AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 
a antarctic 
Arr. I.— Some notice of British Naturalists ; by Cuartes Fox. 
_ Narvrar History, like other branches of science, has had its 
infancy, its childhood, and its maturity. At first and in early 
times, it observed isolated facts and grouped them promiscuously, 
without skillful arrangement and classification founded on natural 
analogies and differences. It has advanced slowly, until in our 
limes it has fallen into the train of the inductive sciences, and 
Now marches onward with confidence and success. 
Solomon is the earliest naturalist ; then follows Aristotle, Pliny, 
and Elian. Of the works of Solomon on natural history, we 
know little, although he described “ Trees from the cedar-tree 
— that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of 
the wall; and spake also of beasts, and fowls, and of creeping 
things, and of fishes.” It is believed that Aristotle not only had 
“cess to his writings, but made great use of them in the com- 
Pilation of his own works. Natural History was to him a collec- 
hon of miscellaneous facts; mingled with much that was doubtful, 
and still more that was apocryphal: his works evince vast indus- 
ty in collecting, and a mind well adapted to research. In the 
Words of Mr. Swainson :* 
“To his famous book, Meg: Zoid» ‘Iotoguas, he first sought to define 
by the precision of language, those more prominent and compre- 
hensive groups of the animal kingdom, which, being founded on 
(gS ico On SS em 
Vv : * Cabinet Cyclopedia. 
ol. *¥xv1; No. 2.—April-July, 1839. 28 
