but in that fit he is seldome seene: for lightly hee is alwaies angrie. At the first, when hee entreth into his choller, hee beateth the ground with his taile: when hee groweth into greater heats, he flappeth and jerketh his sides and flanks withall, as it were to quicken himselfe, and stirre up his angry humor. His maine strength lieth in his breast: hee maketh not a wound (whether it be by lash of taile, scratch of claw, or print of tooth), but the bloud that followeth is blacke. When his belly is once full, all his anger is past, and he doth no more harme. His generositie and magnanimitie he sheweth most in his daungers: which courage of his appeareth not onely herein, that he seemeth to despise all shot of darts against him, defending himselfe a long time onely with the terrible aspect of his countenance, and protesting as it were that he is unwilling to deale unlesse he be forced thereto in his own defence, and at length maketh head againe, not as compelled and driven thereto for any perill that he seeth, but angred at their follie that assaile and set upon him: but herein also is seen rather his noble heart and courage, that be there never so many of hounds and hunters both following after him, so long as hee is in the open plaines where he may be seene, hee maketh semblance as though he contemned both dog and man, dismarching and retiring with honour, and otherwhiles seeming in his retreat to turne againe and make head; but when he hath gained the thickets and woods, and gotten once into the forrests out of sight, then he skuds away, then hee runneth amaine for life, as knowing full well that the trees and bushes hide him, that his shamefull dislodging and flight is not then espied. When he chaseth and followeth after other beasts, hee goeth alwaies saltant or rampant; which he never useth to doe when he is chased in sight, but is onely passant. If hee chaunce to be wounded, hee hath a marveilous eye to marke the partie that did it, and be the hunters never so many in number, upon him he runneth onely. As for him that hath let flie a dart at him, and yet missed his marke and done no hurt, if he chaunce to catch him, hee all to touzeth, shaketh, tosseth, and turneth him lying along at his feet, but doth him no harme at all besides. When the lionesse fighteth for her young whelpes, by report, she setteth her eies wistly, and entirely upon the ground, because she would not be affrighted at the sight of the chasing-staves of the hunters. Lions are nothing at all craftie and fraudulent, neither be they suspicious: they never look askew, but alwaies cast their eie directly forward, and they love not that any man should in that sort looke side-long upon them. It is constantly beleeved, that when they lie a dying they bite the earth, and in their very death shed teares. This creature, so noble as he is, and withall so cruell and fell, trembleth and quaketh to heare the noise of cartwheeles, or to see them turne about; nay he cannot abide of all things charriots when they be void and emptie: frighted he is with the cocks comb, and his crowing much more, but most of all with the sight of fire. The lion is never sick but of the peevishnes of his stomacke, loathing all meat: and then the way to cure him, is to tie unto him certain shee apes, which with their wanton mocking and making mowes at him, may move his patience and drive him for the verie indignitie of their malapert saucinesse, into a fit of madnesse; and then, so soone as he hath tasted their blood, he is perfectly well againe: and this is the onely remedie.

