Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
[Illustration: Engraved by J. Horsburgh.
LINNAEUS.
PUBLISHED BY OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH]
LIVES
OF
EMINENT ZOOLOGISTS,
FROM
ARISTOTLE TO LINNAEUS:
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 LINNAEUS 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
Linnaeus 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 Linnaeus 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, Linnaeus, 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 AElian, 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
LINNAEUS.
SECTION I.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF LINNAEUS.
Birth and Parentage of Linnaeus--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 Stobaeus--When on an Excursion is attacked by a
dangerous Malady--Stobaeus 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.
Linnaeus, 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 LINNAEUS, FROM 1733 to 1738.
Linnaeus 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 Naturae, 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 LINNAEUS FROM 1738 TO 1741.
Linnaeus 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 Moraeus, 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--Linnaeus 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 LINNAEUS'S ACADEMICAL CAREER.
Linnaeus 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 LINNAEUS.
Enthusiasm excited by the Lectures of Linnaeus--Ternstroem
dies on his Voyage to China--Hasselquist, after travelling
in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, dies at Smyrna--Forskal
perishes in Arabia; Loefling 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 Linnaeus--Remarks on the Accumulation of
Facts produced by their Exertions, 251
SECTION VII.
LINNAEUS'S OCCUPATIONS FROM 1750 TO 1770.
Publication of the Philosophia Botanica--General Account of
that Work--Linnaeus 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--Linnaeus 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 NATURAE OF LINNAEUS.
Linnaeus'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 Linnaeus--Classification of the
Vegetable Kingdom--Theory of the Formation of Minerals and
Rocks, 272
SECTION IX.
DECLINE AND DEATH OF LINNAEUS.
Review of the Medical Writings of Linnaeus--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 LINNAEUS.
Linnaeus'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 LINNAEUS.
Specific Character of Linnaeus--Remarks of
Condorcet--Linnaeus'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 LINNAEUS.
Hortus Uplandicus--Florula Lapponica--Systema
Naturae--Hypothesis Nova de Febrium Intermittentium
Causa--Fundamenta Botanica--Bibliotheca Botanica--Musa
Cliffortiana--Genera Plantarum--Viridarium
Cliffortianum--Caroli Linnaei 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. Linnaei
Scriptis--Oratio de Peregrinationum intra Patriam
Necessitate--Oratio de Tellurus Habitabilis
Incremento--Flora Suecica--Animalia Sueciae--Oelaendska och
Gothlaendska Resa--Fauna Sueciae Regni--Flora
Zeylanica--Waestgoetha Resa--Hortus Upsaliensis--Materia
Medica Regni Vegetabilis--Materia Medica Regni
Animalis--Skaenska Resa--Philosophia Botanica--Materia Medica
Regni Lapidei--Species Plantarum--Museum Tessinianum--Museum
Regis Adolphi Suecorum--Frederici Hasselquist Iter
Palestinum--Petri Loeflingii Iter Hispanicum--Oratio
Regia--Disquisitio Quaestionis, ab Acad. Imper. Scientiarum
Petropolitanae, in annum 1759 pro Praemio, Propositae--Genera
Morborum--Museum Reginae Louisae Ulricae--Clavis Medica
Duplex--Mantissa Plantarum--Mantissa Plantarum
altera--Deliciae Naturae--Essays printed in the Transactions
of the Academies of Upsal and Stockholm, 375
SECTION XIII.
A BRIEF NOTICE OF LINNAEUS'S SON.
Unnatural Conduct of the Mother of the Younger Linnaeus--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._
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, Linnaeus, and Cuvier.
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 Linnaeus 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 aerial 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
deg. to 40 deg. 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 deg., 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 AElian, 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 Linnaeus,
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 Naturae, 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 Regne 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. Linnaeus 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 Regne 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 Linnaeus. 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 Linnaeus, 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 Linnaean 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._
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.
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, Linnaeus, 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 Euboea,
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
Euboean 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._
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.
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 aerial 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 vertebrae, 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 mammae, 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 columnae
carneae of the heart, the tendons and fasciae; 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 mammae, 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 Oeta 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 Linnaeus, could have accomplished
in similar circumstances."
The best edition of his History of Animals ([Greek: Peri Zoon
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
Oeconomica, 1587; Animalium Historia, 1587; De Animalium Partibus, &c.
1585; Physicae Auscultationis, lib. viii. et Alia Opera, 1596; De
Coelo, 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._
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.
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 cyclopaedias. 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 Capreae; 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 Stabiae, 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: _Haec
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 cyclopaedia 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 Demoenetus 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. Scaevola_ the sonne of Publius, was the first at Rome that in his
Curule AEdileship 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
_Caesar_ 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 Gaetulia, 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 L300,000).
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 Caesar, 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 AEmilianus, 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 Boeotians 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 Caesar 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 phoenix
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 Linnaeus, 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--Account of his Life and Writings, preceded by
Remarks on those of AElian, 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.
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 AElian and Oppian. The former was born at Praeneste 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 Cynaegeticon; 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, AElian, 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, AElian, 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 Souletiere, in the parish of
Oise, 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 Rene 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 Singularites et Choses
memorables, trouvees en Grece, Asie, Judee, Egypte, Arabie et autres
Pays etranges, redigees 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 vivae piscium imagines expositae sunt, and was published at Lyons
in 1554. A second part appeared in 1555, under the name of Universae
Aquatilium Historiae 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 Linnaeus, 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.
Some portions of his museum have successfully struggled with the
destructive energies of time, and are still to be seen in the collection
of the Institute of Bologna. His manuscripts, of which there is an
immense mass, are preserved in the public library of the same city; and
the drawings from which the engravings for his work were taken were
carried, at the time of the Revolution, to the Museum of Natural History
at Paris.
Such were the dawnings of zoological science after the revival of
learning in Europe. The authors of those times, it is manifest, looked
less to nature than to the writings of Aristotle, Pliny, and their other
predecessors; so that in their works we find little more than a
repetition of what had been previously said. Their descriptions are
rude, frequently incorrect, and in few cases characteristic. They had no
idea of disposing the objects of which they treated in a manner
resembling that to which we have been accustomed since the period of Ray
and Linnaeus. The alphabetical arrangement was followed by some, while
others possessed a rude notion of the affinity of species; but although
attempts were made to separate the animal creation into classic groups,
yet from the days of Aristotle to those of Swammerdam, Ray, and Reaumur,
we find no traces of the anatomical knowledge necessary for the
accomplishment of such an undertaking. We have, indeed, little reason
to expect in the writings of the ancients, or in those of the succeeding
naturalists, any example of a just classification; still we cannot but
marvel when we find, that very few of them endeavoured to represent
objects as they might have seen them with their own eyes. Whatever may
be the causes of this defect, those who are extensively conversant with
the publications of our own times must be aware, that the practice of
copying from books, instead of having recourse to Nature herself, has
not yet been relinquished; though nothing is more clear than that there
can be no real progress in natural history without authenticating the
observations of preceding writers by examining the objects which they
have described, and by noting the particulars in which they are
erroneous.
FOOTNOTES:
[G] Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Poissons.
JONSTON, GOEDART, REDI, AND SWAMMERDAM.
_Zoologists of the Seventeenth Century._
Brief Account of the Lives and Writings of John Jonston,
John Goedert, Francis Redi, and John Swammerdam--Notice
respecting the principal Works of Swammerdam--His Birth and
Education--He studies Medicine, but addicts himself chiefly
to the Examination of Insects--Goes to France, where he
forms an Acquaintance with Thevenot--Returns to Amsterdam,
takes his Degree, improves the Art of making Anatomical
Preparations--Publishes various Works--Destroys his Health
by the Intensity of his Application--Becomes deeply
impressed with religious Ideas--Adopts the Opinions of
Antoinette Bourignon--Is tortured by conflicting
Passions--Endeavours to dispose of his Collections--Is
affected with Ague and Anasarca, and dies after protracted
Suffering--His Writings published by Boerhaave--His
Classification of Insects.
JOHN JONSTON.
Of the three kingdoms of nature, the vegetable was that which, down to
the time of Linnaeus, had received most attention. Mineralogy could
scarcely be said to have commenced. Zoology had indeed made considerable
progress; but botany had advanced in a still greater degree, having been
cultivated by a host of naturalists, chiefly belonging to the medical
profession. One of these, Caesalpinus, who flourished in the end of the
16th century, had already invented a system; whereas Ray, who belonged
to the 17th, was the first zoologist who formed a methodical
arrangement of animals. It might thus be supposed that the examination
of plants is easier, while that of minerals is more difficult, than the
study of zoology; but the cause of the preference given to the vegetable
economy seems to be connected with the value of herbs as articles of the
Materia Medica, while the animal kingdom attracted more attention than
the mineral, as exciting greater curiosity, and tending more directly to
supply the most urgent wants of man. However this may be, it is certain,
that in the 17th century the botanists greatly exceeded the zoologists
in number. One of the most remarkable of the latter was the subject of
the present notice, who, although merely a compiler, and not possessed
of much judgment or taste, continued to be a popular author on natural
history until his works were superseded by those of Linnaeus.
John Jonston, descended from a family originally Scottish, was born, in
1603, at Sambter, near Lissa, a city of the palatinate of Posen in
Poland. After studying at Beuthen on the Oder, and at Thorn in the
Prussian dominions, he prosecuted his education at the University of St
Andrews; whence, in due time, he returned to his native country, and for
three years acted as tutor to the sons of Count Kurtzbach. He then
studied medicine and natural history in several of the more
distinguished seminaries at home and abroad. In 1632, he took charge of
two young noblemen, whom he accompanied to England, Holland, France, and
Italy. At Leyden he obtained a medical degree, and was offered a
professorship; which, however, he declined, preferring a private life.
On completing his travels, he retired to a place in the neighbourhood of
Lignitz, where he spent the rest of his days. He died on the 8th June
1675.
The most important of Jonston's works is his Historia Animalium, which
was published at Frankfort on the Maine. The first part, containing five
books on fishes and cetacea, and four on the white-blooded aquatic
animals, appeared in 1649. The second part, which treats of birds,
followed in 1650; the third, on quadrupeds, in 1652; and the fourth, on
insects and serpents, in 1653. Several editions of this work have since
come out; the latest being that of Heidelberg, in 1755. It is, however,
a mere compilation from the writings of Gesner, Aldrovandi, and others.
The plates, which are numerous, are also, for the most part, copied from
these authors, a few only being original. They are not without merit,
having been engraved by the famous Matthew Merian; but several of them,
resting on no authority beyond that of simple description, represent
objects which have no real existence. His first treatise, which is a
collection of the most curious phenomena presented by the sky, the
elements, meteors, fossils, plants, birds, quadrupeds, insects, and man,
was printed at Amsterdam in 1632, under the title of Thaumatographia
Naturalis in Decem Classes Distincta. He also produced a Dendrographia,
or natural history of trees and shrubs; and two smaller tracts, the one
entitled Notitia Regni Vegetabilis, the other Notitia Regni Mineralis;
together with several others, on various subjects, which, as they have
long since passed into oblivion, it is unnecessary to mention at greater
length.
JOHN GOEDART.
This distinguished naturalist was born at Middleburg in Holland, in
1620. He was a sedulous observer of the nature and properties of
insects, which he examined with admirable patience and sagacity. His
work, which was written in Dutch, was published at Middleburg in 1662,
with the title Descriptions of the Origin, Species, Qualities, and
Metamorphoses of Worms, Caterpillars, &c. Being a painter by profession,
he adorned it with very accurate coloured engravings. The treatise was
also printed in Latin and French translations. The former bore this
title:--Metamorphosis et Historia Naturalis Insectorum, cum Commentario
Jo. de Mey et duplici cjusd. Appendice, una de Hemerobiis, altera de
Natura Cometarum. An improved edition, in the English language, was
published by Lister in 1682; and another, in Latin, in which the species
were methodically disposed, appeared in 1685, under the care of the same
naturalist, who had the work reprinted a third time as an appendix to
his Historia Animalium Angliae. Goedart describes 150 different species,
and may be considered as the first who subjected the metamorphoses of
insects to accurate examination. He died in 1668.
FRANCIS REDI.
The principal works of this eminent physician, having any reference to
zoology, are on the generation of insects, on the poison of the viper,
and on intestinal worms. His observations and experiments were
translated from the Italian into Latin, and published at Amsterdam in
1670 and 1686, and at Leyden in 1729. Fabroni gives his life in the
third volume of his Vitae Illustrium Italorum. Sprung from a noble
family, he was born at Arezzo on the 18th February 1626. After finishing
his studies at the University of Pisa, he settled at Florence, where he
soon became known as a successful practitioner, and was appointed
physician to Ferdinand II, grand duke of Tuscany, in which office he was
continued by Cosmo III. Redi's experiments, directed by professional
views, had for their chief object the treatment of the bite of serpents,
and the destruction or removal of intestinal worms. His letters,
however, published in 1724, in two volumes 4to, are replete with
interesting observations in every department of natural history; his
poetical works are said to be distinguished by elegance and grace; and
his numerous literary compositions are described as evincing a pure and
cultivated taste. He was a considerable contributor to the edition of
the Dictionary of the Academia della Crusca, printed in 1691. He died at
Pisa on the 1st of March 1694, at the age of sixty-eight, and was buried
at Arezzo, in a tomb which his nephew decorated with an inscription,
remarkable for its simplicity and good taste:--
FRANCISCO REDI PATRITIO ARETINO
GREGORIUS FRATRIS FILIUS.
JOHN SWAMMERDAM.
As a naturalist, Swammerdam is chiefly celebrated for the extent and
accuracy of his inquiries into the structure of insects; though anatomy
and physiology are equally indebted to his labours. He was the first who
discovered the method of rendering the blood-vessels more easy to be
traced in dissection, by injecting them with coloured wax in a fluid
state; and although he cannot for that reason alone claim all the
discoveries that have been made in anatomy, any more than the first
person who skinned birds can claim the honour of determining the
numerous species that have been conveyed from distant countries, or he
who first cut a slice of petrified wood, all the results that have
emanated from his experiment, yet he certainly devised the means of
extending our knowledge of the human body as well as of pathology. His
works on insects are the following:--1. The General History of Insects,
published in Dutch at Utrecht in 1669, and subsequently in French and
Latin, in which he gives a classification of these animals, founded on
their structure and metamorphoses. 2. The History of the Ephemeris,
published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1675, and in Latin at London in 1681.
