HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



5i 



"probably the most comprehensive scholar of his 

 age." Gesner wrote on many subjects, yet his fame 

 rests chiefly on his almost incredible achievements in 

 Natural History, on which he wrote many volumes, 

 all illustrated by thousands of figures drawn by his 

 own hand from specimens in his collection, or 

 executed under his own eye by his assistants. His 

 museum of animals, plants, fossils, &c, brought 

 visitors from all parts, and his correspondence was 

 carried on with the learned men of every nation. 

 When we consider that he accomplished all this 

 while obtaining his living as a medical man, that he 

 was always of delicate health, and died under fifty 

 years of age, his achievements seem truly wonderful. 

 He died in the scene of his many laborious studies, 

 amongst the objects he had spent his lifetime in 

 collecting — being carried at his own request to a 

 couch prepared for him in his museum. Gesner's 

 "Natural History " contained all that was previously 

 known relative to animals. He filled up many gaps 

 by his own personal observations, and thus completed 

 five large folios with merely the History of the 

 Vertebrata ; before he reached the Invertebrata, 

 death carried him off, a.d. 1565. Entomology, 

 however, was not destined to come to the front just 

 yet, for Gesner's posthumous papers on the subject 

 fell into the hands of the well-known Joachim 

 Kamerarius, with whom we leave them for the 

 present. 



About this time several other books on Natural 

 History and Botany were published, one or two of 

 which contained some slight notices bearing on the 

 objects of our study. 



The various books in which we may look with hope 

 of success for any mention of insects, may be, for 

 convenience, classed under the following heads : — 1st, 

 Medical works ; 2nd, General histories of various 

 countries, including books of travel ; 3rd, Works 

 on Natural History generally ; and lastly, books on 

 certain species of insects, conspicuous for their utility 

 or otherwise. Under the first head — medical — we 

 find many writers noticing insects briefly, mostly 

 however in connection with their injurious effects on 

 the bodies which they wound or sting, and the 

 remedies for such attacks ; and many species were 

 also then used in medicine. Chief among such 

 writings is the "Materia Medica " of Dioscorides 

 of Anazarba, the first printed edition of whose 

 works was not however published, till Conrad 

 Gesner edited it at Frankfort, A.D. 1549.* Then 

 followed Mathioli's "Materia Medica," which first 

 appeared in fol. at Venice, A.D. 1554. This great 

 Italian physician was much prone to credulity, yet 

 his work had a long reputation. Also in Jodoc 

 Willich's " Anatomie," f published in the same 

 year, we find a dialogue on locusts. 



* Another edition in Svo., Parisiis, 1549. 



f Dialogus de Locustis, in his Anatomie, Svo, Argent., 1544. 



In the next class, including general histories of 

 countries and books of travel, we find the works 

 of the great doctor and naturalist, Pierre Belon, who 

 published a book at Paris a.d. 1554, "On many 

 singularities and notable things found in Greece " ; * 

 and, three years afterwards, a volume—" Portraits of 

 Animals and Birds of Arabia and Egypt," f — both 

 of which describe the most remarkable insects of the 

 countries of which they respectively treat. Gesner 

 has been called the "compiler," and Belon the 

 " observer " of nature ; the latter certainly, by his 

 laborious research, made many additions to Zoology ; 

 he went on an expedition to the Levant, on purpose 

 to collect specimens there. 



In the third class, the first book on the list is that 

 of Peucer, whose work on " Quadrupeds, Insects, 

 &c," was first brought out at Leipzig a.d. 1550, and 

 went through many subsequent editions. % Next we 

 find one of our own countrymen, the learned Dr. 

 Wotton, publishing at Paris, in 1552, a work on 

 "Natural History "§ in ten books, dedicated to 

 King Edward VI. Dr. Wotton subsequently pur- 

 chased Gesner's posthumous papers on insects, of 

 which I spoke above, from Joachim Kamerarius. 

 Another writer, according to Percheron, treats about 

 this time of water insects, viz., Guillaume Rondelet, 

 who filled a large folio in 1554 at Lyon, on " Fishes, 

 &c." || I cannot say, not having seen the volume, 

 whether it contains very much of note entomo- 

 logically, but Rondelet had a great knowledge of 

 fishes — so much so, that his work has formed the 

 foundation of all subsequent ones on the same subject, 

 and indeed it is said that very little of importance 

 has been added since to the natural history of the 

 fishes of the Mediterranean. In the last class we 

 find several small works on various species of insects 

 noticeable for their utility, their ravages or other- 

 wise. The first is a small volume by Chr. Hagen- 

 drophinus,^ published A.D. 1526 ; the next, in 

 point of time, is by the Latin poet Marcus Hieronimus 

 Vida, who was born at Cremona A. D. 1490 : he 

 wrote a long poem on "The Culture and Use of the 

 Silkworm," ** which first appeared at Rome in 

 1537, and went through as many as nine subsequent 

 editions, thus showing that there was no lack of 

 interest in the silkworm at that time. Then the 

 bees have their turn, for Giovanne Rucellai, an 



* Observations de plusieurs Singularites et Choses memorables 

 trouvees en Grece, Asie, Indee, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays 

 estranges— in 4to, Paris, 1554; in 8vo, Anvers, 1558; in 8vo, 

 1589 (woodcuts). 



f Portraits d'Oiseaux, Animaux, etc., d'Arabie et d'Egyte, 

 in 4to, Paris,_i557 (woodcuts); another edit. 1618. 



+ Appellationes quadrupedum, insectorum, etc. etc., in Svo. 

 Lipsiae 1550, Wittemberg, 1551, 1556, and 1558 ; Leipzig, 1559 

 and 1564. 



$ De differentiis animalium libri decern ; in fol. Parisiis, 1532. 



|| De piscibus marinis, universal aquatilium historiae pars 

 altera (with good wood engravings) in fol., Lugduni, 1534-55, 

 and a French Translation in fol., Lyon, 1558. 



IT Declamatio in laudem ebrietatis et encomium Muses, in 

 8vo. Hagenose, 1526. 



** De Bombycis cura et usu, libri 2, in 4to, Roma, 1537 ; in 

 Svo, Lugduni, 1537; in 8vo, Basil, 1537; in ismo, Antwerp, 

 1585 ; in Svo, Cremona, 1560. 



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