INTRODUCTION. 



More than 2200 years ago — nearly four centuries before the 

 Evangelists wrote their imperishable histories of the events on 

 which the faith of Christendom is based— Aristotle, the cele- 

 brated naturalist of Stageira, in I^Iacedonia, recorded observa- 

 tions of the habits and reproduction of the Octopus which clearly 

 show that he \vas more intimately acquainted with its mode of 

 life than any ^vriter of a later date between his day and ours. 



For how many centuries before his time facts and fallacies 

 concerning this curious animal were handed down from father 

 to son in oral tradition, and from generation to generation in 

 manuscript, ages before printing was invented, it is impossible 

 to say: he occasionally quotes from the works of previous 

 writers, and Strabo tells us that he had a good collection of 

 books, and was the first philosopher who possessed a library of 

 his own. But the faint glimmering of information to be derived 

 from early bookish lore was insufficient to satisfy his desire and 

 that of his sovereign for more complete and perfect knowledge. 

 Alexander the Great, who, in his youth, was under his tuition for 

 ten years, gave him, therefore, the means of extending his re- 

 searches, by placing at his disposal a large sum of money and a 

 staff of assistants. According to Pliny the latter were sent to 

 various parts of Asia and Greece under orders to collect animals 

 of all kinds, and by means of vivaria, fishponds, aviaries, &c., 