3. The Biblia Naturae, sive Historia Insectorum in Classes Certas
Redacta, Leyden, 1737-38, 2 vols folio, which has been translated into
German, English, and French. This important work was published after his
death by Boerhaave, in Dutch and Latin, and contains a masterly
exposition of the structure of such insects as came under his
observation.
It has been remarked by an eminent entomologist, that natural history,
which, during the long series of ages in which barbarism reigned, shared
the fate of the other sciences, underwent the same treatment when a
taste for knowledge began to revive. For example, it was chiefly in
Aristotle that the history of animals was sought; whereas, if
Aldrovandi, Gesner, Moufet, and other physiologists, had studied nature
as much as they studied the ancient writers, the assiduous labour of so
many active minds would have secured for that science a more sure and
rapid progress. The material world was then observed only for the
purpose of confirming the reports made by the authors of antiquity. At
length Nature opened the eyes of those who were trying to see in her
only what they had seen in Aristotle and Pliny. She disclosed to them
facts worthy of being noticed, which they vainly sought in the books
which they imagined to contain every thing; and unfolded others, which
gave them reason to doubt the truth of those that had been transmitted
from former ages. After having thrown off the fetters of authority,
farther, perhaps, than was quite consistent with the respect that was
really due to the ancients, men perceived that they ought to study
facts, verify whatever had been related, and try to discover more. It
was thus that Malpighi, Swammerdam, Redi, and other illustrious authors
proceeded. Even those, such as Goedart and Madame Merian, who, from an
ignorance in some degree fortunate, were unable to read the ancients,
laboured with advantage as observers.[H]
The subject of this memoir was born at Amsterdam on the 12th February
1637. His father, an apothecary, was fond of natural history, and, being
in prosperous circumstances, embellished his house with preserved
animals, shells, and minerals, insomuch that it became an object of
attraction to the curious. Young Swammerdam was intended for the church,
and received instructions in the Greek and Latin languages, to qualify
him for the study of divinity; but, on seriously considering the
importance of the task designed for him, he judged himself incapable of
discharging the duties of a religious instructor. On representing the
matter to his parents, he received their permission to commence the
study of medicine. Being frequently employed in cleaning and arranging
his father's cabinet, he gradually acquired a liking to natural history,
and even at an early age began to form a collection of insects, which he
disposed into classes, agreeably to ideas derived from observation and
the descriptions of authors. Day and night he pursued his favourite
employment, searching the woods and fields, the sandhills and muddy
shores, the lakes, rivers, and canals, for insects, worms, and mollusca,
until he acquired, even while a youth, a more extensive and more
accurate knowledge of the lower animals than all the naturalists who had
preceded him.
In 1661, he went to Leyden, for the purpose of attending the lectures at
the celebrated university of that city. There he remained two years,
studying surgery with Van Horne, and medicine with Franciscus Sylvius de
le Boe, with as much diligence as he had previously displayed in his
other pursuits. During the whole of this time he enjoyed the friendship
of Steno and De Graaf; and, becoming much attached to the study of
anatomy, he exerted his utmost ingenuity in devising means for
effectually preserving his preparations.
He then went to Paris to improve himself in his profession. There he
continued the examination of insects, and had the good fortune to
discover the valves in the lymphatic vessels. After this he resided for
some time at Lyons, where he lived on terms of intimacy with Thevenot
the celebrated traveller, who introduced him to the learned men by whom
his house was frequented. In their society he usually remained a
listener, and could not be prevailed upon to communicate his ideas; but,
being repeatedly urged to exhibit one of his minute dissections, he
gratified the wishes of his friends, and, by the profound knowledge
which he displayed, acquired at once their esteem and admiration.
Thevenot recommended him to Van Beuningen, a senator at Amsterdam, who,
on his returning to that city, obtained permission for him to examine
the bodies of patients dying in the hospital,--an opportunity of
increasing his knowledge which he took care not to neglect.
In his native town he frequented a society of medical men, who met once
a-fortnight for the purpose of discussing subjects connected with their
profession, and made observations on the structure of the spinal marrow
and nerves, on respiration, and on the effects produced by the injection
of fluids into the blood-vessels of animals.
About the end of 1666, he returned to Leyden with the view of obtaining
his medical diploma, and there continued his researches in company with
his former teacher, Van Horne, in whose house he injected the uterine
vessels with wax,--a method of showing the distribution of the arteries
and veins afterwards greatly improved by him, and which has been
productive of much advantage in the study of anatomy. In February 1667,
he received the degree of doctor, and in March published his thesis on
respiration, which he dedicated to Thevenot. He next invented a new
method of preserving anatomical subjects by inflating them with air. But
the eagerness with which he engaged in these occupations was
prejudicial to his health, and he was seized with a quartan ague, which
reduced him to a state of extreme debility. On recovering from this
disease, he remitted his professional studies for two years; resuming
the investigation of insects, the structure of which he unfolded with
astonishing precision and success.
It happened about this time that the Grand Duke of Tuscany visited
Amsterdam. Accompanied by Thevenot, he examined the collections made by
Swammerdam and his father, and was so struck by the wonderful
dissections of insects that he offered 12,000 florins for the museum, on
condition that its proprietor should accompany it to Florence, and take
up his residence in the palace. But the young naturalist had been no
much accustomed to roam about at will, that he could not relinquish his
liberty, and therefore refused the offer.
In 1669, he published his General History of Insects, which he dedicated
to the senate of Amsterdam. The expense which he incurred in procuring
specimens from all quarters, while no emoluments resulted from his
labours, so displeased his father, that he earnestly urged him to
relinquish his unprofitable pursuits, and engage in the practice of
medicine. At length, finding him unwilling to follow his advice, he was
obliged to threaten a total intermission of supplies; though by this
time the ardent student had fallen into such a state of debility that he
was totally unfit to undergo the fatigues of practice. He was, however,
sensible of the propriety of the counsel which was administered to him,
and retired to the country to recruit his strength; but he had scarcely
arrived when he recommenced his studies, being wholly unable to resist
the temptation offered by solitude and by the presence of the objects
which invited his research. In the mean time, Thevenot, being made
acquainted with these circumstances, urged him to return to France,
generously offering him every thing necessary to enable him to follow
the bent of his genius. His father, however, did not approve of this
scheme, which was therefore relinquished; but the son did not the less
continue to pursue his former occupations.
In 1672, he published his Miraculum Naturae, seu Uteri Muliebris Fabrica.
He soon afterwards entered upon an extensive examination of fishes,
having reference chiefly to the pancreas. About this time he began to be
impressed with religious ideas; becoming sensible of the vanity of human
pursuits, as well as of the sinfulness of that inordinate ambition which
impels men to aim at the highest place in the estimation of their
fellows. He accordingly resolved to eradicate that base passion from his
breast. In this state of mind he imbibed the mystical notions of the
celebrated Antoinette Bourignon.
This lady, who was a native of Lisle in Flanders, had become at an early
age impressed with the idea that pure Christianity was in a state of
decay, and that she was called to revive it. She became governess of the
hospital of her native city, and took the order and habit of St
Augustin; but owing to the disturbances caused by her violent temper and
pretensions to inspiration, the magistrates were obliged to expel her
from her office, when she retired to Ghent. The fortune which she
inherited from her parents, and that bequeathed to her by her convert De
Cordt, enabled her to publish several works of her own composition, and
rendered her, notwithstanding the deformity of her person, the object of
much hypocritical admiration. Such was her extreme parsimony, and so
inconsistent was her conduct with her professions, that she declared she
would rather throw her wealth into the sea than bestow the smallest sum
on the poor, or on "beastly persons who had no souls to be saved."
She was at that time in Holstein; and Swammerdam wrote to a friend of
his who accompanied her, to obtain permission to consult her in writing
respecting his doubts. The result of their correspondence was a
resolution on his part no longer to addict himself exclusively to
pursuits which had reference to this world only, but to endeavour to
make his peace with God. He did not, however, entirely relinquish his
anatomical studies, but on the contrary engaged with astonishing ardour
in the examination of the structure of bees, which he finished on the
last day of September 1674. "He had laboured so assiduously at this
work," says Boerhaave, "as to destroy his constitution; nor did he ever
recover even a shadow of his former strength. The labour, in fact, was
beyond the power of ordinary men: all day he was occupied in examining
subjects, and at night described and delineated what he had seen by day.
At six in the morning, in summer, he began to receive sufficient light
from the sun to enable him to trace the objects of his examination. He
continued dissecting till twelve, with his hat removed lest it should
impede the light, and in the full blaze of the sun, the heat of which
caused his head to be constantly covered with a profuse perspiration.
His eyes being continually employed in this strong light, the effect of
which was increased by the use of the microscope, they were so affected
by it, that after mid-day he could no longer trace the minute bodies
which he examined, although he had then as bright a light as in the
forenoon." A month of this excessive labour was necessary to examine and
depict the intestines of bees alone; and the investigation of their
entire structure cost him much additional labour; and all this was done,
with a body debilitated by disease, and a mind agitated by conflicting
passions, amid sighs and tears. At one time the bent of his disposition
impelled him to investigate the wonderful works of Omnipotence; at
another a voice within told him that he ought to set his affections on
God alone. After finishing his examination of the structure of bees, he
was so affected with remorse, that he gave the manuscript and drawings
to a friend, careless what might happen to them. At the same time,
however, he wrote two letters to Boccone, on the nature of corals.
These occupations being ended, he was more powerfully impressed than
ever with the vanity of human pursuits, and after this period he never
engaged in his customary investigations. He acknowledged that hitherto
ambition alone had incited him to undergo so many labours, but now
resolved to devote the remainder of his life to the cultivation of
Christian piety. Being encouraged in this resolution by the approbation
of Antoinette Bourignon, he firmly adhered to it; and estimating the
annual sum necessary for his subsistence at 400 Dutch florins, he
endeavoured to dispose of his collections, which formed the only
treasures that he possessed. For this purpose, he applied to Thevenot,
who, however, was unable to find a purchaser in France. He then had
recourse to another friend, Nicolas Steno, who had abjured the
Protestant faith and was living at Florence, and whom he requested to
represent the matter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in case he might feel
disposed to purchase them. This person advised him to follow his
example, relinquish his creed, embrace the Catholic faith, and proceed
to Florence, promising that he should induce the duke to accept the
offer. Swammerdam replied indignantly, that he would not sell his soul
for money.
Being without any fixed occupation, he devoted his leisure to arranging
and cleaning the contents of his museum, and writing out a catalogue of
them. They consisted of anatomical preparations and insects, of the
latter of which there were nearly three thousand distinct species. These
were all described and arranged into classes, and the entire structure
of many of them had been demonstrated by the most minute dissection. He
then published his Treatise on the Ephemeris, which he had commenced
when in France, and which is considered as one of the most remarkable
productions of any age. He did not, however, venture upon this step
without consulting Bourignon. These arrangements completed, he now
determined in earnest to lead a holy life, and being desirous of a
personal consultation with his directress, he went to Holstein, where he
remained with her some time. On returning to Amsterdam, he again
endeavoured to dispose of his museum, but without success; and his
sister, who had hitherto presided over the domestic establishment,
happening at this time to be married, his father resolved upon living
with his son-in-law, so that he was obliged to look out for another
residence. On this occasion his allowance was limited to 200 florins,
and as he could not find any one to purchase his collection he was
reduced to great perplexity. However, a thought struck him that he might
apply to an old friend, who had formerly treated him with great
kindness; but in this he also failed.
In the following year, his father died, leaving him heir to his
property, which was sufficient for his support; but he became involved
in disputes with his sister, which, together with his assiduous
endeavours to discharge his religious duties, so agitated his mind, that
he was again seized with a severe ague. For three entire months he was
confined to his bed, and even when the accessions of the fever had
become more gentle and less frequent, he still persisted in remaining in
the house. In vain did his friends, Sladus, Ruysch, Schrader, Hotton,
and Guenellon, urge upon him the propriety of adopting means for
improving his health. He would not yield to their proposals; and, when
they still persisted, at length maintained an obstinate silence.
Finding all his endeavours to sell his collection fruitless, he
determined to expose it to public auction; but before the period
arrived, his disease was much aggravated by the various agitations to
which his mind was now habitually subject. The fever proved again
regular and continuous, the countenance was emaciated, the eyes were
sunk, the feet, the legs, and at length the whole body, dropsical. His
friends dared not speak to him respecting his former studies, for he
detested all allusion to them, and wished to withdraw his mind entirely
from earthly concerns. At length, on the 25th January 1670, when he
perceived his end approaching, he wrote his will, leaving to Thevenot
all his original manuscripts on the history of bees, butterflies, and
anatomy, with 52 plates; all of which were at that time in the house of
Herman Wigendorp in Leyden, to whom they had been delivered to be
translated into Latin. He bequeathed his property to Margaret Volckers,
wife of Daniel de Hoest, appointing her and Christopher Wyland his
executors. The remainder of his time he spent in devotion, and died on
the 17th February.
It was some years before Thevenot obtained possession of the
manuscripts, and after his death they passed into various hands, but
were bought in 1727 by the illustrious Boerhaave, who arranged and
published them in two folio volumes, prefixing a life of the author,
from which we have drawn the materials of this notice.
The learned editor gives an interesting account of the instruments and
expedients employed by Swammerdam in dissecting insects and other minute
animals. When the anatomical preparations, insects, and apparatus, were
offered for sale, no purchaser could be found, and the collection was
subsequently dispersed. The manuscripts and drawings of the Biblia
Naturae were deposited by Boerhaave in the library of the University of
Leyden.
The works of Swammerdam contain more original and accurate observations
than those of any naturalist who preceded him, excepting Aristotle. He
refuted numerous errors committed by his predecessors, and carried his
observations to a degree of minuteness and accuracy truly astonishing;
but it is not a little surprising that he succeeded less in describing
the structure of large objects than in delineating the organs of the
most minute.
