CH. ix. THE FIRST ZOOLOGICAL CABINET. 69 



man since the time of Aristotle who wrote anything ori- 

 ginal about animals and plants. 



Conrad Gesner was born at Zurich in 1516. He was 

 the son of very poor parents, and, being left an orphan, 

 was educated chiefly by the charity of an uncle and other 

 friends ; but his love of knowledge was so great that he 

 conquered all difficulties, and after taking his degree as a 

 medical man in 1540, earned enough by his profession, 

 and as Professor of Natural History at Zurich, to carry 

 on his favourite studies. He learnt Greek, Latin, French, 

 Italian, English, and even some of the Eastern languages, 

 and read works of science in all these tongues ; and, although 

 he was very delicate, he travelled all over the Alps, Swit- 

 zerland, Northern Italy, and France, in search of plants, 

 and made journeys to the Adriatic and the Rhine in order 

 to study marine and fresh-water fish. He employed a man 

 exclusively to draw figures of animals and plants, and he 

 made a zoological cabinet, which contained the dried parts 

 of animals arranged in their proper order. This was pro- 

 bably the first zoological cabinet which ever existed. He 

 also founded a botanical garden at Zurich, and paid the 

 expenses of it himself. He took great interest in study- 

 ing the medical uses of plants, and often hurt his health 

 by trying the effects of different herbs. His friends once 

 thought that he had killed himself by taking a dose of a 

 poisonous plant called * Doronicum/ or ' Leopard's Bane/ 

 but he recovered and gave them a most interesting account 

 of his own symptoms. 



Between the years 1551 and 1565, Gesner published his 

 famous ' History of Animals/ in five parts ; two on quadru- 

 peds, one on birds, one on fish, and one on serpents. In this 

 book he describes every animal then known, and gives the 



