428 
Attic talent, amounts to above £79,000. The work composed 
under such auspices, is such as might have been expected. 
The extent of the observations is prodigious; and we cannot 
read far in any part of it, without being constrained to ex- 
claim with Cicero, Quis omnium doctior, quis acutior, quis in 
rebus vel inveniendis vel judicandis acrior Aristotele ? 
Shortly after the introduction of Greek literature to Eu- 
rope, and when this book was first printed, those sciences 
which have nature for their object, were in the lowest condi- 
tion. There was at that time no taste diffused for the study of 
zoology or comparative anatomy; and at later periods, when 
the value of these studies came to be better appreciated, the 
Aristotelian philosophy: had fallen into disuse. Thus this 
work has, from this combination of circumstances, been 
passed over; is seldom quoted except at second-hand ; and 
no edition of it distinct from the other works of the author, 
or illustrated as the subject required, has appeared since 
that of Scaliger, published in 1619,—except one, accompanied 
by a French translation by Camus, in 1782, which is said to 
be incorrect, and is become scarce. 
Dr. Osborne proceeded to make a short analysis of the 
contents of this work, and showed that Aristotle had antici- 
pated Dr. Jenner’s researches respecting the cuckoo, as also 
some discoveries with respect to the incubated egg, which 
have been published within the last year. His observations 
on fish and cetaceous animals are curious in the extreme, as 
might be expected from the variety of these animals abound- 
‘ing in the Grecian seas. Those on insects it is difficult to ap- 
preciate, from uncertainty as to the names. He describes 
the economy of bees, as we have it at present ; but mistakes 
the sex of the queen. He holds the doctrine of spontaneous 
generation in those cases, in which he could not detect the 
ovary ; an inevitable conclusion arising from the want of the 
microscope, to which, and the want of knowledge of pneu- 
matic chemistry, his principal errors are to be referred. 
