94 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



second part birds, the third fishes, the fourth, which was published after the 

 author's death, reptiles and insects. In each part he then describes one animal 

 after the other on the lines of Pliny, but with far greater expert knowledge, 

 based oa his own experience and criticism of his source of information. 

 Animals are arranged alphabetically "in order to facilitate the use of the 

 work," though allied forms are grouped under one heading; all oxen under 

 Bos, all apes under Sitnia, etc. Each animal form is discussed under eight sec- 

 tions, marked with letters of the alphabet and comprising (a) the name of 

 the animal in different languages; (b) its habitat and origin and a description 

 of its external and internal parts; (c) "the natural function of the body"; 

 (d)the qualities of the soul ;(e) the animal's use to man in general ;(f) its util- 

 ity as an article of food; (g) its utility for medical purposes; and (h) poetical 

 and philosophical speculations about the animal, anecdotes and resemblances 

 to be found in different authors. Thus the reader is able to find what he wants, 

 whichever part of the work he turns to. This clearly shows its encyclopasdic 

 character, and actually it is far more reminiscent of Pliny than of Aristotle. 

 As in Pliny, so in Gesner one seeks in vain for any idea as to the connexion 

 in living nature, in vain for any comparison worked out between the differ- 

 ent forms of life, regarding their organs or their functions. Gesner, however, 

 surpasses Pliny in knowledge — in this respect, of course, he has the whole 

 of the intermediate literature at his disposal, and indeed he has it at his 

 finger-ends. True, he, too, brings in a great many stories of marvellous 

 animals, but he certainly has not that absolutely unquestioning belief in 

 the miraculous which the old Roman had. And, above all, he was able to 

 record the results of his own research work, for he studied not only books, 

 but also life. He was a keen collector of observations on animals, not only 

 his own, but also those of other scientists with whom he corresponded. 



Illustrations introduced into xpology 

 His most original contribution to science was his introduction of the illus- 

 tration as an aid to the study of biology. He desired that, as far as possible, 

 every description of an animal should be followed by an illustration so as to 

 give the reader a clearer idea of the animal, and he spared neither trouble 

 nor expense in procuring as accurate woodcuts as possible. His collaborators 

 in this work were eminent artists, and he himself declared that the picture 

 of the rhinoceros was done by no less a person than Albrecht Diirer. With all 

 its weak points, Gesner's Historia animalium is at any rate the foremost 

 purely zoological work of the Renaissance period, and its influence on the 

 science of the succeeding age was considerable. 



Somewhat younger than Gesner and partly his pupil was another of the 

 foremost zoologists of the Renaissance, Ulisse Aldrovandi. He was born 

 at Bologna in 15x1 of a respectable burgher family and was intended to be a 

 merchant. Office work, however, attracted him but little, and so he went in 



