have afterwards extended itself, dissociated from the purpose for 

 which they were etored up in the apothecary's shop. Persons 

 may have been struck with the objects and specimens tlnis 

 incidentally brought under their notice, and have taken a fancy 

 to collecting such things for their own amusement.* Most of the 

 old collectors seem to have been of this class. The more 

 rare and extraordinary the specimens were the more they were 

 prized, and absurd sums often paid to get possession of them. 

 No wonder that such pursuits, taken up without any reasonabli' 

 end in view, should have sometimes met with ridicule from the 

 rest of the world. Many of my hearers must be familiar with 

 the humorous description of the will of a virtuoso in one of the 

 papers of "The Tatler," written the beginning of the last 

 century.t The writer after commenting upon " a sort of learned 

 men, who are wholly employed in gathering together the refuse 

 of nature, if- we may so call it, and hoarding up in their chests, 

 and cabinets such creatures as others industriously avoid the 

 sight of " — proceeds to mention how the virtuoso disposed, of all 

 his natural rarities and curiosities.^to wliom he bequeathed his 

 butterflies and shells, — who was so fortunate as to get possession 

 of his receipt for preserving dead caterpillai-s, and his preparation 

 of embryo-pickle, — who had his last year's collection of grass- 



* This was probably the case in foreign countries as well as in 

 England. Flourens, in bis life of Blumenbach, remarks — "the old 

 Germany, with its old chateaux, seemed to pay no homage to science ; 

 still the lords of these ancient and noble mansions had long since made 

 it a business, and almost a point of honour, to form with care what 

 were called Cabinets of Cuiiosities." Aud lie speaks of Blumenbach 

 as having come " and reclaimed tbese treasures in the name of science ; " 

 Natural History beginning everywhere from that time (in Germany) 

 to have its Museums.—" Life and works of Ehimenbacb,"' edited for 

 the Anthropological Society, p. 55. 



t Vol. rV. No. 216, August 2(th, 1710. 



