Natural- Historical Collections. 449 



ney, which is lost ; but of which Strabo, Arrian, jElian and Athenaeus have pre- 

 served fragments. In it we find the description of many remarkable plants and 

 animals ; of bamboos ; of white monkeys with black faces ; of shells, in which 

 pearls are found, &c. In all the narratives of joumies which the ancients 

 have left us, we find a number of gross tales. But if, taking them as pure false, 

 hoods, we concluded from them that the author was deserving of no confidence^ 

 we should deprive ourselves frequently of very useful sources of information. We 

 must carefully distinguish what the traveller relates as having seen, from what 

 he relates only as having heard said. In this latter case he has been expos- 

 ed to interpret literally a narrative full of metaphorical expressions, or to re- 

 produce, as he may have received it, a popular belief. Thus, Megasthenes says, 

 that in the Caucasus there exists a race of men whose feet are directed behind. 

 There can be no doubt that tliis tale was told him in the country, when, in 

 the present day, they believe in the existence of beings thus formed — a kind of 

 wicked genii, who come during night to torment man. It has been a reproach to 

 Megasthenes to have stated that bears exist in Southern India. We were not 

 acquainted with any in that country ; but, for five or six years back, no less than 

 three species hav« been discovered. 



We have said that the sciences flourished in Egypt under the reign of the first 

 •Lagides. Ptolemy Soter had founded the library. Ptolemy Philadelphia had 

 encouraged by example the study of natural history ; the third king of that rac^ 

 Ptolemy Euergetus, was also a protector of learned men. With many great faults 

 this prince had also some great qualities ; he extended his conquests to the south ; 

 and an inscription has been found on the frontiers of Nubia, which alludes to his 

 victories over the kings of Syria. In this campaign elephants were for the first 

 .time employed ; they exceeded in strength and in courage the elephants of India 

 which were made use of in the army of the enemy, and which contributed very 

 much to the success of the conqueror. The fourth of the Ptolemies, Philopater, 

 after a reign of considerable length, left a kingdom, much weakened, to his son, 

 Epiphanes, then a child. The great men thought that they would act wisely in 

 placing the young prince under the tutorship of the Roman people ; but this 

 measure, instead of producing the effect which they had promised to themselves, 

 only increased their troubles, and from that time science began to decline in 

 Egypt- This country, during the time of its glory, besides the naturalists of 

 wliom we have spoken, had also learned men of another order, profound mathema- 

 ticians and great astronomers : such were Euclid ; Eratosthenes, who first endea- 

 voured to measure the earth by ascertaining the length of a degree of the meri- 

 dian ; Hipparchus, to whom we are indebted for the first catalogue of stars and a 

 .knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes. We must also mention Aratus, 

 who had composed a poem on the constellations, and another on anatomy, after 

 tlie discoveries of Erasistratus. It was during the reign of Philometer, the sixth 

 of the Lagides, that Hipparchus flourished. After the death of this great man, 

 the science, which he had caused to make so great a progress, remained stationary 

 during a space of three centuries. 



Ptolemy Physcon, who ascended the throne of Egypt after the death of his 

 brother, Philometer, was a debauched and cruel prince. During his reign the 

 learned men of Alexandria were obliged to disperse themselves. Greece had for- 

 merly lost her learned men from the effects of the civil war of which she had been 

 the theatre. The troubles of Egypt brought her new ones. The refugees were 

 obliged, for the sake of subsistence, to teach in the towns of continental Greece 

 and of the islands. They for a time brought back the pursuit of good studies. 

 Physcon, though a persecutor of learned men, was not an ignorant man : He had 

 written a commentary on Homer, and even a work on natural history, in wiiich 

 he ^M:aks of the fish of certain rivers of Africa. This prince is the first who 

 succeeded in breeding pheasants, which he had obtained from Medea. These 

 birds multiplied sufficiently to have supplied his table ; but he abstained from eat- 

 ing them, he considered them so extremely precious. In a journey which he made 