"Q. Scævola the sonne of Publius, was the first at Rome that in his Curule Ædileship exhibited a fight and combat of many lions togither, for to shew the people pastime and pleasure: but L. Sylla, who afterwards was Dictatour, was the first of all others that in his Pretorship represented a shew of an hundred lions, with manes and collars of haire: and after him Pompeius the Great shewed 600 of them fighting in the grand Cirque, whereof 315 were male lions with mane. And Cæsar Dictatour brought 400 of them into the shew-place. The taking of them in old time was a verie hard peece of worke, and that was commonly in pit-fals; but in the Emperor Claudius his daies it chaunced, that a shepheard or heardman who came out of Gætulia, taught the manner of catching them: a thing (otherwise) that would have been thought incredible, and altogither unbeseeming the name and honour of so goodly a beast. This Getulian I say, fortuned to encounter a lion, and when he was violently assailed by him, made no more adoe but threw his mandilion or cassocke full upon his eies. This feat or cast of his was soone after practised in the open shew-place, in such sort, that a man would hardly have beleeved, but he that saw it, that so furious a beast should so easily be quailed and daunted so soone as ever hee felt his head covered, were the things never so light; making no resistance, but suffering one to doe what he would with him, even to bind him fast, as if in very truth all his vigor and spirit rested in his eyes. Lesse therefore is it to be marvelled at, that Lysimachus strangled a lion, when as by commaundement of Alexander the Great, he was shut up alone togither with him. The first that yoked them at Rome and made them to draw in a charriot, was M. Antonius. And verily it was in the time of civill warre, after the battaile fought in the plains of Pharsalia, a shrewd fore-token and unhappie presage for the future event, and namely, for men of an high spirit and brave mind in those daies, unto whom this prodigious sight did prognosticate the yoke of subjection: for what should I say, how Antonie rode in that wise with the courtisan Cytheris, a common actresse in enterludes upon the stage? to see such a sight was a monstrous spectacle, that passed all the calamities of those times. It is reported, that Hanno (one of the noblest Carthaginians that ever were) was the first man that durst handle a lion with his bare hand, and shewe him gentle and tame, to follow him all the citie over in a slip like a dogge. But this device and tricke of his turned him to great domage, and cost him his utter undoing: for the Carthaginians hereupon laid this ground, that Hanno, a man of such a gift, so wittie and inventive of all devises, would be able to persuade the people to whatsoever his mind stood; and that it was a daungerous and ticklish point to put the libertie of so great a state as Carthage was, into the hands and managing of him, who could handle and tame the furious violence of so savage a beast: and thereupon condemned and banished him." He then relates two examples of the gentleness of this animal, or rather of his confidence in man. On one occasion, a lion applied to Mentor, a Syracusan, for relief from a thorn which had pierced his foot; and on another, Elpis, a Samian, had the honour, when in Africa, of extracting a bone from the palate of the royal beast, for which he was rewarded by him with an abundant supply of fresh venison so long as he remained in the country.

In this book Pliny follows no methodical arrangement, either as to the animals themselves or as to the descriptions and anecdotes in each article. He commences indeed with the largest, and ends with mice, which are among the smallest bred on land; but in this catalogue he includes mammalia, crocodiles, lizards, serpents, and snails. It may be said generally, that in his descriptions at least three-fourths of each article are erroneous, false, or fabulous; and that he scarcely anywhere attempts to elicit general principles, or to discover the circumstances in which animals agree or differ. It were therefore vain for the student of nature to look into this book for any information on which he could place reliance, with respect to their organization or habits. Some particulars respecting the exhibition at Rome of elephants, lions, panthers, crocodiles, and other ferocious creatures, with the combats of which the emperors and great men amused the people, and a few facts relating to the geographical distribution of the more interesting species, are all that the reader finds to recompense him for the labour of examination.

The ninth book treats of fishes, crabs, sea-urchins, mollusca, and other marine animals, including not only turtles and cetacea, but also mermaids, tritons, and other fabulous creatures. These he arranges in no definite order, although he proposes a kind of classification founded on the covering or skin; some, as seals and hippopotami, having a skin and hair; others skin only, as the dolphin; while the tortoises are covered with a substance resembling bark; oysters and other shells with a substance as hard as flint; echini with crusts and prickles; fishes with scales; sharks with a rough skin fit for polishing wood; lampreys with a soft skin; and polypi with none at all.

As might be expected, many wonderful tales are related of the dolphin, which was a special favourite with the ancients, on account of its supposed attachment to the human species. One of these animals, if we may credit Pliny and his authorities, carried a boy daily to school and home again, from Baianum to Puteoli; another, who used to mount a child on his back, having one day suffered him to be drowned, brought back his body, and out of grief thrust himself ashore, where he of course died; and, lastly, a king of Caria having caught a dolphin, and kept him prisoner within the harbour, a whole multitude of the same species came to beg his release, and remained until their prayer was granted.

The most interesting chapters in this book are those on pearls and the shell-fish that furnished the purple dye so highly esteemed by the Romans. This oyster, he says, which is the mother-of-pearl, at a certain season of the year, gapes and receives one or more drops of a kind of dew, which are ultimately converted into pearls. According to the nature of this dew, or the state of the weather at the time of its being received, the pearl is dusky or white, dull or possessed of a brilliant lustre. These ornaments were very highly esteemed in Pliny's days. The ladies wore them dangling at their fingers and ears, took great delight in hearing them rattle, and not only appended them to their upper garments, but even embroidered their buskins with them. It will not suffice them, says he, nor serve their turn, to carry pearls about them, but they must tread upon pearls, go among pearls, and walk as it were on a pavement of pearls. Lollia Paulina, the wife of Caligula, was seen by him, on an ordinary occasion, ornamented with emeralds and pearls, which she valued at forty millions of sestertii (about £300,000).

