26 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



Ashmolean Society, the author says " It is agreed on by all our 

 antiquaries that the Tradescant collection, which was the 

 foundation of the Ashmolean Museum, was the earliest exhibited 

 in Britain."' 29 



On the Continent, however, there were collections of no mean 

 importance a hundred years earlier. A printed catalogue exists, 

 for instance, of the Kentmann Cabinet, dated 1565. Johann 

 Kentmann was a physician, who lived at one time at Torgau in 

 Saxony, and afterwards at Dresden. The doctor had collected 

 about 1,600 specimens, chiefly minerals and fossils, with a few 

 shells, corals, and other marine objects, and preserved his collec- 

 tion in an ark. or cabinet, of 13 double drawers, figured in the 

 catalogue. This catalogue was published by the doctor's good 

 friend Gesner, in a volume which contains also a number of 

 scientific essays, including a treatise on precious stones and other 

 minerals. 30 



Coorad Gesner, who has been styled " The German Pliny," 

 seems to have been one of the most remarkable men the 

 world has ever seen. At one time he was professor of the 

 Greek language, at another time professor of medicine, and 

 again we hear of his holding a chair of philosophy. His industry 

 was prodigious, for though he died before he was fifty years 

 of age (b. 1516, d. 1565) he left a vast number of works relating 

 to most diverse subjects. Every branch of natural history 

 secured his sympathy, and he formed a collection much larger 

 and more important than Kentmann's, though I am not aware 

 that a catalogue of it is included in his writings. To 

 accommodate this collection he built at Zurich a Museum 

 surrounded by a botanic garden. It is related that knowing his 

 end was approaching he had a couch placed in his Museum and 

 was carried thither, so that he might expire in the midst 

 of those objects to which he was so devoted. It is with good 

 reason that Gesner has been called the " Father of Natural 

 History Museums." 31 His collection passed, on his death, 

 to his friend Felix Plater, a doctor in Basle, 32 who possessed a 

 notable collection. 



29 A Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford : 1836. 



30 De Omni Rerum Fossilium Geneie, Gemmis, Lapidibus, Metallis et hujusmedi, Libri 

 aliquot, plurique nunc primum editi. Opera Conradi Gesneri. Ti^uri ; MDLXV. 



31 Presidential Address by Rev. Henry H Higgins, M.A. Report Museums Assoc, 

 Liverpool Meeting, 1890. 



32 Conrad Gesner : Kin Beyt>ag zur Geschichte des WissenschaftUchen Strebens und de* 

 Glaubensveibesserunp: im 16 ten Jahrhundert. By Johannes Hanhart. Winterthur: 1S24. p. 270. 



