Scientific Intelligence, — Zoology. 189 



were placed at the disposal of the author, throughout Greece and 

 Asia, — comprising persons connected with hunting and fishing, or 

 who had the care of cattle, fish-ponds, or apiaries, — in order that 

 he might obtain information from all these quarters, ne quid usqicam 

 ge7itium ignoraretur ah eo. A^nd according to Athenaeus, the same 

 prince gave him, on account of the expenses incurred in composing 

 it, 800 talents, — a sum which, taken at the lowest, that is, the 

 lesser Attic talent, amounts to above L.79,000. The work com- 

 posed under such auspices, is such as might have been expected. 

 The extent of the observations is prodigious ; and we cannot read 

 far in any part of it, without being constrained to exclaim with 

 Cicero, Quis omnium doctior^ quis acutior, quis in rebus vet invenien- 

 dis veljudicandis acrior Aristotele ? 



Shortly after the introduction of Greek literature to Europe, 

 and when this book was first printed, those sciences which have 

 nature for their object were in the lowest condition. There was 

 at that time no taste diffused for the study of zoology or compara- 

 tive anatomy ; and at later periods, when the value of these studies 

 came to be better appreciated, the Aristotelian philosophy had fal- 

 len into disuse. Thus this work has, from this combination of cir- 

 cumstances, been passed over ; is seldom quoted except at second 

 hand ; and no edition of it, distinct from the other works of the 

 author, or illustrated as the subject required, has appeared since 

 that of Scaliger, published in 1619, — except one, accompanied 

 by a French translation by Camus, in 1782, which is said to be in- 

 correct, and is become scarce. 



Dr Osborne proceeded to make a short analysis of the contents 

 of this work, and shewed that Aristotle had anticipated Dr Jenner's 

 researches respecting the cuckoo, as also some discoveries with re- 

 spect to the incubated q^^, which have been published within the 

 last year. His observations on fish and cetaceous animals are cu- 

 rious in the extreme, as might be expected from the variety of 

 these animals abounding in the Grecian seas. Those on insects it 

 is difficult to appreciate, from uncertainty as to the names. He 

 describes the economy of bees, as we have it at present ; but mis- 

 takes the sex of the queen. He holds the doctrine of spontaneous 

 generation in^'those cases in which he could not detect the ovary ; 

 an inevitable conclusion, arising from the want of the microscope, 

 to which, and the want of knowledge of pneumatic chemistry, his 

 principal errors are to be referred. The various organs are de- 

 scribed as modified throughout tlie different classes of animals, 

 (beginning with Man, the 'BwXivriKcv ^o»«»), in nearly the same or- 

 der as that afterwards adopted by Cuvier. 



