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OUR ZOOLOr.TOAL ANCESTORS. 



opportunities for consulting such books are few, or whose information on 

 such matters may have hitherto been too circumscribed. We will also 

 endeavour to show the influence which such works had on the study of Natural 

 History at the time, and any practical bearings they may seem still to possess 

 on the present state of Natural History. 



Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, when zoology, as a science, 

 had made little progress since the impetus it had received by the previous 

 labours of Salvianus, Gesner, and two or three other cotemporarics, and while 

 the researches of our countrymen Willughby, Eay, and Lister were being 

 prosecuted with a zeal commensurate with their successful results, a Dutch 

 painter, John Goedart, was quietly pursuing his enquiries into the transformations 

 and habits of the insect tribes; a subject hitherto little understood, though not 

 long after resumed by Kedi, and elaborated and explained by the masterly 

 genius of Swammerdam. We are not aware of the exact date of the birth of 

 Goedart: it was certainly before the year 1620. He died in 1668. The 

 first volume of his investigations was published at Middleburgh, in 1662, the 

 second in 1667, and the third and last after the author's death, but without 

 date. The size of these volumes is 12mo, and two editions seem to have been 

 issued almost simultaneously from the press; one in Dutch, and the other in 

 Latin. The Latin edition was executed under the editorial care of J. De Mey 

 and Paul Veezaerdt ; and, though a faithful translation of the author's text, 

 verbum de verho, as De Mey tells us, it contains in addition a good deal of 

 irrelevant matter, the remains of the ^^cumbrous lore" of preceding ages. A 

 French translation also appeared in three volunies, in ] 700. Of these we 

 consider the Latin edition the best, and to which we now refer for a few 

 details: — 



It is entitled "Metamorphosis et Historia naturalis insedomm. Autore Joanne 

 Goedartio. Cum Gommentariis D. Joannis De Mey, &c" The first volume 

 contains soventy-nine coloured plates, and two hundred and thirty six pages 

 of text, including a Treatise by De Mey, on the Ephemera, with an additional 

 rudely engraved plate of the perfect insect; and another Treatise on the nature 

 of Comets. The metamorphoses of the various insects delineated by our author, 

 which he terms ^^experiments," relate chiefly to the Lepidopterous tribes, though 

 reveral species of Diptera 'are introduced, and a few Beetles; all of which are 

 represented with a degree of accuracy, and sometimes even of beauty, that at 

 once attests the very marked improvement now made in zoological engraving. 

 As a sample of the species treated on, we may mention those of plates 1, 11, 21, 

 26, and 27, representing the transformations of Vanessa lo, Pontia Brassicff;, 

 Vanessa Urticce, V. Atalanta, and Pontia Bapce respectively; 17, 23, and 38 

 Arctia caja, A. luhricepeda, and A. Menthastri ; 2, 47, and 54 the Linneaa 

 Muscce tenax, Pyrastri, and cadaverina ; 43, 76, and 78 Cassida viridis, 

 Oryllotalpa vulgaris, and Melolontha vulgaris. The accompanying text is a 

 simple narrative of the habits of the larvae in confinement, their food, and 

 the dates of their transformations, — the sole result of observation. The second 