The two finest specimens ever seen were in the possession of the celebrated Cleopatra, who, on being sumptuously feasted by Mark Antony, derided him for the meanness of his entertainment; and on his demanding how she could go beyond him in such a matter, answered that she would spend upon him in one supper ten millions of sestertii. Antony, conceiving it impossible for her to make good her boast, laid a great wager with her about it. When the supper came, although it was such as to befit the condition of the hostess and guests, it presented no extraordinary appearance; so that Antony jeered the queen on the subject, asking by way of mockery a sight of the bill of fare; whereupon she affirmed, that what had as yet been brought to table was not to be reckoned in the count, but that even her own part of the supper should cost sixty millions. She then ordered the second service to be brought in. The servants placed before her a cruet of vinegar, and she put into it one of the pearls which were appended to her ears. When it was dissolved, she took up the vessel, and drank its contents; on which Lucius Plancus declared that she had gained the wager. Afterwards, when Cleopatra was taken prisoner and deprived of her royal estate, the other pearl was cut into two, and affixed to the ears of the statue of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome.

The tenth book speaks of birds, beginning with the larger species, and concluding with remarks on generation, the food of animals, and other circumstances of a general nature. He believes that the spinal marrow of a man, as many persons have asserted, may turn into a snake; that salamanders, eels, and oysters, are neither male nor female; and that young vipers make their way through the sides of their mother. His History of Birds is extremely meagre and incorrect; but many amusing particulars are related by him, of which we select two examples.

In the days of Tiberius Cæsar, a young raven that had been hatched in a nest upon the temple of Castor and Pollux took her first flight into a shoemaker's shop just opposite. The master of the booth was well pleased to receive the guest, especially as it had come from so sacred a place, and took great care of it. In a short time the winged visitor began to speak, and every morning flew to the top of the rostra, where, turning to the open forum, he saluted the emperor, and after him Germanicus and Drusus, the young princes, each by his name, and after them the people that passed by. This he continued to do for many years, till another shoemaker, either envying his neighbour the possession of so rare a prize, or enraged at the bird for muting on his shoes, killed him. At this rash proceeding, the people were so indignant that they drove the ungenerous mechanic out of the street, and afterwards murdered him. The body of the raven was solemnly interred in a field two miles from the city, to which it was carried by two blacks, with musicians playing before, and a great crowd following. In such esteem, says Pliny, did the people of Rome hold this wit and aptness to learn in a bird, that they thought it a sufficient cause for ordering a sumptuous funeral, and even for putting a man to death, in that very city where many brave and noble persons have died without having their obsequies solemnized, and which afforded not one individual to revenge the undeserved death of the renowned Scipio Æmilianus, after he had conquered both Carthage and Numantia.

Cocks, he says, which are our sentinels by night, and destined by nature to rouse us from sleep and call us up to our work, have also, like the peacock, a sense of glory, and a love of approbation. They are astronomers too, and know the course of the stars; they divide the day by their crowing which is performed at the end of every three hours; they go to roost when the sun sets, and before he rises again they warn us of the approach of day by clapping their wings and crowing. They are rulers in their own community, whether consisting of other males or females. Their sovereignty is obtained by combat, as if they knew that they had weapons on their heels for the purpose, and the battle is often protracted until one is killed. The conqueror proclaims his victory by crowing, while the vanquished hides his head in silence, although it goes hard with him to be beaten. Not only are these fighting cocks thus high-minded, but even the common dunghill kind are equally proud, marching in a stately manner, their neck erect, with a comb on the head like the crest of a soldier's helmet. There is no other bird that so often looks aloft to the sun and sky, and as he moves he carries his tail in an arched form. Even the lion, the most courageous of animals, stands in awe of the cock. Some of these birds are made for nothing else than fighting, and are never satisfied unless when engaged in a quarrel; and to them the emperors and nobles of Rome do not disdain to give honour. The best breeds are from Rhodes, Tenagra, Melos, and Chalcis. These birds rule our rulers, nor is there a great man in Rome that dare open or shut the door of his house before he knows their good pleasure; even the sovereign, in all the majesty of the empire, with the insignia of office, neither sets forward nor recedes without their direction. They give orders to armies to advance to battle, or command them to keep within the camp. They supplied the signal and foretold the issue of all the famous fields, in which the Romans achieved their victories in all parts of the world. In a word, they command the greatest commanders of all nations, and, small as they are, prove as acceptable to the gods in sacrifice as the largest and fattest oxen. Their crowing out of time is portentous, and it is well known that, by once crowing all night long, they foretold to the Bœotians the noble victory which that people achieved over the Lacedemonians, for this result was expected, as these birds never crow when beaten. When converted into capons, they cease to crow; but in this state they become sooner fat. At Pergamus there is a solemn cock-fight every year. It is recorded that, within the territory of Ariminum, in the year when Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus were consuls, a dunghill-cock, belonging to one Galerius, spoke; but, as far as Pliny could learn, the like never happened again.

