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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nary animals or repeats fanciful tales, he seldom fails to record his 

 own opinion of their value, unless they are contained in letters 

 from correspondents, who are always treated with courtesy. 



Modern writers have disputed Gesner's title to a position 

 among men of science on two grounds. It is held by some that 

 since science is the reference of the phenomena of the universe to 

 the fundamental properties of matter, none of the old naturalists 

 who did not have this aim have any scientific standing ; but as 

 this point of view shuts out men like Wallace, Gesner is expelled 

 in good company. 



Others hold that Gesner's weakness is his lack of the concep- 

 tion of systematic zoology, and his failure to so arrange his facts 

 as to exhibit natural affinity and do away with endless repetition. 



As a matter of fact, 

 he does recognize 

 natural relationship, 

 and often treats al- 

 lied animals togeth- 

 er ; thus, for exam- 

 ple, under Bos we 

 find not only Taurus, 

 Vacca, and Vitulus, 

 but also Bison, Bo- 

 nasus, and Urus. 



He says, in the 

 introduction to the 

 book on water ani- 

 mals, that he has fol- 

 lowed the alphabeti- 

 cal order, rather than a more philosophical system, for the sake of 

 easy reference, and on account of his uncertainty regarding the 

 affinities of many of them. 



This criticism was to be expected from the systematists of the 

 last generation, but the modern morphologist can not cast it in 

 Gesner's face, for, while he feels sure that there is a natural or 

 genealogical classification of animals, he admits, like Gesner, his 

 " uncertainty about the affinities of many of them." 



We are told (Encyclopaedia Britannica, article Gesner) that 

 "his life was singularly pure and blameless; his love of knowl- 

 edge was as disinterested as it was engrossing. He was always 

 ready and glad to acknowledge any help he received. When 

 obliged to engage in controversy, he did so in a dignified and 

 courteous manner. His medical writings show him to have been 

 far above the silly prejudices of his day. A cheerful and amia- 

 ble piety was a prominent feature in his character a character 

 chastened, not soured, by the trials of a hard lifetime." 



Fig. 6. 