His classification of insects differs very materially from those now in
use. The characters of his four classes he derives from the state in
which each insect appears after its birth, and those through which it
passes before attaining its entire development. In the first he places
all those which issue from the egg with nearly the same form as that
which they have at the period of their full growth; such as spiders,
slugs, leeches, &c. In the second are included those which, like the
grashopper, issue with six feet, and some time after cast off the
covering under which the wings were concealed. These insects run or leap
with agility in their first stage, which is not the case with those of
the next class. To the third are referred insects which undergo greater
changes, such as caterpillars, and which proceed from the egg in the
state of a worm, remain in that state for some time, cast off their
hairy covering, assume the form of a chrysalis, when they become
motionless, and finally emerge in a winged state. The fourth class
consists of such as, like the common fly, on changing the form under
which they issued from the egg to assume that of a worm, do not cast
their covering, but become separated from it, while it remains and forms
a shell or egg-like investiture, in which the insect remains in the pupa
state until it finally emerges with wings.
The history of Swammerdam must excite our sympathy and commiseration;
but that, as some have alleged, he lost his reason towards the end of
his life, and became subject to mania, arising from religious
melancholy, no one who has any share of that piety which he evinced
will feel disposed to admit. Although he lived in misery, the close of
his life was perhaps more enviable than that of many who have gone
smiling to their final rest; and it is well for those who, before the
period arrives when as the tree falls so it must lie, can like him
become truly sensible of the vanity of all earthly pursuits, even
although after death they should be pointed out as the victims of a
distempered imagination.
FOOTNOTES:
[H] Reaumur, Histoire des Insectes, tome i. p. 28.
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.
The distinguished individual whose history we are about to sketch, and
who is considered by many persons of the present age as the greatest
naturalist that Britain has yet produced, was born on the 29th November
1628, at Black Notley, near Braintree in Essex. His father, Roger Wray,
was a blacksmith,--a circumstance which affords another proof that
natural history has had among its most successful cultivators men of all
stations in society, from the lowest to the highest. He received the
rudiments of his education at Braintree School, under the care of a Mr
Love, who, it seems, was but indifferently qualified for his office.
Young Wray, however, profited so well by his opportunities of acquiring
knowledge, that at the age of sixteen he was sent to the University of
Cambridge, where he entered at Katherine Hall in June 1644. As it is not
stated that on this occasion he had to draw on the generosity of any of
his rich neighbours, it is to be presumed that his father was in
prosperous circumstances. At the end of a year and three-quarters he
removed to Trinity College, where he had the good fortune to have for
his tutor Dr Duport, a man of great learning, under whose direction he
acquired considerable skill in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages.
About three years afterwards he was chosen Minor Fellow of Trinity, at
the same time with his friend the celebrated Isaac Barrow; and, after
passing through the usual gradations, was appointed Greek lecturer of
the College in October 1651, Mathematical lecturer in October 1053, and
Humanity reader in October 1655. After this he was made Praelector
Primarius, Junior Dean, and College Steward, having been sworn into the
latter office in 1659.
During the time of Mr Wray's residence at the university, he had several
gentlemen of great merit under his tuition. He also became eminent as a
pulpit orator, being, according to the testimony of Dr Tenison,
archbishop of Canterbury, "much celebrated for his preaching solid and
useful divinity, instead of that enthusiastick stuff, which the sermons
of that time were generally filled with." He contracted an intimate
friendship with Mr John Nid, who, like himself, was an ardent "admirer
of the works of God," and whom, in a funeral sermon, he eulogizes for
his admirable amenity and candour, his strict probity, innocence of life
and manners, singular modesty, and great learning. He was aided by this
gentleman in writing his Catalogue of Cambridge Plants, which he
published in 1660, and which was found of great use in promoting the
much-neglected study of botany at that university. But before it was
entirely finished, he was deprived of the companion whose society had
afforded him so much delight.
The favourable reception given to the work now mentioned, encouraged Mr
Wray to prosecute his researches with more vigour, and induced him to
extend his excursions through the greater part of England and Wales, as
well as over a portion of Scotland. On these journeys or "simpling
voyages," as he calls them, he was usually accompanied by some of his
friends, and in particular by his pupil, Mr Willughby. The notes made on
these hurried expeditions were afterwards published by Mr George Scott,
under the title of "Select Remains of the learned John Ray;" and as they
are not deficient in interest, one or two extracts from them may be not
misplaced here:
"August the 17th (1661), we travelled to Dunbar, a town noted for the
fight between the English and Scots. The Scots generally (that is the
poorer sort) wear, the men blue bonnets on their heads, and some russet;
the women only white linen, which hangs down their backs as if a napkin
were pinned about them. When they go abroad, none of them wear hats,
but a party-coloured blanket, which they call a plad, over their heads
and shoulders. The women generally to us seemed none of the handsomest.
They are not very cleanly in their houses, and but sluttish in dressing
their meat. Their way of washing linens is to tuck up their coats, and
tread them with their feet in a tub. They have a custom to make up the
fronts of their houses, even in their principal towns, with firr boards
nailed one over another, in which are often made many round holes or
windows to put out their heads. In the best Scottish houses, even the
king's palaces, the windows are not glazed throughout, but the upper
part only, the lower have two wooden shuts or folds to open at pleasure,
and admit the fresh air. The Scots cannot endure to hear their country
or countrymen spoken against. They have neither good bread, cheese, nor
drink. They cannot make them, nor will they learn. Their butter is very
indifferent, and one would wonder how they could contrive to make it so
bad. They use much pottage made of coal-wort, which they call keal,
sometimes broth of decorticated barley. The ordinary country houses are
pitiful cots, built of stone, and covered with turves, having in them
but one room, many of them no chimneys, the windows very small holes,
and not glazed. In the most stately and fashionable houses, in great
towns, instead of cieling, they cover the chambers with firr boards,
nailed on the roof within side. They have rarely any bellows, or
warming-pans. It is the manner in some places there, to lay on but one
sheet as large as two, turned up from the feet upwards. The ground in
the valleys and plains bears good corn, but especially beer-barley, or
bigge, and oats, but rarely wheat and rye. We observed little or no
fallow-grounds in Scotland; some layed ground we saw, which they manured
with sea-wreck. The people seem to be very lazy, at least the men, and
may be frequently observed to plow in their cloaks. It is the fashion
for them to wear cloaks when they go abroad, but especially on Sundays.
They lay out most they are worth in cloaths, and a fellow that hath
scarce ten groats besides to help himself with, you shall see come out
of his smoaky cottage clad like a gentleman."
That this is a true character of the people of the southern division of
Scotland in those days is very probable;--it is needless to say that
things are much altered now. Still the picture applies in almost every
particular to the inhabitants of several districts at the present day,
although the men seldom plough in their plaids; but as the Scots cannot
(any more than the English) endure to hear their country spoken against,
we desist from making any reflections, merely wishing that they would
strive to render it such as to merit the utmost praise.
The next extract which we shall present, has a reference to the Bass
Rock, in the estuary of the Forth:
"August the 19th, we went to Leith, keeping all along on the side of the
Fryth. By the way we viewed Tantallon Castle, and passed over to the
Basse Island; where we saw, on the rocks, innumerable of the soland
geese. The old ones are all over white, excepting the pinion or hard
feathers of their wings, which are black. The upper part of the head and
neck, in those that are old, is of a yellowish dun colour. They lay but
one egg a-piece, which is white, and not very large. They are very
bold, and sit in great multitudes till one comes close up to them,
because they are not wont to be scared or disturbed. The young ones are
esteemed a choice dish in Scotland, and sold very dear (1s. 8d.
plucked). We eat of them at Dunbar. They are in bigness little inferior
to an ordinary goose. The young one is upon the back black, and speckled
with little white spots, under the breast and belly grey. The beak is
sharp-pointed, the mouth very wide and large, the tongue very small, the
eyes great, the foot hath four toes webbed together. It feeds upon
mackrel and herring, and the flesh of the young one smells and tastes
strong of these fish. The other birds which nestle in the Basse are
these; the scout, which is double ribbed; the cattiwake, in English
cormorant; the scart, and a bird called the turtle-dove, whole-footed,
and the feet red. There are verses which contain the names of these
birds among the vulgar, two whereof are,
'The scout, the scart, the cattiwake,
The soland goose sits on the lake,
Yearly in the spring.'
"We saw of the scout's eggs, which are very large and speckled. It is
very dangerous to climb the rocks for the young of these fowls, and
seldom a year passeth, but one or other of the climbers fall down and
lose their lives, as did one not long before our being there. The laird
of this island makes a great profit yearly of the soland geese taken; as
I remember, they told us L130 sterling. There is in the isle a small
house, which they call a castle; it is inaccessible, and impregnable,
but of no great consideration in a war, there being no harbour, nor any
thing like it. The island will afford grass enough to keep thirty sheep.
They make strangers that come to visit it _Burgesses of the Basse_, by
giving them to drink of the water of the well, which springs near the
top of the rock, and a flower out of the garden thereby. The island is
nought else but a rock, and stands off the land near a mile; at Dunbar
you would not guess it above a mile distant, though it be thence at
least five. We found growing in the island, in great plenty, _Beta
marina_, _Lychnis marina nostras_, _Malta arborea marina nostras_, _et
Cochlearia rotundifolia_."
In this sketch, short as it is, there are several inaccuracies, and yet
it is on the whole more correct than some later accounts of the same
interesting islet.
On the restoration of Charles II., when there was a prospect of
peaceable times, and the church of England was re-established, Mr Wray
took orders, though he continued a fellow of Trinity College. But his
views of preferment were blasted by his resolution not to subscribe to
the conditions implied in the Act of Uniformity, by which divines were
required to declare that the oath entitled the Solemn League and
Covenant was not binding on those who had sworn it. The reason of his
refusal did not, however, arise from his having himself taken the oath,
which he never did, having always believed it to be unlawful, but from
his considering those who had taken it as still under an obligation to
abide by it. In consequence of this opinion he deemed it proper to
resign his fellowship in 1662.
On leaving Cambridge he resolved to go to the Continent, with the view
of extending his knowledge of natural history, to which he had long
been devoted. Accordingly, in the spring of 1663, accompanied by Mr
Willughby, Mr Skippon, and Mr Bacon, his pupils, he crossed to Calais,
and traversing the Low Countries, visited Germany, Italy, and several
islands in the Mediterranean. In returning homewards he directed his way
through Switzerland and France, and arrived in his own country in the
spring of 1666, with a rich store of materials for the cultivation of
his favourite science. He now occupied himself in reading the works that
had been published during his absence; in reviewing and arranging Mr
Willughby's collections; and in making a catalogue of such plants as
were natives of the English soil. He was also employed during the winter
in forming a table of plants and quadrupeds to illustrate the famous
work of Dr Wilkins on a "Real or Universal Character." In the summer of
1667, he made a journey into the west, accompanied by his favourite
pupil. While on this excursion the two friends described many natural
objects, and in particular examined the Cornish mines, and the methods
employed for smelting ores.
His fame as a naturalist being now fully established, he was solicited
to become a member of the Royal Society, which he accordingly entered in
1667. The remainder of this year he spent with his friends in Sussex and
Warwickshire. In 1668, he made a journey into Yorkshire and
Westmoreland, where he assiduously exerted himself in collecting plants
and animals. The greater part of the winter was passed in Warwickshire,
with Mr Willughby, who in the following spring engaged with him in a
series of experiments on the ascent and descent of the sap in trees,
the results of which were published in the Philosophical Transactions.
Although botany seems to have been his principal study, his attention
was by no means confined to it, for, like most naturalists of the time,
he was a general collector. The materials which he had accumulated in
the course of his journeys having now increased to a great extent, he
began to digest his observations; commencing, rather oddly, with a set
of proverbs, which he made ready for the press, although they were not
published till 1672. In 1669, he also prepared his Catalogue of English
Plants, which was printed in the following year.
At this time he changed his name to Ray, omitting the initial letter;
the altered mode of spelling being, as he conceived, more correct. In
one of his notes to Dr Lister he mentions his having had an offer of
L.100 per annum to travel with three young noblemen, expressing, at the
same time, his unfitness for the office, and his unworthiness of so
large a salary. To this his friend replies: "I joy you of the condition
offered you. If you accept it, I wish you all the satisfaction and
comfort in the world of it; and I pray God, of his infinite mercy, to
preserve you in your travels, and to send me home again my dear friend
well. Fix not long with them in any place; for the gentry of France are
very proud, and will soon (when acquainted) learn them to despise their
tutors, however well deserving." This proposal, however, Mr Ray
rejected, being in a weak state of health, and considering it more
expedient to continue his pursuits.
In the spring of 1671, he had an attack of jaundice, of which, as he
informs Dr Lister, he "got pretty well rid." On recovering, he pursued
his experiments on the motion of sap, and in summer visited several of
his acquaintances; after which, in July, he commenced a journey to the
northern counties, taking with him Thomas Willisel, from whose
assistance in collecting and describing plants he derived much profit.
In this erratic mode of living,--at one time wandering over the country
in quest of its rarer productions, at another residing with his friends
at their country-seats, enjoying their conversation, and deriving
instruction from the inspection of their collections,--Mr Ray must have
experienced much real happiness; one principal source of which, however,
was now dried up. He had scarcely returned from his excursion when he
was informed of the dangerous illness of Mr Willughby, who, having been
seized with violent pain in his head, followed by pleurisy and fever,
expired in the thirty-seventh year of his age, on the third day of July
1672.
The character of this estimable man and excellent naturalist cannot be
better described than in Dr Derham's words:--"His example deserves the
imitation of every person of great estate and honour. For he was a man
whom God had blessed with a very plentiful estate, and with excellent
parts, capable of making him useful to the world. And accordingly he
neglected no opportunity of being so. He did not (as the fashion too
much is) depend upon his riches, and spend his time in sloth or sports,
idle company-keeping, and luxury; but practising what was laudable and
good,--what might be of service to mankind. And among other virtuous
employments, one he much delighted in was the searching after, and
describing of, animals (birds, beasts, fishes, and insects), which
province he had taken for his task, as Mr Ray had that of plants. And in
these matters he was a great master, as he was also in plants, fossils,
and, in short, the whole history of nature; to which I may add that of
coins, and most other curious parts of learning. And in the pursuit and
acquest of this knowledge he stuck neither at any labour or cost. Noble
monuments of which he left behind him in those posthumous pieces which
Mr Ray afterwards published."