Bees, silkworms, spiders, scorpions, locusts, grashoppers and a few other animals of a similar nature, are briefly treated of in the eleventh book, which, moreover, contains an anatomical description of the human body, and of various parts of animals, not remarkable for its accuracy, but not the less interesting to the historian of science. The greater part is derived from Aristotle.

Then follow seventeen books on plants, their cultivation and uses in domestic economy and the arts, and the remedies that are obtained from them. These subjects form the most extensive portion of Pliny's writings, but they are discussed in so irregular and injudicious a manner, that it is impossible, in most cases, to determine the species of which he speaks; and as to the cures alleged to be accomplished by means of herbs, it is obvious that no confidence can be placed in his details. The culture of many of the more important species, such as the vine, the mulberry, the olive, wheat, and other cereal plants, is described at length; as are the processes of making bread, wine, olive-oil, and other substances obtained from vegetables.

The twenty-eighth book treats of dietetics, remedies derived from various animals, and the nature and cure of certain diseases. These subjects are continued to the end of the thirty-second book, and give occasion to the discussion of numerous topics, such as water, magic, medicine, &c.

The metals are considered in the two next books; colours and painting in the thirty-fifth; stones and minerals are mingled in the thirty-sixth with obelisks, temples, and statues; and the last book contains an account of precious stones, the descriptions of some of which, amber and beryl, for example, are as good as those of many of our modern mineralogists.

It is not our object to present a detailed account of the contents of any of these books, it being sufficient for our purpose to indicate the general nature of the work, and to point out a few of the subjects discussed. It affords a magazine of curious information on most subjects connected with natural history and the arts; but it is obvious that this information could not be useful to the student unless he were furnished with a correct commentary. Pliny's volumes have been translated into various modern languages, and there is an English version by Dr Philemon Holland, published at London in 1601. This performance, although generally accurate, fails in the nomenclature of the plants and animals; so that a good translation is a desideratum at the present day, which, however, is not likely to be soon supplied,—an extensive acquaintance with Greek and Roman literature, and a critical knowledge of the various branches of natural history, being essentially requisite in him who should undertake it.

Although Pliny cannot be depended upon as a naturalist, his writings are important as a source of pure Latinity. His style is generally simple, sometimes harsh, usually laconic, although when he enters upon philosophical reflections it becomes animated, energetic, and copious. His morality is more pure than we could have expected, considering his doubts respecting the existence of a Deity, his disbelief in the immortality of the human soul, and the absence of those motives by which mankind are commonly influenced. He never ceases to censure vice of every kind; and as to the examples of cruelty, luxury, and effeminacy, which he has occasion to relate, his remarks are not less accordant with reason than with the soundest principles of Christian ethics.

The first editions of Pliny appeared at Venice in 1469, and at Rome in 1470. The most useful and convenient is that of Franzius, in ten volumes 8vo, published at Leipsic in 1791.

