12 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
the latter was of Linneus. He was, moreover, a 
perfectly original writer, and described his subjects, 
considering the age in which he flourished, with re- 
markable exactness. As he was the first systematist 
of this period, so he was the only eminent writer on 
birds between Aristotle and Ray; while the manner 
in which he treated his subject showed a mind much 
superior to his contemporaries in other branches. 
(8.) Natural history seems to have again revived 
in the countries which gave it birth in ancient times, 
for nearly all the remaining writers of this period 
were natives of Italy, or at least of southern Europe. 
The year 1554 was remarkable for the appearance of 
two works on ichthyology, the one by Rondeletius*, 
(or, as the French write the name, Rondelet,) an 
early professor of medicine at Montpellier; the 
other- by Salviani+, a physician of Rome. The 
first treats at great length on the nature of fish in 
general, and describes, with considerable exactness, 
a large number of those found in the Mediterranean. 
There is no attempt at systematic arrangement, yet 
the subjects are not promiscuously introduced ; for 
the sharks, the eels, the rays, and other natural 
groups, are placed in distinct chapters. These being 
dismissed, our author proceeds to notice a variety 
of other animals belonging to different classes, 
merely, as it would appear, because they have 
something of the nature of fish by living in the sea. 
In his sixteenth chapter he accordingly jumbles 

* Gulielmi Rondeletii. Libri de Piscibus Marinis, in 
quibus vere Piscium effigies express sunt. Lugduni, 1554. 
+ Hyppolyti Salviani de Citta di Castello. Aquatilium 
Animalium Historiz Rome, 1554. 