To render a separate article unnecessary, some particulars may here be
given respecting that distinguished individual. He was born in
Lincolnshire in 1635, and, as has already been mentioned, studied at
Trinity College, Cambridge, under the tuition of Ray, whose most
intimate friend he continued to be until the period of his premature and
lamented death. Dr Derham states, from a conversation which he had with
Ray a short time before his last illness, that "these two gentlemen,
finding the history of nature very imperfect, had agreed between
themselves, before their travels beyond sea, to reduce the several
tribes of things to a method; and to give accurate descriptions of the
several species, from a strict view of them." Both entered upon the task
with an enthusiasm which could have been excited only by an intense love
of nature, and although Ray was more successful in the event, Willughby
was not less industrious during his short career. Ornithology and
ichthyology seem to have been his favourite studies, and in prosecuting
them he formed an extensive museum, not, however, excluding other
objects. In 1668, he married the daughter of Sir H. Bernard, and settled
at Middleton Hall in Warwickshire, where he continued his researches
under the eye of his former tutor. His untimely death prevented the
publication of his several essays, which were left to the care of Mr
Ray, who was also one of the executors of his will. As a special mark of
his friendship, besides bequeathing an annuity of L60, he confided to
him the education of his two sons, Francis and Thomas, the first of whom
died before attaining his twentieth year. The younger was one of the
twelve peers created on the same day by Queen Anne, on which occasion he
received the title of Lord Middleton.
Mr Ray accordingly betook himself to the instruction of these two young
gentlemen, the eldest of whom was only four years of age at the period
of their father's decease. For their improvement he composed his
Nomenclator Classicus, which was published in 1672, and which, with
respect to the names of natural objects, was much more accurate than any
that had previously appeared. Having resolved to discharge his duties
with fidelity, he was obliged to give up the thoughts of another
botanical excursion which he had meditated, as well as to refuse the
invitation of Dr Lister, who wished him to live in his house at York.
This eminent physician and naturalist, who was one of Ray's most
intimate friends, was born, in 1638, in the county of Buckingham. He was
educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and having chosen the medical
profession, settled at York as a practitioner. In the year 1683, he
removed to London, when he took the degree of doctor at Oxford, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Having, in 1698,
attended the Earl of Portland on his embassy to France, he published,
when he returned, an account of the journey, which was ridiculed by Dr
William King in a parody, in consequence of the minute observations in
natural history which it contained. In 1709, he was made physician in
ordinary to Queen Anne; but he occupied this post only two years, as he
died in February 1711. Omitting his medical writings, which are not of
much importance, we may observe, that besides composing several papers
which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions, he published the
following works on shells, which are referred to by the naturalists of
the present day as important productions:--
Historia Animalium Angliae, with three tracts on spiders, land and
fresh-water shells, and marine shells, together with fossils having the
form of shells. 4to, London, 1678.
Exercitatio Anatomica de Cochleis. 8vo, 1694. Exercitatio Anatomica
Altera, de Buccinis Fluviatilibus et Marinis. 8vo, 1695. Exercitatio
Anatomica tertia Conchyliorum Bivalvium. 4to, 1696.
Historiae sive Synopsis Conchyliorum libri iv., 2 vols. folio, 1685-1693.
An edition was published, in 1770, by Mr Huddesford, keeper of the
Ashmolean Library at Oxford. Of this work there is a new impression by
Mr Dillwyn, with a scientific index. The plates of the Historia
Conchyliorum were executed from drawings by his daughters, and are in
general accurate.
As a specimen of the correspondence which naturalists hold with one
another, we may present the following letter to Mr Ray:--
"SIR,--August 18, I passed through Marton Woods, under
Pimco-Moore, in Craven. In these woods I then found very
great plenty of _Mushromes_, and many of them then wither'd,
and coal-black; but others new sprung and flourishing. They
are some of them of a large size, and yet few much bigger
than the _Champignon_ or _ordinary red-grilled eatable
Mushrome_, and very much of the shape of that; that is an
exactly round cap, or crown, which is thick in flesh, and
open deep gills underneath; a fleshy, and not hollow, round
foot-stalk, of about six fingers breadth above ground, and
ordinarily as thick as my thumb. The foot-stalk, gills, and
cap, all of a milk-white colour. If you cut any part of this
_mushrome_, it will _bleed_ exceeding freely and plentifully
a pure white juice. Concerning which, note,
"1. That the youngest did drop much more plentifully and
freely than those that were at their full growth and
expansion. That the dried and withered ones had no signs of
milk in them that I then discern'd.
"2. That this milk tastes and smells like pepper, and is
much hotter upon the tongue.
"3. That it is not clammy or roapy to the touch.
"4. That although I used the same knife to cut a hundred of
them, yet I could not perceive all that time, that the milk
changed colour (as is usual with most vegetable milks) upon
the knife blade.
"5. That it became, in the glass viol I drew it into,
suddenly concrete and stiff, and in some days dried into a
firm cake, or lump, without any _serum_ at all.
"6. That it then also, when dried, retained its keen biting
taste, as it does at this day, yet not so fierce: Its colour
is now of a yellowish green, yet very pale.
"7. This milk flows much faster from about the outmost rimm,
or part equivalent to the bark of plants, than from the more
inward parts, &c.
"8. I observed these _mushromes_ even then, when they
abounded with milk (not to be endured upon our tongues) to
be exceeding full of _fly_-maggots; and the youngest and
tenderest of them were very much eaten by the small grey
naked snail.
"You can tell me what author describes this mushrome, and
what he titles it.
"I have revised the History of Spiders, and added this
summer's notes. Also I have likewise brought into the same
method the land and fresh water snails, having this year
added many species found in these northern lakes. And by way
of Appendix, I have describ'd all the _shell-stones_ that I
have anywhere found in England, having purposely viewed some
places in Yorkshire where there are plenty. The tables of
both I purpose to send you. I am not so throughly stocked
with sea-shells as I wish and endeavour. I aim not at
exoticks, but those of our own shores. Concerning _St
Cuthbert's Beads_, I find 3 species of them in Craven: and
this makes it plain, that they have not been the back-bone
of any creature, because I find of them ramous and branched
like trees.
"York, October 12, 1672."
Soon after Mr Willughby's death, Mr Ray lost another of his best
friends, Bishop Wilkins, who died on the 19th November 1672. Being thus
deprived of some of those persons whose intercourse had afforded him the
purest pleasure, he began to think of consoling himself by marriage;
having formed an attachment to a young woman recommended by her personal
and mental accomplishments. She was the daughter of Mr John Oakeley of
Launton, in Oxfordshire. They were married in Middleton Church, on the
5th June 1673. This lady gave him important assistance in educating Mr
Willughby's children; and afterwards, by her unremitting attentions and
constant affection, contributed to enliven his mind, when he was
labouring under the pressure of protracted disease.
In the year just named, he published an account of the observations
which he had made in his travels on the Continent, to which was appended
a catalogue of plants observed in foreign countries, and also, about the
same time, his Collection of Unusual or Local English Words, adding to
it a catalogue of English birds and fishes, and an account of the way of
smelting and refining metals and minerals. Mr Oldenburgh, the secretary
of the Royal Society, having solicited him by numerous letters to
communicate any discoveries which he might have made, he sent several
papers, some of which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions, as
well as a discourse concerning seeds and the specific differences of
plants, which was read to the members.
In 1674 and the following year, he was busily engaged in the task of
preparing for the press Mr Willughby's observations on birds. These
notices had been committed to paper without any method, and left in a
very imperfect state, so that the trouble of revising and digesting was
of no light kind. Without at all detracting from the merits of the
author, whose labours, according to Dr Derham, were such, "that he
allowed himself little or no time for those recreations and diversions
which men of his estate and degree are apt to spend too much of their
time in, but prosecuted his design with as great application, as if he
had been to get his bread thereby," it may fairly be presumed, and
indeed has been generally admitted, that the greater part of his works
belong in fact to Mr Ray, who, however, claimed no merit in the
performance. The book was published in 1676, in Latin, with engravings,
which, in the titlepage, are designated as _icones elegantissimi et
vivarum avium simillimi_, although few who inspect them will be disposed
to concur in the opinion now stated. It was afterwards translated into
English by his affectionate editor, and put forth with large additions
in the year 1678. Derham apologizes for the inferior execution of the
plates, which were done at the charge of the author's widow.
"Considering," says the Doctor, "how well the engravers were paid for
their labour, it is great pity they had not had some able person in
London to have supervised them, that they might have given better
likenesses to the birds than what most of them have. But this is what Mr
Ray could only complain of, but not help, by reason of his being in
Warwickshire, at a distance from London, where every thing was
transacted by letters,--a method which could never afford sufficient
directions in a matter of that nature." The descriptions, however, are
in general excellent, regard being had to the state of science at the
time when they were written. Some of them, indeed, are very imperfect,
and there is, besides, a deficiency of method, which becomes more
striking when they are compared with those of Temminck or Selby, or any
other of our best modern ornithologists.
In this important work birds are divided into _Terrestrial_ and
_Aquatic_. The former are disposed in the following order:--
In the first place, land-birds are either furnished with hooked-bill and
claws, or have these organs nearly straight.
Those with hooked-bill are carnivorous and predatory or frugivorous. The
former are either diurnal, that is, hunt by day, or nocturnal, seeking
their food by night.
The diurnal carnivorous birds are either large, as the _eagles_ and
_vultures_, or small. Of the former there are two kinds, the _generous_,
as the peregrine falcon, lanner, goshawk, &c.; and the _ignoble_, as the
_buzzard_, kite, &c. The smaller predatory birds are the _shrikes_, and
birds of paradise.
The nocturnal birds of prey are the _owls_.
The _frugivorous_ birds with hooked-bill are the _macaws_, _parrots_,
and _parrakeets_.
Those having the bill and claws nearly straight, are divided into large,
middle-sized, and small. The large are the _ostrich_, _emeu_, and
_dodo_; the middle-sized are the _crows_ and _woodpeckers_, _peacock_,
_pigeons_, &c.; the small are such birds as the _swallow_ and _lark_,
which have the bill slender, and the _sparrow_, _greenfinch_, &c., in
which it is thick.
The _aquatic_ birds are of two kinds; some frequent watery places,
without being capable of swimming, while others betake themselves to
the water.
Of the former some are large, as the crane; others of smaller size. The
latter either live on fish, as the _heron_, _spoonbill_, _stork_,
_ibis_, &c., or search for insects in the mud, as the _oyster-catcher_,
_plover_, _sandpiper_, &c.
Of the swimming water-birds some have the toes separated, as the _coot_
and _water-hen_; while in others they are united by membranes. The
web-footed birds are either long-legged, as the _flamingo_ and _avocet_,
or furnished with short legs. Of the latter some have three toes, as the
_penguin_, _auk_, &c.; others have four. The four-toed aquatic birds
either have all the toes webbed, as the _pelican_, _gannet_,
_cormorant_, &c., or have the hind toe loose. Of the latter some have a
narrow bill, which is hooked at the tip in the _merganser_ and
_albatross_, or acute and straight in the _divers_ and _gulls_. Others
have the bill broad, as _geese_ and _ducks_.
Of the figures which accompany the descriptions there certainly are not
ten that bear a tolerably accurate resemblance to their originals; but,
in criticizing ornithological plates, we are apt to forget that it was
not until Audubon displayed his drawings that artists began to see how
well nature might be imitated.
Mr Willughby's sons having been withdrawn from Mr Ray's inspection, in
1675, he left Middleton Hall where he had resided, and removed with his
wife to Sutton Cofield, about four miles distant, where he continued
till Michaelmas 1677, when he went to Falborne Hall in Essex, near his
native place. In the course of his residence there his mother died, to
whom he was affectionately attached, and of whom he says that she stuck
constantly to her profession, and never "left the church in these times
of giddiness and distraction." Immediately after this event he repaired
to Black Notley, where he resolved to remain during the "short pittance
of time he had yet to live in this world."
He now finished his Methodus Plantarum Nova, which was published in
1682; and laboured at his Historia Plantarum Generalis, of which the
first volume appeared in 1686, the second in the following year, and the
third in 1704. In compiling this great work, he received much valuable
assistance from his friends, but more especially from Sir Hans Sloane
and Dr Tancred Robinson. With respect to the former of these
publications, it may be stated, that it was founded upon the labours of
his predecessors, such as Caesalpinus and Jungius, as well as on the
writings of Morison, whose method he principally followed. He divided
plants into woody and herbaceous. The woody kinds he again divided into
trees and shrubs, distinguishing the trees by their possessing buds;
which he showed to be, in fact, new plants annually springing from the
old ones. The families were better defined, the classes characterized
with more precision, and various terms introduced which were of great
advantage as tending to render the language of botany more appropriate.
The General History of Plants is his most celebrated work on the
vegetable kingdom. In it he describes with considerable exactness and
perspicuity all the species which his predecessors had made known,
adding those that had been discovered in his own time. All botanists who
have spoken of this work agree in considering it as one of immense
labour, although, as the greater part was avowedly borrowed from other
writers, it has not the advantage of ranking among those that have
resulted from original observation.
About the same time he revised and arranged Mr Willughby's papers
relative to fishes, which, being put in order for the press, and
communicated by Dr Robinson to the Royal Society, were published at the
charge of that learned body; the engravings having been executed at the
expense of several of the members. This important treatise appeared in
1686.
Besides all the species of Belon, Rondelet, Gesner, Aldrovandi, Olina,
and Margrave, says an eminent ichthyological writer, there are in these
works a great number which Willughby and Ray had observed in Germany and
Italy. The fishes of the Mediterranean in particular are described with
great accuracy, and it is often easier to trace them in their volumes
than in Linnaeus. To these two works are appended numerous figures, most
of which are only copies, although there are some very good original
ones among them. Even such of them as are borrowed from Belon and
Rondelet acquire an interest from the descriptions which accompany them,
and which are much superior to those of the French writers.[I]
Dr Robinson appears, by his notices contained in the "Philosophical
Letters between the late learned Mr Ray and several of his ingenious
Correspondents," to have been of considerable use to our author in
transmitting information on every subject that seemed interesting to the
latter, and especially in procuring objects for description. In one of
his communications from Geneva is a passage respecting the celebrated
Malpighi, which exhibits the character of that great anatomist in a
favourable light:--"I had several conferences with S. Malpighi at
Bononia, who expressed a great respect for you, and is not a little
proud of the character you give him in your Method. Plantar. Nov., which
book I had presented him withal a day before. Just as I left Bononia I
had a lamentable spectacle of Malpighi's house all in flames, occasioned
by the negligence of his old wife. All his pictures, furniture, books,
and manuscripts, were burnt. I saw him in the very heat of the calamity,
and methought I never beheld so much Christian patience and philosophy
in any man before; for he comforted his wife, and condol'd nothing but
the loss of his papers, which are more lamented than the Alexandrian
Library, or Bartholine's Bibliothece at Copenhagen."
