HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 145 
tion. Lister by his various writings elucidated many 
points relating to insects ; and he may be regarded as 
the first modern who observed that spiders can sail in 
the air. But the most important of his works, and that 
on which his fame as an Entomologist is principally 
founded, is his admirable treatise De Araneis; in which 
his systematic arrangement of these animals leaves far 
behind all former attempts, and rivals that of the best 
modern Arachnologists. His specific descriptions are 
drawn with a precision till then unknown ; and each is 
headed by a short definition of the species, which he 
calls the Titulus, synonymous with the Nomen specifi- 
cum of Linne, whose canon of twelve words it rarely ex- 
ceeds. 
One of the most important events of this era was the 
complete exposure and refutation of the absurd doctrine 
of equivocal generation, which had maintained its ground 
in the schools of philosophy from the time of Aristotle. 
Our own immortal Harvey was the first who dared to 
controvert this irrational theory : and his dictum — Om- 
nia ex ovo — was copiously discussed and completely 
established by two of the ablest physiologists that Italy 
has produced, Redi and Malpighi. 
Previously to the publication of the Historia Insecto- 
rum, no other works of eminence, with the exception of 
Madam Merian's beautiful illustration of the metamor- 
phosis of the insects of Surinam, made their appearance: 
but in the interval of twenty-five years, which elapsed 
between the publication of that work and of Linne's 
first outline of his Systema Nature, Entomologists be- 
came more numerous and active. In England the pious 
and learned author of the Physico and Astro-Theology 
