AN OLD NATURALIST CONRAD OESNER. 



49 



AN OLD NATURALIST CONRAD GESNER (1516-1565). 



By W. K. BROOKS, 



PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 



Illustrated by Photo-engravings reduced from the Original Woodcuts. 



SO many lives have been devoted to the earnest study of Nature 

 that disinterested zeal and untiring industry are no peculiar 

 claims to our interest, however inspiring and instructive they 

 may be. 



Conrad Gesner was not only a faithful student and a great 

 educational influence, but a hero who took life in his hand for the 

 service of man, and calmly facing horrors more awful than a 

 battlefield, laid it down, like so many forgotten physicians, at his 

 post of duty. 



His great work on natural history, which was published in 

 Zurich (1551-1587), is one of the chief sources of that interest in 



Fio. 1. 



the living world which has grown stronger and stronger from his 

 time to the present day. 



There were other men who merit the title of naturalist in 

 Gesner's day. We find the spirit of original research in Ron- 

 dolet, and in Belon, whose intense love of Nature led him on in 

 his wanderings from his home in France, over the mountains and 

 valleys of Greece and along the shores of the Archipelago, through 

 Asia Minor far into Egypt. 



Aldrovandi also made formal calls on Nature, visits of state to 

 her haunts, taking notes on her ways, for he says : " I often wan- 

 dered through the vineyards and fields, over the marshes and 

 mountains, accompanied by my draughtsman, carrying his pencil, 

 to draw whatever I pointed out; and by my amanuenses, with 



VOL. XLVII. 5 