Of the epistolary correspondence of this gentleman, and of Sir Hans
Sloane, it may be interesting to some of our readers to peruse a
specimen:--
DR ROBINSON TO MR RAY.
"London, August 1, --84.
"SIR,--I have sent you two _Macreuses_, male and female, and
hope they will come safe to Black Notley. My ingenious and
worthy friend Mr Charlton (now at London) procur'd them for
me at Paris, who hath them both design'd to the life in
proper colours by the most accurate hand in France. If you
saw the pictures I believe they would give you a better
insight than these skins, which are a little broke and
chang'd; yet nevertheless your most discerning faculties
may discover that in the dark which few can distinguish at
noon-day. This Parisian bird (very famous of late) may be no
unwelcome subject, it being in Lent, and upon maigre days,
the greatest dainty of convents. I have been told by several
of the most learned priests beyond sea, that the macreuse
was as much a fish as the barnacle (and indeed I am of the
same opinion), that the blood was the same in every quality
with that of fishes; as also the fat, which (as they falsely
affirm) will not fix, dry, or grow hard, but always remains
in an oily consistence. Upon these and other reasons the
Sorbonists have ranked the macreuse in the class of fishes.
For the rest I refer you to my paper from Paris, and
impatiently wait for your judgment, for which I have a
particular esteem."
The bird referred to in this letter, and concerning which Mr Ray had not
previously been able to satisfy himself, is the scoter or black-duck
(_Anas nigra_ of Linnaeus, Latham, and Temminck). "Why they of the Church
of Rome should allow this bird to be eaten in Lent, and upon other
fasting days, more than others of this kind," we see no reason, any more
than Mr Ray did. Perhaps the story of the barnacle's originating from a
shell of the same name, may have been invented for a similar purpose. On
this head we have the following testimony from Hector Boece:--"All trees
that are cast into the seas, by process of time, appear first
worm-eaten, and in the small holes and bores thereof grow small worms;
first, they show their head and feet, and last of all they show their
plumes and wings; finally, when they are coming to the just measure and
quantity of geese, they fly in the air as other fowls do, as was notably
proven in the year of God 1480, in sight of many people, beside the
Castle of Pitsligo." The evidence of Gerard, the herbalist, on this
subject is an excellent specimen of leasing:--"What our eyes have seen,"
saith the venerable man, "and our hands have touched, we shall declare.
There is a small island in Lancashire, called the Pile of Soulders,
wherein are found broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof
have been cast thither by shipwrecks; also the trunks and bodies, with
the branches, of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise, whereon
is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth into certain
shells, in shape like those of the muscle, but sharper-pointed, and of a
whitish colour, and the end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the
shell, even as the fish of oysters and muscles are, and the other end is
made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which, in time, cometh
into the shape and form of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the
shell gapeth open, and then the first thing that appeareth is the
aforesaid lace or string; next cometh the legs of the bird hanging out;
and, as the bird groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till
at length it has all come forth and hangeth only by the bill. In short
space after it cometh to full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where
it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard, and
lesser than a goose, having black legs and bill or beak, and feathers
black and white, spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in some
places pie-annes, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name
than tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and all those places adjoining,
do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for
three-pence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to
repair to me, and I will satisfy them by the testimonies of good
witnesses."
Now the whole substance of this wondrous narrative is simply
this:--There is a species of goose called barnacle, and there is a
species of cirripedous animal or shell-fish bearing the same name. The
latter animal is furnished with certain filamentary organs which may be
imagined to bear a semblance to feathers; and hence the conclusion that
it must be a bird in the progress of development, which is finally
converted into a goose. A refutation of the inference here made does not
require the acuteness of an Aristotle. Gerard saw the shells, no doubt,
but the rest he dreamt; and the good people beside the Castle of
Pitsligo may have seen a flock of geese, but what else they saw nobody
cares. But let us now hear Sir Hans.
SIR HANS SLOANE TO MR RAY.
"London, March 9, 169-8/9.
"SIR,--This day a large tyger was baited by three bear-dogs,
one after another. The first dog he kill'd; the second was a
match for him, and sometimes he had the better, sometimes
the dog; but the battle was at last drawn, and neither car'd
for engaging any farther. The third dog had likewise
sometimes the better, and sometimes the worse of it; and it
came also to a drawn battle. But the wisest dog of all was a
fourth, that neither by fair means nor foul could be brought
to go within reach of the tyger, who was chain'd in the
middle of a large cock-pit. The owner got about L300 for
this show, the best seats being a guinea, and the worst five
shillings. The tyger used his paws very much to cuff his
adversaries with, and sometimes would exert his claws, but
not often; using his jaws most, and aiming at under or upper
sides of the neck, where wounds are dangerous. He had a fowl
given him alive, which, by means of his feet and mouth, he
very artfully first pluck'd, and then eat, the feathers,
such as got into his mouth, being troublesome. The
remainders of his drink, in which he has lapp'd, is said by
his keeper to kill dogs and other animals that drink after
him, being, by his fome, made poisonous and ropy. I hope you
will pardon this tedious narration, because I am apt to
think 'tis very rare that such a battle happens, or such a
fine tyger is seen here."
Ray had many other correspondents besides those of whom mention has been
made. Their communications, however, seem neither very interesting in
themselves, nor so closely connected with our narrative as to render it
necessary to introduce any extracts. But, as we have given some samples
of his friends' letters, it may be thought right to present one of his
own.
MR RAY TO DR ROBINSON.
"Black Notley, Dec. 15, --98.
"SIR,--The essay you propound concerning the ancient and
modern learning were not difficult to make; but I think you
are better qualified for such an undertaking than I, and
therefore shall refer it to you. In summe the ancients excel
the moderns in nothing but acuteness of wit and elegancy of
language in all their writings, in their poetry and oratory.
As for painting and sculpture, and musick and architecture,
some of the moderns I think do equal, if not excel, the best
of them, not in the theory only, but also in the practice of
those arts: Neither do we give place to them in politicks or
morality; but in natural history and experimental philosophy
we far transcend them. In the purely mathematical sciences,
abstracted from matter, as geometry and arithmetick, we may
vie with them, as also in history; but in astronomy,
geography, and chronology, we excel them much. No wonder
they should outstrip us in those arts which are conversant
in polishing and adorning their language, because they
bestowed all their time and pains in cultivating of them,
and had but one, and that their native tongue, to mind. But
those arts are by wise men censured, as far inferior to the
study of things, words being but the pictures of things; and
to be wholly occupied about them, is to fall in love with a
picture, and neglect the life; and oratory, which is the
best of these arts, is but a kind of voluptuary one, like
cookery, which sophisticates meats, and cheats the palate,
spoiling wholsome viands, and helping unwholsome."
Before resuming our narrative it may be proper to state some particulars
respecting the celebrated founder of the British Museum, to whom there
has been more than one occasion of alluding in the preceding pages. Sir
Hans Sloane was born at Killileagh in Ireland on the 16th April 1660.
His father was a Scotchman, who headed a colony which, in the reign of
James I., was planted in the northern part of the sister isle. Having at
an early age evinced a decided taste for natural history, he chose the
profession of medicine, and after studying four years in London, where
he became acquainted with Boyle and Ray, went to Paris, and afterwards
to Montpellier, in which latter place he took his degree. At the age of
twenty-four he settled in London, and became a Member of the Royal
Society. In April 1687, he was made a Fellow of the College of
Physicians, and in November following embarked for Jamaica as physician
to the Duke of Albemarle, who was appointed governor of the island; but
that nobleman having died soon after his arrival, Dr Sloane returned to
England after an absence of only fifteen months. In 1693, he was made
secretary to the Royal Society, and in the ensuing year named physician
to Christ's Hospital; in 1701, he obtained a medical diploma from
Oxford, and, in 1708, was elected an Associate of the Academy of
Sciences at Paris. In 1716, he was created a baronet by George I., an
honour which no medical man had previously obtained, and afterwards was
raised to the rank of physician-general to the army. On the accession of
George II. he was made physician in ordinary to his Majesty; and on the
death of Sir Isaac Newton, in 1727, succeeded that illustrious
philosopher in the chair of the Royal Society, which he occupied till
1740, when his advanced age induced him to resign it. He died at Chelsea
on the 11th January 1752.
Sir Hans Sloane was a man of the most respectable character, being
distinguished not less for his liberality and patriotic zeal, than by
his attainments in science. The most important of his works is the
Natural History of Jamaica, of which the first volume appeared in 1707,
the second not till 1725. He was a governor of most of the hospitals of
the metropolis, to which he left considerable sums. He set on foot the
scheme of a dispensary for the poor; gave the Apothecaries' Company a
piece of ground for a botanic garden; and on many occasions exerted
himself effectually for the public benefit. Such a man is undoubtedly
worthy of more honour and admiration than the mere author, who, it may
be from the most selfish motives, labours in solitude to enlighten the
world and illustrate himself: "The good that men do too often dies with
them," and as books are legacies of which the benefit is more extended
than that of individual acts of generosity or patriotism, people are
ever ready to laud an author, even although they may not clearly see
wherein his merit lies; while the truly good, whose lives are a
continued scene of beneficence, have but a slight hold on the admiration
of posterity. The share which Sir Hans Sloane had in the establishment
of the British Museum is the circumstance on which his reputation seems
now chiefly to depend. Having made an extensive museum of natural
history, medals, books, and manuscripts, he bequeathed it to the public,
on condition that L20,000 should be paid to his executors,--a sum far
from equal to the value of the collection. In 1753, an act was passed by
the legislature for purchasing it and the Harleian manuscripts, as well
as for procuring a general repository for their better reception and
more convenient use, the Cottonian library included. In this manner
commenced the British Museum, which, by the numerous and extensive
additions made to it, has become worthy of the greatest empire of modern
times; although, in the department of natural history, it is admitted to
be still much inferior to the National Museum of France, and, in several
branches of zoology, to be surpassed by many collections in Britain.
Mr Ray, who had now betaken himself to a more sedentary and studious
mode of life, began to suffer severely in his health. His Catalogue of
English Plants having become scarce, he was solicited by some friends to
improve it for a third edition, which he accordingly did; but a
difference arising between him and the booksellers, to whom the
copyright belonged, he forthwith resolved to publish it in another form.
In the mean time, however, to satisfy his friends, he printed his
Fasciculus Stirpium Britannicarum, as a substitute for the Catalogue. In
1690, appeared the Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, which may
be considered as the most important work on British plants that has been
hitherto written, with the exception of Sir James Smith's English
Botany, and its continuation by Dr Hooker. It was farther augmented by
him, and reprinted in 1696, together with a description of the
Cryptogamic plants, which had hitherto received little attention.
Having thus published many important works on natural history, he
resolved to compose another in which he should unite that science with
his proper profession of divinity, and accordingly commenced his
Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of the Deity,--a performance
on which his popular fame now principally rests. When finished he
transmitted it, in March 1690, to his friend Dr Tancred Robinson, who
disposed of it agreeably to his directions; so that it made its
appearance in the following year. One of his reasons for writing this
admirable treatise he expresses in the following words:--"By virtue of
my function I suspect myself to be obliged to write something in
divinity, having written so much on other subjects; for being not
permitted to serve the church with my tongue in preaching, I know not
but it may be my duty to serve it with my hand by writing; and I have
made choice of this subject, as thinking myself best qualified to treat
of it. If what I have now written," he continues, "shall find so
favourable acceptance as to encourage me to proceed, God granting life
and health, the reader may expect more; if otherwise, I must be content
to be laid aside as useless, and satisfy myself in having made this
experiment."
The objects of this work, which is entitled The Wisdom of God manifested
in the Works of the Creation, were, _1st_, To demonstrate the existence
of a Deity; _2dly_, To illustrate some of his principal attributes;
_3dly_, "To stir up and increase in us the affections and habits of
admiration, humility, and gratitude." Like many excellent theological
treatises of former times, it is now less frequently read than it
deserves to be. Happily, however, we have volumes of more recent date,
which inculcate the same principles, with perhaps more accuracy of
detail in all that relates to science. From a passage in it we learn
what was his conception of the true character of a naturalist: "Let it
not suffice us," says he, "to be book-learned, to read what others have
written, and to take upon trust more falsehood than truth. But let us
ourselves examine things as we have opportunity, and converse with
nature as well as books. Let us endeavour to promote and increase this
knowledge, and make new discoveries, not so much distrusting our own
parts, or despairing of our own abilities, as to think that our industry
can add nothing to the invention of our ancestors, or correct any of
their mistakes. Let us not think that the bounds of science are fixed
like Hercules' pillars, and inscribed with a _ne plus ultra_. Let us not
think we have done when we have learnt what they have delivered to us.
The treasures of nature are inexhaustible. Here is employment enough for
the vastest parts, the most indefatigable industries, the happiest
opportunities, the most prolix and undisturbed vacancies."
As a specimen of the author's manner and reasoning, we may present a
passage in which he refutes the opinion of Descartes, that it were an
absurd and childish thing, and a resembling of God to a proud man, to
assert, that he had made the world, and all the creatures in it, for his
own honour. "It is most reasonable that God Almighty should intend his
own glory: For he being infinite in all excellencies and perfections,
and independent upon any other being, nothing can be said or thought of
him too great, and which he may not justly challenge as his due; nay, he
cannot think too highly of himself, his other attributes being adequate
to his understanding; so that, though his understanding be infinite, yet
he understands no more than his power can effect, because that is
infinite also. And, therefore, it is fit and reasonable, that he should
own and accept the creatures' acknowledgments and celebrations of those
virtues and perfections, which he hath not received of any other, but
possesseth eternally and originally of himself. And, indeed (with
reverence be it spoken), what else can we imagine the ever-blessed Deity
to delight and take complacency in for ever, but his own infinite
excellencies and perfections, and the manifestations and effects of
them, the works of the creation, and the sacrifices of praise and thanks
offered up by such of his creatures as are capable of considering those
works, and discerning the traces and footsteps of his power and wisdom
appearing in the formation of them; and, moreover, whose bounden duty it
is so to do. The reason why man ought not to admire himself, or seek his
own glory, is, because he is a dependent creature, and hath nothing but
what he hath received; and not only dependent, but imperfect; yea, weak
and impotent: And yet I do not take humility in man to consist in
disowning or denying any gift or ability that is in him, but in a just
valuation of such gifts and endowments, yet rather thinking too meanly
than too highly of them; because human nature is so apt to err in
running into the other extreme, to flatter itself, and to accept those
praises that are not due to it; pride being an elation of spirit upon
false grounds, or a desire and acceptance of undue honour. Otherwise, I
do not see why a man may not admit, and accept the testimonies of
others, concerning any perfection, accomplishment, or skill, that he is
really possessed of; yet can he not think of himself to deserve any
praise or honour for it, because both the power and the habit are the
gift of God: And considering that one virtue is counterbalanced by many
vices, and one skill or perfection with much ignorance and infirmity."
