12 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



the latter was of Linnaeus. 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 systematic 

 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 f , 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 vera? Piscium effigies express sunt. Lugduni, 1554. 



f Hyppolyti Salviani de Citta di Castello. Aquatilium 

 Animalium Historiae Roma?, 1554. 



