108 



THE OSPREY. 



ieve that nothing- of the kind has yet been ob- 

 served among- quadrupeds.'"-* 



Another interesting- observation is recorded 

 by Swainson. Apropos of the fact that Moffat — 

 very gratuitously — attributes phthiriasis "to 

 the free use of goat's milk," S%Yainson aptly 

 adds that he was "no doubt ig-norant that a 

 large portion of the peasantry of Southern 

 Europe kno-\v no other milk than that of goats. 

 In Sicily, more especially, such is the fact; for," 

 says he, "during eight years' residence on that 

 island, we scarcely remember to have tasted the 

 milk of cows more than once or twice -"f 



Swainson was not entirely confined to Sicily 

 during his eight years' sojourn. "An annual 

 leave of absence of six weeks or two months", 

 he says, "enabled me to visit Greece— the 

 botany of which classic region had been ren- 

 dered "more interesting from the appearance, 

 about this time, of Dr. Sibthorp's ProdroDins'' 

 (1806). This country contrasted greatly with 

 Sicily. "The beautiful little streams which 

 meander through the Peloponnesus, have their 

 banks constantly moist and verdant; hence 

 plants and insects abound".:}: 



This visit to Greece must have been made in 

 1813, and been from Malta where he was then 

 stationed for a time. The date is determined by 

 his reference to the plague; that fell disease 

 invaded Malta in the year mentioned. ji "He had 

 scarcely returned to' Malta when the plague 

 broke out in the capital." His account of his 

 quarantine and the way he used his enforced 

 leisure may be of iuterest now when the fear of 

 the disease is in many minds. 



The quarter in which I resided, says he, "was 

 one of the most affected; the street was barri- 

 caded, and for near two months I was a complete 

 prisoner. Provisions were brought in by the 

 authorities, and received into the house by an 

 opening cut through the door. At last it became 

 so destructive, that the cart which conveyed the 

 dead away, came round to be filled every day, 

 and it was no uncommon spectacle, upon rising 

 in the morning, to see half a dozen dead bodies 

 laid on the pavement, on both sides of my own 

 house, read}' to be removed. I know not how it 

 was, but I felt more dismay on the first death 

 by this scourge, than by the subsequent horrors 

 of such fearful sights. Confined to the house, 

 with only one domestic, I substituted, for my 

 usual daily exercise of walking and riding, that 

 of carr3'ing some loose stones left in the yard by 

 the masons, from thence to the top of the house, 

 and then down again. I thought seriously; 

 placed my trust in that Providence which had 

 hitherto preserved me; and felt not only re- 

 signed, but perfectly tranquil, to whatever 

 might happen. This imprisonment enabled me 

 to finish many of my Sicilian and Grecian 

 sketches, and arrange the plants and animals. 

 In short, I was almost sorrj', on my own account, 

 when our street was released from quarantine, 

 and I had again resumed my official duties. 



INTERCOURSE WITH RAFIXESOUE. 



While in Sicily he saw much of Rafinesque 

 and was his "companion in excursions" into the 

 fields and mountains. The two men that have 

 been united under a yoke of common contempt 

 by a modern ichthyologist|l were early bound by 

 friendly union and common sympathy for 

 nature. On such excursions, Swainson "carried 

 a butterfly net to catch insects, and was taken 

 for a crazj- man or a wizard." (Rustics rarely 

 or never comprehend how a sane man should 

 take interest in nature except for gain I) As 

 Swainson "hardly spoke Italian," Rafinesque 

 "had once to save him from being stoned out 

 of a field, where he was thought to seek for a 

 treasure buried by the Greeks." Although so 

 little acquainted with Italian Swainson never- 

 theless in 1810 "supervised the printing at Mes- 

 sina of [Rafinesque's] Index of Sicilian Ich- 

 thyology,""' a work destined in after years to 

 g-ive much trouble to ichthyologists. 



Swainson undoubtedly profited by his inter- 

 course with Rafinesque. Rafinesqtie was about 

 6 years older than himself, having been born in 

 Galata, a stiburb of Constantinople, in 1783. He 

 had made his first visit, extending from 1802 to 

 1805, to the United States, and had been a resi- 

 dent in Sicily since the last year. He was a 

 man of decided genius for natural history, and 

 had a mind of his own — independent and vigo- 

 rous, but very unbalanced. He refused to be 

 bound by the trammels of the Linnasan school, 

 and doubtless familiarized Swainson with the 

 idea of dissent from that school. Swainson had 

 imbibed the idea of Linnasan wisdom from his 

 closest zoological friend of eminence. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, and all England, in the early years at 

 least of the first decade of the century, bowed to 

 the authority of the great Swedish naturalist and 

 tried to force new species into Linna;an g-enera. 

 The confusion entailed thereby- was great and 

 increasing- with the accumulation of species. 

 Swainson could not but be impressed by in- 

 stances which Rafinesque broug-ht to his atten- 

 tion. At least, he must have been led to think. 



PEACE AND RESIGNATION. 



The long- Napoleonic struggle neared its end. 

 At last the French were obliged to retreat from 

 territory they had possessed for 3'ears. One of 

 the vacated lands was Italy. "The withdrawal 

 of the French from Italy, by the united ope- 

 rations of [the British] troops with tho.se of 

 Austria, required my services", says Swainson, 

 "with the army in Naples, and I had thus an 

 opportunity of treading the soil of Italy". 



Let him give his own version of what followed 

 and the reasons that influenced him in his ac- 

 tions. 



To be Continued. 



*Habits and Instincts, p. 47. 



i'Habits and Instincts, p. 209. 



ITaxidermy, p. 340. 



^Faulkner on the Plague in Malta, 1S20. 



liGunther in Nature for February 15, igoo, p. 363. 



Ti Rafinesque in "A Life of Travels and Researches in North America and South Europe (1836) p. 41, 42. 