This book obtaining general approbation, the impression, which consisted
of 500 copies, was quickly sold off. A new edition was therefore
published, and several others succeeded. Encouraged by this success, he
prepared for the press his Three Physico-theological Discourses,
concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World, the
substance of which had been embodied in some sermons which he preached
before the university. This work has also gone through several editions.
In the opinion of the illustrious Cuvier, it affords "a system of
geology as plausible as any of those which had appeared at this period,
or for a long time afterwards;" and if it contain facts and arguments
which are not now admitted as accurate or conclusive, this, with our
experience of like defects in other theories, should teach us to
moderate our zeal in defending any hypothesis elicited from the partial
examination of that complex system, which, being the work of infinite
power and wisdom, cannot be thoroughly understood by minds constituted
like ours.
In one of these works is an estimate of the number of animals and plants
known in Ray's time, to which it is of importance that we should advert,
as it furnishes an interesting fact in the history of science. According
to the author's classification, animate bodies are divided into four
orders, "beasts, birds, fishes, and insects." The number of _beasts_,
including also _serpents_, that had been accurately described, he
estimates at not above 150, adding that, according to his belief, "not
many, that are of any considerable bigness, in the known regions of the
world, have escaped the cognizance of the curious." At the present day,
more than 1000 species have been described. The number of _birds_, he
says, "may be near 500; and the number of _fishes_, secluding
shell-fish, as many: but, if the _shell-fish_ be taken in, more than six
times the number." As to the species remaining undiscovered, he supposes
"the whole sum of beasts and birds to exceed by a third part, and fishes
by one-half, those known." The number of _insects_, that is, of animals
not included in the above classes, he estimates at 2000 in Britain
alone, and 20,000 in the whole world. The number of _plants_ described
in Bauhin's Pinax was 6000, and our author supposes, that "there are in
the world more than triple that number; there being in the vast
continent of America as great a variety of species as with us, and yet
but few common to Europe, or perhaps Africk and Asia. And if," says he,
"on the other side the equator, there be much land still remaining
undiscovered, as probably there may, we must suppose the number of
plants to be far greater."--"What," he continues, "can we infer from all
this? If the number of creatures be so exceeding great, how great, nay
immense, must needs be the power and wisdom of Him who formed them all!"
Early in 1692, the Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et
Serpentini Generis was finished, and published the year after. Important
as were the botanical writings of Ray, his zoological works have had a
more decided influence on the advancement of natural history. "Their
peculiar character," says Cuvier, "consists in clearer and stricter
methods than those of any of his predecessors, and applied with more
constancy and precision. The divisions which he has introduced into the
classes of quadrupeds and birds have been followed by the English
naturalists almost to our own day; and we find very evident traces of
his system of birds in Linnaeus, Brisson, Buffon, and all the authors who
have treated of that class of animals." In the Synopsis of Four-footed
animals and Serpents, he commences with an interesting discussion
respecting the nature and faculties of animals. The definition, however,
on which he proceeds is scarcely correct, or at least sufficiently
distinctive:--"An animal is an animated body, endowed with sense and
spontaneous motion, or rather with the faculty of feeling and moving,
although it may not change place." In treating of the generation of the
lower species, he discusses the subject of spontaneous or equivocal
origin, the idea of which he refutes, and endeavours to prove that all
animals were created at one time. The division of them into viviparous
and oviparous he rejects, alleging, that all are in one sense or other
oviparous. The most suitable primary division, he says, is into
_blooded_ and _bloodless_, or, as we should say, red-blooded and
white-blooded. The former may be divided into those which respire by
_lungs_, and those which respire by _gills_. The first of these are
again divided into such as have two ventricles to the heart, and such as
have only one. Animals with two ventricles are viviparous, as
_Quadrupeds_ and _Cetacea_, or oviparous, as _Birds_. Those having a
heart furnished with a single ventricle, are the _Oviparous Quadrupeds_,
and serpents. Animals that respire by gills are the true _Fishes_, not
including whales. The _white_-blooded animals are divided into the
larger and the smaller. The former, he says, are suitably divided by
Aristotle into three kinds or orders: 1. _Mollusca_; 2. _Crustacea_; 3.
_Testacea_. The smaller white-blooded animals are the _Insects_. The
following table exhibits a summary of this classification, which is
essentially that of Aristotle:--
_Red-blooded Animals._
Respiring by lungs, and having a heart furnished with two
ventricles, viviparous, and aquatic, CETACIA.
Terrestrial, QUADRUPEDS.
Oviparous, BIRDS.
Those having a heart with
a single ventricle, OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS AND SERPENTS.
Respiring by gills, FISHES.
_White-blooded Animals._
{ MALACIA or MOLLUSCA.
Of large size, { MALACOSTRACA or CRUSTACEA.
{ OSTRACODERMA or TESTACEA.
Of small size, INSECTS.
Characterizing the different groups by circumstances connected with
their organization, he arranges quadrupeds into those which have
undivided hoofs, as the _horse_; those having cleft hoofs, of which some
are ruminant, others not. Of the former, some have permanent concave
horns, as _oxen_, _sheep_, _goats_; others have solid deciduous horns,
as _deer_. The cloven-footed animals which do not ruminate are the _hog_
family. The rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir, and musk, he classes as
anomalous. Of the unguiculate animals, some are ruminant, with two claws
only, as the _camel_; others are carnivorous, with more numerous claws,
as _cats_, _dogs_, _polecats_. Some again are herbivorous, with two long
front teeth, as _hares_; and others are toothless, as the _anteater_.
Other animals of this kind are furnished with wings, and have a short
muzzle, as the _bats_; while some are without wings, as the sloth.
_Tortoises_, _lizards_, and _serpents_, bring up the rear.
After this work had been published, he completed a Synopsis of Birds and
Fishes, which was sent to Dr Robinson to be printed; but the booksellers
who had the copyright neglected it, so that it did not appear until
after the author's death, when it was enlarged and edited by Derham in
1713.
Having finished these synopses, Mr Ray considered his labours at an
end,--a consummation which gave him the more joy, because he had for
several years suffered severely in his health. But soon after, he was
induced to add to an English translation of Rauwolf's Travels "three
Catalogues of such trees, shrubs, and herbs, as grow in the Levant." His
next publication was the Catologus Stirpium in Exteris Regionibus
Observatarum, consisting of species not growing spontaneously, or at
least very rarely seen, in Britain. Having taken occasion in this work
to criticize the method of Rivinus, this circumstance gave rise to some
literary altercation, the result of which was a more careful revisal of
his system, and a republication of his Methodus Plantarum Nova. At this
period he was so tormented by a continual diarrhoea and painful ulcers
in his legs, which kept him sleepless for whole nights, that he could
not walk into the fields, much less visit the botanic gardens, where he
might have found materials for his work.
His booksellers being unwilling to incur the pecuniary hazard attending
this work, it was transmitted by Mr Ray to his friend Dr Hotton,
professor of botany at Leyden, who got it printed in 1703. The Dutch
publishers inserted in the titlepage that it was printed at London for
Smith and Walford, the persons who usually took charge of his books; and
although the author objected to this proceeding they disregarded his
wishes, alleging, that "it was customary among the printers to say what
they thought would be for their interest in such cases." This production
was very favourably received on the Continent, and Hotton used it as his
text-book.
In a letter to Dr Derham, written in May 1702, he thus describes his
condition:--"It is not many years since I applied myself to the
observation and search of insects, in order to compose an history of
them; but now I am wholly taken off from that study, by the afflictive
pains I almost constantly labour under, by reason of ulcers upon my
legs, I having not been half a mile out of my house these four years;
and though I have made use of many means, and have had the advice of
some of the most skilful surgeons and physicians, yet without success,
growing yearly worse and worse. Besides, I have been very much haunted
with a troublesome diarrhoea, frequently recurring; so that you may
well think I can have but little heart to mind natural history: But I am
yet so far engaged, that I cannot shake it off. I have now just ready to
go under the press a third volume of the History of Plants, being a
supplement to the two former volumes, which hath engrossed almost my
whole time for two whole years. Besides, I have a little book now
printing at Leyden, in Holland, entitled Methodus Plantarum emendata et
aucta."
We now approach the termination of the career of this truly great man,
who was distinguished not less for his fervent piety than for his
extensive knowledge and unwearied application. The last letter which he
wrote was to Sir Hans Sloane, and is as follows:--
"DEAR SIR,--The best of friends. These are to take a final
leave of you as to this world. I look upon myself as a dying
man. God requite your kindness expressed any ways towards me
an hundred-fold,--bless you with a confluence of all good
things in this world, and eternal life and happiness
hereafter,--grant us an happy meeting in heaven. I am, Sir,
eternally yours,
JOHN RAY.
"Black Notley, Jan. 7, 1704."
There is a passage in The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of
Creation, which exhibits his ideas of a future state, and which it would
be instructive to compare with the maniacal effusions of infidela and
scoffers: "It is not likely that eternal life shall be a torpid and
inactive state, or that it shall consist only in an uninterrupted and
endless act of love; the other faculties shall be employed, as well as
the will, in actions suitable to, and perfective of, their
natures,--especially the understanding, the supreme faculty of the soul,
which chiefly differenceth from brute beasts, and makes us capable of
virtue and vice, of rewards and punishments, shall be busied and
employed in contemplating the works of God, and observing the divine art
and wisdom manifested in the structure and composition of them; and
reflecting upon their great Architect the praise and glory due to him.
Then shall we clearly see, to our great satisfaction and admiration, the
ends and uses of these things which here were either too subtle for us
to penetrate and discover, or too remote and unaccessible for us to come
to any distinct view of, viz. the planets and fixed stars, those
illustrious bodies, whose contents and inhabitants, whose stores and
furniture, we have here so longing a desire to know, as also their
mutual subserviency to each other. Now the mind of man being not capable
at once to advert to more than one thing, a particular view and
examination of such an innumerable number of vast bodies, and the great
multitude of species, both of animate and inanimate beings, which each
of them contains, will afford matter enough to exercise and employ our
minds, I do not say to all eternity, but to many ages, should we do
nothing else.
"Let us, then, consider the works of God, and observe the operations of
his hands. Let us take notice of, and admire his infinite wisdom and
goodness in the formation of them. No creature in this sublunary world
is capable of so doing beside man, and yet we are deficient herein. We
content ourselves with the knowledge of the tongues, or a little skill
in philology, or history perhaps, and antiquity, and neglect that which
to me seems more material, I mean natural history and the works of the
creation. I do not discommend or derogate from those other studies; I
should betray mine own ignorance and weakness should I do so; I only
wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this. I wish that
this might be brought in fashion among us. I wish men would be so equal
and civil, as not to disparage, deride, and vilifie those studies which
themselves skill not of, or are not conversant in; no knowledge can be
more pleasant than this,--none that doth so satisfie and feed the soul;
in comparison whereto that of words and phrases seems to me insipid and
jejune. That learning (saith a wise and observant prelate) which
consists only in the form and pedagogy of arts, or the critical notions
upon words and phrases, hath in it this intrinsical imperfection, that
it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledge of
things, being in itself but a kind of pedantry, apt to infect a man with
such odd humours of pride, and affectation, and curiosity, as will
render him unfit for any great employment."
We do not find any particular account of his last years, nor of his
family relations and circumstances, further than that he had three
daughters, and lived contentedly on very humble means; being constantly
occupied, when his health permitted, in studying the works of God, and
communicating the results of his observations to the world. We are not
aware of a single stain on his character, and are proud to point to him
as a naturalist of undoubted and acknowledged powers, who "walked humbly
with his God," and furnishes the best practical refutation of the lying
assertion advanced by certain philosophers of the "grand nation," that
men eminent for piety are either fools or knaves. As he had lived, so he
desired to die "in the communion of the Catholick Church of Christ, and
a true though unworthy son of the church by law established in this
kingdom," of which he considered "the doctrine pure, and the worship
decent, and agreeable to the Word of God." After making this
declaration, he desired the Rev. Mr Pyke, rector of Black Notley, to
read to him the prayers of the church appointed to be used in the
visitation of the sick; and, in particular, the absolution. He then
received the sacrament, "which, as it is men's duty often to receive in
the time of health, so, at the hour of death," he said, "it was a
necessary _viaticum_ he thought for the great journey he was now
a-going."
He died in his own house, at Black Notley, on the 17th January 1705,
having reached the seventy-seventh year of his age, and was buried,
according to his own desire, in the church of that parish. The authors
of the Biographia Britannica, however, assert that he declined the offer
made by the rector, of a place in the chancel, choosing rather to repose
with his ancestors in the churchyard. A monument was erected to him at
the expense of some of his friends, with an elegant Latin epitaph,
descriptive of his character, composed by the Rev. William Coyte, M. A.
In 1737, this monument, having fallen into decay, was restored at the
charge of Dr Legge, and removed into the church. Forty-five years after,
it was repaired by Sir Thomas Gery Cullum and others, who subjoined an
additional inscription.
According to his biographer, Dr Derham, he "was a man of excellent
natural parts, and had a singular vivacity in his style, whether he
wrote in English or Latin. In a word, in his dealings, no man more
strictly just; in his conversation, no man more humble, courteous, and
affable. Towards God, no man more devout; and towards the poor and
distressed, no man more compassionate and charitable, according to his
abilities." His merits have been duly appreciated, both by foreigners
and his own countrymen; and although, in the last century, they seemed
in danger of falling into oblivion, amid the blaze of the numerous
discoveries and improvements then made, they are, at the present day,
brought more prominently into view, when men have begun to compare
systems, and to shake off the influence of party-spirit. An interesting
commemoration of him was made in London on the 29th November 1828. A
genus of plants was dedicated to his memory by Plumier, under the name
of _Jan Raia_, which Linnaeus changed into _Rajania_, and Smith into
_Raiana_. _Raia_ would have been more appropriate; but unfortunately it
was previously occupied by the skate, and therefore could not be
allotted to him of whom Sir James Smith says, that he was "the most
accurate in observation,--the most philosophical in contemplation,--and
the most faithful in description, amongst all the botanists of his own,
or perhaps any other time." Several species of fishes, however, are
named after him, in consequence of his having been the first who made
mention of them.
