RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY 33 



it has never been superseded by a better, cannot be 

 looked upon as having advanced either the precision 

 or the arrangement of Zoology. Another of the 

 great collectors of this period was Albertus Seba, 

 of Amsterdam, who, like our Pettiver, was a wealthy 

 apothecary. He collected all sorts of animals from 

 all regions, and went to an enormous expense in 

 publishing their figures and descriptions. * The en- 

 gravings, for the most part, are very good, particu- 

 larly those of the shells ; but the descriptions are 

 beneath criticism. Another splendid publication of 

 this sort, in two folio volumes, was published by 

 Catesby on the Natural History of Carolina f, which 

 is even now very useful, from the plates being 

 coloured, and tolerably accurate. The descriptions, 

 likewise, are in general faithful, although destitute 

 of any scientific merit. 



(15.) Such were the ample materials existing in 

 the year 1730, which the distinguished reformer of 

 systematic Natural History, the great Sir Charles 

 Linne (otherwise Linneeus), first began to model 

 into shape ; and which he ultimately condensed into 

 the most simple, inviting, and luminous system the 

 world had yet seen. The life of this extraordinary 

 man is too well known, and has been too often written, 

 to require any notice in this place ; but his merits 

 have been so extravagantly extolled by one party, 



* Albertus Seba. Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium The- 

 sauri accurata Descriptio. Amsterd. 1734. 1765. 



f The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Ba- 

 hama Islands. By Mark Catesby, F.R.S. Lond. 1731. 

 1743. With 220 plates. Another edition was edited by 

 Edwards in 1771. 