From what has been said above it will appear, that down to the time of Pliny naturalists had not succeeded in forming any system of zoology. In the writings of that author, the animals of which he treats are so disposed, that the absence of all arrangement is very obvious; nor is it even possible to guess upon what principle he makes the species succeed each other. In his chapter on land-animals, he places the elephant first; and as mice come last, we might imagine that he had intended to proceed on the principle of size. The bison, the wild-horse, the elk, the bonasus, the lion, the panther, the tiger, the camel, and the camelopard, of which the first individual seen at Rome was exhibited by Julius Cæsar at the Circensian games, follow in order. Then come the rhinoceros, the lynx, apes and monkeys, wolves, serpents, the ichneumon, the crocodile, the skink, the hippopotamus, first shown at Rome by Marcus Scaurus, lizards, tortoises, hyenas, frogs and seals, deer, porcupines, bears, marmots, squirrels, vipers, snails, dogs, horses, asses, and mules, and the other principal domestic animals. His arrangement of birds is equally unsystematic. The fabulous phœnix occupies the first rank, and is followed by eagles, hawks, birds of evil omen, as ravens and owls, woodpeckers, peacocks, the domestic fowl, geese, cranes, swans, thrushes, doves, the ibis, the nightingale, and the kingfisher. With these are mingled various heterogeneous elements. The same may be said of all the other departments. Were the knowledge of animals which we possess at the present day not regularly methodized, it would be utterly impossible for an individual to distinguish half the number of mammalia and birds, which are among the least extensive classes. The first inventor of a system, however imperfect, has therefore the strongest claims upon our gratitude. Aristotle may be said to have laid the foundation for one, or at least to have made an attempt; Ray was the first who sketched a rude classification, in which he partly adopted that of the Stagirite: it is to Linnæus, however, that we owe a system, which is at least methodical and perspicuous; and if succeeding zoologists have produced more perfect arrangements, they can only be said to have improved upon his.

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.

GESNER, BELON, SALVIANI, RONDELET, AND ALDROVANDI.

Zoologists of the Sixteenth Century.

CONRAD GESNER.

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, consisting chiefly 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 assistance from 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, he made 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-footed Beasts 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.

PIERRE BELON.

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 year 1518. 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 Aquatitibus Libri 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 of Belonia.

HIPPOLITO SALVIANI.

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 points out 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.

GUILLAUME RONDELET.

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. This expedient 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 gone to 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.

ULYSSES ALDROVANDI.

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 during his 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 with Buffon 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.

LIVES

OF

EMINENT ZOOLOGISTS,

FROM

ARISTOTLE TO LINNÆUS:

WITH

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY,

AND

OCCASIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY.

BY W. MACGILLIVRAY, A.M., F.R.S.E., &c.

WITH A PORTRAIT OF LINNÆUS ENGRAVED BY HORSBURGH.

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

ARISTOTLE.

SECTION I.

REMARKABLE EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF ARISTOTLE.

SECTION II.

ACCOUNT OF ARISTOTLE'S HISTORY OF ANIMALS.

PLINY THE ELDER.

ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS.

GESNER, BELON, SALVIANI, RONDELET, AND ALDROVANDI.

ZOOLOGISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

JONSTON, GOEDART, REDI, AND SWAMMERDAM.

ZOOLOGISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

RAY.

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF RAY.

REAUMUR.

ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF REAUMUR.

LINNÆUS.

SECTION I.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION II.

JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.

SECTION III.

STUDIES, ADVENTURES, AND TRAVELS OF LINNÆUS, FROM 1733 to 1738.

SECTION IV.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF LINNÆUS FROM 1738 TO 1741.

SECTION V.

COMMENCEMENT OF LINNÆUS'S ACADEMICAL CAREER.

SECTION VI.

TRAVELLING PUPILS OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION VII.

LINNÆUS'S OCCUPATIONS FROM 1750 TO 1770.

SECTION VIII.

ACCOUNT OF THE SYSTEMA NATURÆ OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION IX.

DECLINE AND DEATH OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION X.

CORRESPONDENCE OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION XI.

CHARACTER OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION XII.

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF LINNÆUS.

SECTION XIII.

A BRIEF NOTICE OF LINNÆUS'S SON.

LIVESOFEMINENT ZOOLOGISTS.

Introduction.

FOOTNOTES:

ARISTOTLE.

SECTION I.

Remarkable Events in the Life of Aristotle.

SECTION II.

Account of Aristotle's History of Animals.

FOOTNOTES:

PLINY THE ELDER.

Account of his Life and Works.

FOOTNOTES:

GESNER, BELON, SALVIANI, RONDELET, AND ALDROVANDI.

Zoologists of the Sixteenth Century.

CONRAD GESNER.

PIERRE BELON.

HIPPOLITO SALVIANI.

GUILLAUME RONDELET.

ULYSSES ALDROVANDI.

LIVES
OF
EMINENT ZOOLOGISTS.