"Mr Ray," says Dr Pulteney, in his Sketches of the Progress of Botany,
"had the singular happiness of devoting fifty years of his life to the
cultivation of the sciences he loved. Incited by the most ardent genius,
which overcame innumerable difficulties and discouragements, his labours
were, in the end, crowned with a success before almost unequalled. He
totally reformed the studies of botany and zoology; he raised them to
the dignity of a science, and placed them in an advantageous point of
view; and, by his own investigations, added more real improvement to
them in England than any of his predecessors. The extent of his
improvements in science procured him the admiration of his
contemporaries, and have justly transmitted his name to posterity, among
those who have done honour to their age and country."
We have now only to present a catalogue of his more important works:--
1. Historia Plantarum Generalis, species hactenus editas
aliasque insuper multas noviter inventas et descriptas
complectens. Two vols folio. The first was published in
1686; the second, in 1687; and the third, in 1704.
2. Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. The first
edition was published in 1690. The second, considerably
enlarged, appeared in 1696. The third, printed in 1724, was
edited by the celebrated Dillenius. This edition is the one
in general use, and is that referred to by Linnaeus, Hudson,
Smith, and other botanists. The Synopsis was illustrated by
Petiver with a set of seventy-two folio plates, having
twelve figures in each.
3. Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini
Generis. 8vo, London, 1693.
4. Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium. 8vo, London, 1713. A
posthumous work, edited by Dr Derham.
5. Historia Insectorum. 4to, London. Printed at the expense
of the Royal Society in 1710.
6. The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the
Creation, in two parts. London, 1691. There are many
editions.
7. Three Physico-Theological Discourses concerning the
Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World.
8. Observations, Topographical, Moral, and Physiological,
made in a Journey through Part of the Low Countries, &c.
London, 1673. A second edition in 1738.
To these may be added,
9. Francisci Willughbeii Ornithologiae, Libri tres, with
plates. Folio, London, 1676. There is also an edition in
English, with three discourses, viz. Of the Art of Fowling,
Of the Ordering of Singing Birds, and Of Falconry. London,
1678.
10. Francisci Willughbeii Historia Piscium, Libri quatuor,
with plates. Folio, Oxford, 1686.
When this pious writer died, his papers were intrusted to his friend Dr
Derham, who, having arranged and selected such as seemed of most
importance, published a part of them in 1718, under the name of
Philosophical Letters between the late learned Mr Ray and several of his
ingenious Correspondents, natives and foreigners, to which are added
those of Francis Willughby, Esq. The same person, as has been already
mentioned, also edited the Synopsis of Birds and Fishes, and prepared
for publication his posthumous work on Insects. He moreover got ready
for the press his Travels in England, Wales, and Scotland, to which he
intended to prefix an account of the author; but, although the life was
written, the book did not make its appearance until a later period,
when, as has been noted above, it came forth under the direction of Mr
George Scott, bearing the title of the Select Remains of the learned
John Ray.
The principal authorities for his life and writings are, the Select
Remains just mentioned; Dr Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of
Botany; the article Ray, in Rees' Cyclopaedia, by Sir James Edward Smith;
and that by Cuvier and Du Petit-Thouars, in the Biographie Universelle.
In the two latter, his botanical and zoological labours are carefully
recorded; and from the former we learn, in conclusion, that "his
handwriting was peculiarly fair and elegant;" which has been the case
with few of the more distinguished naturalists. His portraits are not
numerous, but there is one in oil, taken at an advanced period of his
life, remaining in the British Museum; a miniature, in the possession of
Dr John Sims, having been engraved in the first volume of the Annals of
Botany, published in 1805; and two prints, the one by Elder, the other
by Vertue, from a picture by Faithorne, being prefixed to the third
edition of the Synopsis, and to the Historia Plantarum. We may add that,
in the fifteenth number of the Gallery of Portraits, published under the
Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, is
a beautiful engraving by Meyer of the painting in the British Museum.
In the likeness of Ray the phrenologist will look in vain for
indications of those intellectual faculties which are displayed in his
writings. The forehead is contracted in all its dimensions; so as to
form a direct contrast to that of Cuvier, another naturalist of equal
industry and zeal, but perhaps of not more comprehensive mind.
FOOTNOTES:
[I] Biographic Universelle, art. Ray, tome xxxvii. p. 161.
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.
Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur, one of the most ingenious naturalists
whom France has produced, was born at Rochelle in 1683. He commenced his
studies in his native place, continued them at Poitiers under the
Jesuits, and finished his professional course at Bourges; but feeling
less inclined to the practice of law than to the investigations of
natural science, he resolved to devote himself entirely to the latter.
In this respect he was the more justified in following his inclination,
that he possessed a fortune sufficient to support him without engaging
in any occupation merely to procure the means of subsistence. He began
to prepare for his new pursuits by studying mathematics, and when he
thought his proficiency such as to qualify him to make a respectable
figure among the naturalists and philosophers of the capital, he removed
thither in the year 1703.
The President Henault, who held a distinguished station among the
literati of Paris, and who was his relative, introduced him to the
scientific world. In 1708, when only twenty-four years of age, he
presented some geometrical memoirs to the Academy of Sciences, who were
so much pleased with his performance as to admit him into their
society,--an honour which he enjoyed nearly fifty years. His exertions
were directed successively to the improvement of the arts, to natural
philosophy, and to natural history. From his entrance into the academy
he scarcely allowed a year to pass without publishing some work of
importance. Soon after his admission he was appointed to assist in
drawing up a description of certain arts and trades; but not confining
himself to a simple elucidation, he endeavoured also to improve them, by
applying the principles of physics and chemistry. On the other hand, by
observing the ingenious combinations employed in some of the arts, he
had frequent opportunities of adding to his knowledge of the phenomena
of nature.
In his inquiries into the business of ropemaking, for example, he proved
by conclusive experiments that, contrary to the common opinion, twisting
impairs the strength of ropes. Again, while describing the labours of
the goldbeater, he took occasion to show the prodigious ductility
possessed by certain substances. But, more especially, when examining
the processes by which artificial pearls are coloured, he discovered the
singular matter which gives lustre to the scales of fishes, and even
explained the formation and growth of those scales. The colouring
principle in glass pearls is obtained from the bleak (_Cyprinus
alburnus_), an inhabitant of fresh water, and about six inches in
length. This silvery ingredient is procured by macerating its scales in
water, and is then mixed with a little isinglass. The small globes which
are to represent pearls are first furnished with an internal coating of
the solution, and then filled with melted wax to give them suitable
weight. The pearly matter occurs also in the membrane which envelopes
the stomach and intestines, and is supposed by Reaumur to be produced in
the latter, from which it is conveyed by the blood-vessels to the
scales. He likewise made inquiries into the formation and growth of
shells, which he proved to be developed by accessions to their outer
edge. He is even said to have examined the structure of pearls, with the
view of forcing the shell-fish to produce them. When describing the
turquoise-mines of the south of France, and the means adopted to make
the mineral assume a blue colour, he discovered that these alleged
stones were the teeth of a large animal, which is now known under the
name of the mastodon.
His most important labours, however, with reference to the arts, were
his researches respecting iron and steel, which he published in 1722, in
a separate work under the title of Traite sur l'art de convertir le fer
en acier, et d'adoucir le fer fondu. At this period all the steel that
was used in France was imported, none having previously been made in
that country; and one may imagine how numerous and patient were the
trials made by Reaumur before he succeeded in his object. The Duke of
Orleans rewarded him for this valuable discovery, by bestowing on him a
pension of 12,000 livres. In like manner, he found out the method of
manufacturing tin-plate or whiteiron, which until then had been brought
from Germany. In his various experiments, he had frequent occasion to
observe that melted metals assume regular forms on cooling, and he
accordingly gave an account of the crystallizations which they present.
The manufacture of porcelain also engaged his attention, and received
considerable improvements from him, although he did not succeed in
perfecting it. In 1739, he made known a method which he had discovered
of giving a whiteness and opacity to glass, which causes it to assume
the appearance of chinaware. He was also the first who tried in France
the expedient practised by the Egyptians for hatching eggs,--a subject
which, being of a nature suited to popular apprehension, procured for
him at least as much estimation as all his other researches.
In Great Britain his fame seems to rest almost entirely on his peculiar
scheme of graduating the thermometer. He chose the extreme points of the
freezing and boiling of water, which, under similar circumstances, are
always fixed and unvarying. The interval between these points he divided
into eighty degrees, upon the principle that spirit of wine, in a
certain state of rectification, expands 80,000 parts. In his experiments
on this subject he arrived at some valuable conclusions, in regard to
the varieties in their volume and temperature which are exhibited by
particular fluids when combined, as well as on frigorific mixtures. He
also carefully collected the observations on heat made in different
places by means of his thermometer.
The importance and utility of these researches are unquestionable, and
yet there is even more of novelty and interest in those which he made in
natural history. For instance, he explained the means by which many
shells, sea-stars, and other mollusca or zoophytes, execute their
progressive motion. He likewise illustrated the curious manner in which
the claws of crabs and lobsters are reproduced. He also threw a new
light on the singular action of the torpedo, and the organ by means of
which it is exercised, although the phenomena of electricity were not
then sufficiently understood to enable him to perceive all the relations
of his subject. In 1718, he published a memoir on the rivers of France,
which contain grains of gold in their sands, and soon after described
the immense beds of fossil shells known in Touraine under the name of
_falun_. In 1723, he made observations on the lustre emitted by several
kinds of shell-fish, especially the pholades, which perforate wood and
stones.
Physiology is indebted to him for the ingenious and decisive experiments
which, in 1752, made known the difference that exists, with respect to
digestion, between birds of prey, whose stomach acts on their food only
by means of a solvent fluid, and granivorous birds, in which a very
powerful muscular gizzard exercises a pressure sufficient to break down
the hardest bodies and reduce them to powder.
These labours might well have sufficed for a single life; but the most
remarkable undertaking of Reaumur has not yet been mentioned. It is
entitled Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire des Insectes, and extends to
six quarto volumes, which were published between 1734 and 1742. This
work occupied many years, and was the result of numerous observations
made principally in his own garden, where he kept insects of all kinds,
for the purpose of examining their habits, changes, and generation. It
is, however, incomplete,--the locusts and grashoppers, as well as the
whole tribe of coleoptera, having been intended for subsequent volumes,
which never appeared.
In regard to these Memoires, he remarks, that although he has
endeavoured to give them some degree of connexion, they might for the
most part be considered as independent of each other; and that his
object was not to present a systematic description of insects, but to
furnish materials for the use of future naturalists. It is therefore
improper to say, that he wrote his work with an entire contempt of
method; and certainly the notices which he collected must have required
more time and talent than the mere arrangement of insects according to
characters derived from their external form. "The number of observations
necessary for a tolerably complete history of so many minute animals,"
he says, "is prodigious. When one reflects on all that an accomplished
botanist ought to know, it is enough to frighten him. His memory is
loaded with the names of twelve or thirteen thousand plants, and he is
expected to be able to recall on occasion the image of any one of them.
There is perhaps none of these plants that has not insects peculiar to
itself; and some trees, such as the oak, give sustenance to several
hundreds of different species. And, after all, how many are there that
do not live on plants! How many species that devour others! How many
that live at the expense of larger animals, on which they feed
continually! How many species are there, some of which pass the greater
part of their time in water, while others pass it entirely there! The
immensity of Nature's works is nowhere more apparent than in the
prodigious multiplicity of these species of little animals." He then
proceeds to remark, that, as it is impossible for one man to acquire a
knowledge of all the insects of even a limited district, and as
thousands of minute insects must for ever remain unknown to us, instead
of burdening our memory with the characteristic distinctions of these
creatures, and thus preventing ourselves from attending to matters of
more importance, it would be sufficient for us to know the principal
genera, and especially those that are of most frequent occurrence, and
to make ourselves acquainted with their peculiarities, their food, their
propagation, the different forms which they assume in the course of
their life, and such like circumstances. He avows that he had no great
regard for a precise enumeration of the species of each genus; holding
it enough to distinguish the more remarkable.
"Although," he continues, "we would greatly restrict the limits of the
study, there are persons who will think them still too wide; there are
even some who consider all knowledge of this part of natural history as
useless, and who unhesitatingly pronounce it a frivolous amusement. We
are equally willing that these pursuits should be regarded as
amusements, that is, as studies which, so far from being troublesome,
afford pleasure to the person who engages in them. They do more,--they
necessarily raise the mind to admire the Author of so many wonders.
Ought we to be ashamed of ranking among our occupations observations and
researches, of which the object is an acquaintance with the works on
which the Supreme Being has displayed a boundless wisdom, and varied to
such a degree? Natural history is the history of his works; nor is there
any demonstration of his existence more intelligible to all men than
that which it furnishes."
The two first volumes treat of caterpillars, their forms and habits,
their metamorphoses into butterflies, and the insects which attack them,
or which live within their bodies. The third speaks of the small
creatures named moths, which exist in the interior of the substances
which they devour, or form of them coverings for their protection. It
also contains the history of the aphides, a very numerous race of small
insects, which suck the juices of trees and plants, live in society, and
are often productive of great damage. These animalcules are especially
remarkable for their mode of generation; it having been proved by M.
Bonnet, that a single impregnation is sufficient for the production of
many successive generations, and that they are viviparous in summer and
oviparous in autumn. The flies which produce the excrescences named
gall-nuts, and the worms from which come the dipterous insects, so
diversified in their forms, manners, and places of abode, occupy the
fourth volume. The fifth contains, among other genera, the bees, of
which the history is so singular and interesting. Certain varieties of
these as well as wasps are described in the last volume. Similar
researches were made by Bonnet and De Geer, of whom we shall have
occasion to speak in another part of our series.
Reaumur was the first naturalist who formed an extensive collection of
animals in France. The celebrated Brisson, who was the keeper of his
museum, derived from it the principal materials for his works on
quadrupeds and birds. These last afterwards constituted the basis of the
Royal Museum at Paris.
