26 Dr. SMITH'S Introductory Difcourfe. 
“world, many of them very rare. His book is in every body's hands, 
and it would be fuperfluous here to fay any thing of its utility. 
Petiver was no lefs perfevering in making collections, not only of 
. plants, but of all kinds of natural objects. His works are of a very 
peculiar character, and exhibit more zeal than genius or ac- 
curacy. His rough criticifms of his contemporary Plukenet have 
hurt nobody buttheir author. "The ecquifitions of Dr. Herman in 
Ceylon were very confiderable. They lay a while dormant, only to 
appear with greater celebrity from the pen of Linnzus. In fo bril- 
liant a period of the hiftory of this fcience I am obliged to pafs 
over many lefs illuftrious, although great names; and íhall only 
mention Rumphius, whofe ardour was not to be damped even by 
the greateft misfortune which can befal a naturalift, the lofs of 
fight. The rich treafures of Amboina were made known to us by 
_ this laborious man. His book on fhells is in high eftimation; and 
his Herbarium Amboinenfe might vie with the Hortus Malabaricus, 
if all concerned in the publication of it had performed their parts 
as well as he has done his: but the figures are by no means com- 
parable to thofe of that ftupendous work. The courage of Rum- 
phius in purfuing natural hiftory after he had loft his fight, re- 
minds me of a fimilar inftance, I believe very little known, of a 
Provençal phyfician named Reboul, who undertook a manufcript 
hiftory of plants in feveral large folio volumes, and, becoming blind, 
actually completed many of the unfinifhed chapters with his own 
hand after-that accident. This curious manufcript was {hewn 
me in the publick library at Parma. 
W hile Botany was making this great progreís, Entomology began 
to be cultivated with an affiduity, which was amply repaid by the 
curious and aftonifhing faéts it brought to light. The notion of 
equivocal generation having been refuted by Harvey, Redi and Mal- 
pighi, the propagation and metamorphofes of infeéts became an 
2 interefting 
