THE HISTORY OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 585 



Charleton, Lister, Leeuwenhoek, Tyson, Duverney, de la Hire, 

 Valentini, and Mery were still writing, and Swammerdam, 

 Perrault, de Graaf, Steno, Blasius, Willis, and Borelli were by no 

 means forgotten. Again we see that the rise and fall of research 

 is not wholly dependent on the lead of contemporary ability. 

 That lead must be tested and developed by the rank and file 

 of the research army, which in this case, whatever the reason, 

 did not rise to the occasion. It must not here be forgotten, 

 however, that the dissemination of scientific knowledge, if 

 general, was at times very slow. For example, Malpighi's 

 treatise on the structure of the Viscera was published at Bo- 

 logna in 1666. It was reviewed in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions for February 15, 1669, where it is stated that no copies 

 of the work had as yet reached England in the ordinary course 

 of business, and that the review was based on a special copy 

 sent by Malpighi to the publisher of the Society. 



The first half of the eighteenth century was a quiet and 

 uneventful interval. Leeuwenhoek continues and concludes 

 his industrious career. The last of the old French Academists 

 gradually drop out, their final papers, except posthumous 

 works, appearing before 1720. Poupart died in 1709, Le 

 Clerc in 1714, de la Hire in 171 8, Mery in 1722, Gouye in 

 1725, and Duverney, the last and greatest, in 1730. Their 

 mantle descended on Reaumur, Peyssonel, and Bernard de 

 Jussieu, but although these workers took some count of anatomy, 

 their interests were not primarily morphological. The most 

 noteworthy anatomical event of the period was the posthumous 

 and belated issue of Swammerdam 's Biblia Naturce in 1737-8, 

 the English version of which, edited by the satirical " Sir " 

 John Hill, " M.D.," did not appear until twenty years later, 

 and fifteen years had elapsed before the first German edition 

 was printed. The immediate effect of this great work is not 

 apparent. The genius of the time favoured the less rigorous 

 aspects of Biology, and culminated in the launching of Buffon's 

 Histoire Naturelle in 1749, a work which even Daubenton's 

 anatomical contributions only slightly dilute. The first ex- 

 tended memoir to bear the general title of An Essay on Com- 

 parative Anatomy appeared in 1744. It is a small anonymous 

 pamphlet of 138 pages 8vo, based on a student's notes of the 

 lectures of Alexander Monro, primus, of Edinburgh. The 

 notes were published without the knowledge of the Professor, 