When the first volumes of Buffon made their appearance, the elegance of
their style had a prejudicial effect on the popularity of Reaumur's
writings; and as naturalists, like poets and artists, generally belong
to the _irritabile genus_,--the sensitive class of mankind,--our author
seems to have experienced considerable chagrin. In other respects,
however, he lived a very quiet life; residing sometimes on his estate in
Saintonge, and sometimes at his country-house of Bercy, in the
neighbourhood of Paris. He had no public employment, except that of
intendant of the order of St Louis, of which he performed the duties for
the benefit of a relative whom circumstances prevented from discharging
them, and to whom he resigned the emoluments. He died on the 18th
October 1757, at the age of 74; his death being accelerated by a fall
which he had received at the castle of Bermondiere, whither he had gone
to pass the vacations. He seems to have been in all respects an amiable
man, of correct habits and great mildness of disposition. His life,
therefore, presents none of those bickerings and other manifestations
of rivalry which have produced so much disquietude to some other
naturalists; and, as his fortune was sufficient for his comfortable
subsistence, he was freed from those cares which distract the attention,
and enabled to pursue his favourite studies with advantage.[J]
FOOTNOTES:
[J] Biographie Universelle, art. Reaumur, tome xxxvii. p. 198.
LINNAEUS.
SECTION I.
_Birth and Education of Linnaeus._
Birth and Parentage of Linnaeus--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 Stobaeus--When on an Excursion is attacked by a
dangerous Malady--Stobaeus 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.
Charles Linnaeus was born on the 23d May 1707, at Rashult, in the
province of Smaland. His father, Nils, whose ancestors were peasants,
was pastor of the village, and being the first learned man of his house,
had, agreeably to a custom prevalent in Sweden, changed his family-name
with his profession, and borrowed that of Linne from a large
linden-tree, which stood in the vicinity of his native place, between
Tomsboda and Linnhult. His mother, Christina Broderson, was the daughter
of his father's predecessor in office.
The pious parents had intended him likewise for the service of the
church, either because they considered the clerical profession the best
adapted to their son, or as calculated to ensure the means of a
comfortable subsistence, and to render him the stay of their old age.
But, whatever were their motives, the design, fortunately for the
progress of natural science, was frustrated by the propensities which he
soon displayed; for, inheriting a strong passion for flowers, he devoted
a great part of his earlier years to the cultivation of a corner of the
family-garden, which he profusely stocked with wild plants collected in
the woods and fields. The excursions which he was thus induced to make,
gradually led him to an acquaintance with the productions of the
vegetable and animal kingdoms, and were at first rather encouraged than
discountenanced by his parents, as affording innocent amusement, and
being beneficial to health.
Charles was happy also in the affectionate care of his father, who
taught him the elements of the Latin language, geography, and other
departments of knowledge suited to his capacity. At the age of seven,
however, he was committed to the care of a teacher ill qualified for the
task; and three years after he was sent to a grammar-school in the
neighbouring town of Wexio, where he continued several years. During
this period he made little proficiency in the studies connected with his
intended profession; for the love of nature prevailed in his mind to
such a degree as to induce him to consider every other occupation as
compulsory. He found much more pleasure in gathering plants and insects
than in performing the tasks imposed by his teachers. Every hour of
respite from his lessons was devoted to his favourite occupation, and
all his holidays were spent in rambling over the country. His
school-fellows considered him as an idle vagabond; but his master,
whose name was Lanaerius, formed a proper judgment of his genius, which
he was the better enabled to do, as he himself was fond of botany.
In 1724, young Linnaeus entered the upper college or gymnasium at Wexio,
where his deficiencies in classical attainments were looked upon with
less indulgence. The admonitions of his teachers were contemned; the
passion inspired by nature still prevailed; and complaints were made to
his father, who, finding him averse to the study of divinity, and
perhaps believing him incapable of acquiring literary knowledge,
resolved to bind him apprentice to a shoemaker. Considering the
circumstances of his parents, and the little prospect of their son's
obtaining a comfortable livelihood by his botanical pursuits, we need
not ascribe this determination to a less estimable motive than prudent
affection. Fortunately, however, the design was not carried into effect.
A physician at Wexio, who was also professor of medicine in the college
of that city, had taken notice of the genius and peculiar pursuits of
the boy, and, hearing of his father's intentions, ventured to offer his
assistance and advice. The encomiums of this benevolent person, Dr John
Rothmann, inspired the parents with unexpected pleasure. The entreaties
of their son himself were joined to the kind intercession of his
protector, who had promised to take him into his own family for a year,
and provide him with every thing necessary. Natural history was not then
in Sweden, any more than it is now in our own country, a study which of
itself could lead to wealth, or even to a moderate independence. It was
therefore resolved that he should qualify himself for the practice of
medicine; and to this proposal the pastor and his wife at length
reluctantly assented.
Baffled in their views with respect to Charles, they resolved to
transfer their cares to their second son, Samuel, whom they hoped to
prevent from addicting himself to similar pursuits by prohibiting his
entrance into the garden, and even the gathering of flowers in the
fields. This restriction, however, had not the full effect; for Samuel
also was a lover of botany, although his parents had the gratification
of seeing him at length become a preacher.
In the house of Rothmann, the elder brother, who had hitherto studied
botany without any regular method, found Tournefort's Institutiones Rei
Herbariae,--a work which opened new prospects to his view, and tended to
increase his zeal. The more he became acquainted with nature, the more
did his love of knowledge increase, and his frequent excursions into the
country soon rendered his acquirements conspicuous. Having remained
three years at the College of Wexio, he was prepared to become a pupil
in a higher seminary of learning, and in 1727 set out for the University
of Lund.
At an early stage of his progress he had studied several botanical works
which are now little known, such as those of Manson, Tilland, Palmberg,
Bromellius, and Rudbeck. But the benevolent Rothmann showed him that the
guides whom he had followed were unworthy of confidence, and advised him
to begin by examining the flower, as recommended by Tournefort, giving
him at the same time Valentini's figures of plants. He accordingly
copied these engravings, and commenced a rigorous examination of flowers
and fruits. Towards the end of his twentieth year, he attempted to
arrange in systematic order the various species growing in the
neighbourhood of Wexio and Stenbrohult, many of which he found it
difficult to determine, owing to the imperfect manner in which they had
been described. Down to this period he had not distinguished himself in
any other way than as a young man who was supposed to be foolishly
addicted to the study of natural objects, while he ought to have been
engaged in more important pursuits; although he says he had always been
among the first in mathematics and natural philosophy.
On leaving the gymnasium at Wexio, the rector, Nicolas Krok, gave him a
certificate expressed in the following terms:--"Students may be compared
to the trees of a nursery. Often among the young plants are found some
which, notwithstanding the care that has been bestowed upon them,
resemble wild shoots; but, if transplanted at a later period, they
change their nature, and sometimes bear delicious fruit. With this hope
only I send this young man to the university, where another climate may
perhaps prove favourable to his progress." This testimonial, however, he
did not find it necessary to show; for he was introduced to the rector
by one of his old teachers, Gabriel Hoek, whom he fortunately met at
Lund.
Professor Humaerus, who was his relative, had promised to support him at
this university; but, on arriving, Linnaeus was informed that the last
duty had just been paid to his remains. He became a pupil of Kilian
Stobaeus, professor of medicine and botany, whose notice he soon
attracted by his diligence and attention, and who, learning his indigent
condition, received him into his family. Here he found a small
collection of natural objects, which he studied with great delight. At
the same time he began to form an herbarium for himself; to add to which
he made excursions into the neighbouring districts.
On one of these expeditions he was, or imagined himself to have been,
stung by a venomous worm, said to be not uncommon in some parts of
Sweden. However this may be, he was seized with a violent disorder,
which threatened the extinction of life, more especially as he had
removed far into the country, where medical assistance could not be
readily procured. This accident, instead of diminishing his zeal, tended
to increase his desire of becoming more acquainted with the lower orders
of animals. In a work which he subsequently published, this singular
worm, the existence of which, however, is still doubtful, is thus
described by him:--"It occurs in the extensive turfy marshes of Bothnia,
in the northern parts of Sweden. Falling from the atmosphere, frequently
upon the bodies of men and animals, it instantly penetrates them with
the most intense pain, so as to produce death from agony within a
quarter of an hour. I myself was smitten by it at Lund, in 1728. I have
not seen the animal unless in a dried state. It seems in its properties
to be allied to the chaotic animals. By what means it rises into the
air, whence it falls during the interval between the summer and winter
solstice, no one has explained."
Stobaeus's library was well stored with works on botany, which Linnaeus
procured secretly from a young man who also lodged in the house, and in
perusing which he often spent a great part of the night. His patron was
informed of his vigils, and as he was of a merry, convivial disposition,
suspected him of sitting up for the purpose of amusing himself with the
servants. He resolved, therefore, to watch his proceedings, and, if his
suspicions proved just, to reprimand him for his unbecoming conduct. But
on entering Linnaeus's room unexpectedly, what was his surprise to find
him intrenched among the tomes of Caesalpinus, Bauhin, Tournefort, and
other eminent botanists! The result of this visit, as might have been
expected, was free permission to make use of the library, and an
increased attachment to the student. The same benevolent person embraced
every opportunity of aiding him in his pursuits; gave him lessons on
petrifactions and molluscous animals; taught him various branches of
medicine; admitted him to his table; sent him occasionally to visit his
patients; and went so far as to talk of making him his heir.
In 1728, after he had recovered from the effects of the severe malady
with which he had been attacked, he visited his parents. His mother was
extremely grieved at seeing him occupy his whole time in collecting
plants and glueing them upon paper, as she plainly perceived that there
was now no hope of his ever becoming a preacher. Dr Rothmann, who
frequently saw him, pointed out the superior advantages which students
possessed at Upsal, where there were "the learned Roberg, the great
Rudbeck," a splendid library, and a fine botanic garden. He also named
many poor students who had received assistance from the government, and
had become able practitioners. The young naturalist readily believed the
representations of one who had taken so much interest in him, and
resolved to follow his advice. At setting out, his father gave him a sum
of money equivalent to about L8 sterling; informing him at the same time
that he could do no more for him.
With this slender provision Charles proceeded to the University of
Upsal, where, although he had no reason to expect a kind reception, he
hoped at least to obtain more ample means of scientific research. The
professors, however, were not such as they had been represented, nor did
any of them show the smallest attention to the poor student. Before he
had been a year there his pecuniary resources failed; so that he was in
a manner cast upon the charity of his companions, among whom he was glad
to accept an occasional meal, and even a worn-out article of clothing.
The old shoes which they gave him, he was often obliged to mend with
pasteboard and birch-bark before he could render them tolerably
efficient. He now found reason to sigh for the comfortable home which he
had left at Lund; but to it he could not return, for as he had quitted
his benefactor Stobaeus abruptly, and without so much as apprizing him of
his intentions, he justly dreaded his displeasure. Aware that he could
not obtain aid from his father, destitute of friends, and even of the
hope of procuring a livelihood by the exertion of his talents, he was
reduced to the extremity of indigence: yet he despaired not; nature had
at all times charms to support his spirits; he struggled with his fate
and conquered. On an important occasion which occurred many years
after, he publicly returned thanks to Providence for having supported
him amid these privations:--"I thank thee, Almighty God," said he, "that
in the course of my life, amidst the heavy pressure of poverty, and in
all my other trials, thou hast been always present to me with thine
omnipotent aid."
At this period, Olaus Celsius, first professor of divinity, whom Linnaeus
afterwards, in a letter to Haller, describes as the only botanist in
Sweden, returned from Stockholm, where he had been on official business,
and happening to visit the college-garden, met a young man, who
attracted his notice by the accurate knowledge of plants which he
displayed. On inquiring after him, and receiving a satisfactory account
of his character and conduct, he gave him an apartment in his house, and
supplied him with every thing of which he stood in need. Thus was he on
many occasions obliged, if not to solicit, at least to accept pecuniary
assistance. He, however, repaid in some measure the kindness of the
venerable Celsius, by assisting him in preparing his _Hierobotanicon_,
in which the vegetable productions mentioned in Scripture are described.
To enable him to perform his task, he was allowed the free use of a
library rich in botanical works.
Hitherto Tournefort was the only author to whose works Linnaeus was
indebted for the more solid parts of his knowledge; but a small book of
Vaillant on the structure of flowers now coming into his hands, he
perceived many defects in the system he had embraced; and from the
ingenious observations made by the latter writer on the sexes of plants,
he conceived the idea of founding a system of botany on the stamens and
pistils. With this object in view, he recommenced his studies on a new
plan; the sexual distinction continually occupied his thoughts, and the
knowledge which he acquired in this path became the basis of his future
eminence. A small treatise which he composed on the subject of an
academical disputation attracted the notice of Rudbeck, the second of
the name, then professor of botany, who, being advanced in years, was
looking out for an assistant. He received the ardent student into his
house, and delegated to him the office of reading his lectures, and
demonstrating the plants in the botanic garden. Rudbeck was also a
zoologist, and had made a collection of all the Swedish birds; the
examination of which failed not to add to Linnaeus's knowledge in this
department of natural history. Botany, however, continued to be his
favourite study; and about this period he wrote several treatises, which
were afterwards published in Holland.
During his residence at Upsal, he had the happiness to enjoy the
friendship of a young man, not less fervently devoted than himself to
the study of nature. This was Peter Artedi, so well known for his work
on fishes. The name of Linnaeus is usually mentioned as that of a
distinguished botanist; but it ought to be observed, however great his
merits were in that capacity, they were scarcely less in the department
of zoology, and that from the commencement of his career he manifested
nearly as strong a liking to the one as to the other. Speaking of his
friendship for Artedi, he says, "He excelled me in chemistry, and I
outdid him in the knowledge of birds and insects, and in botany."
At this period, a new prospect opened to his ambition. A society had
been instituted at Upsal, chiefly for the purpose of examining the
natural productions of the kingdom. The remote and desert regions of
Lapland were less known than any other of the Swedish provinces,
although Rudbeck the elder had been sent by Charles XI. to explore them.
The curiosities which he brought home had been destroyed by the great
fire in 1702; and it was now proposed to repair the loss by sending out
another scientific traveller. The choice fell on Linnaeus, who was
recommended by Celsius and the younger Rudbeck.