Chap. I. 



HISTORY OF THE ACALEPHS. 



7 



ages/ added any important information to that already contained in Aristotle ; and 

 we must come down to the sixteenth century, before we find authors who have 

 observed Medusa) in nature, and given rude outlines of their external appearance. 

 Among them Belon and Rondelet deserve particular mention, for they were the 

 first who published wood-cuts representing several species of ActiniiB and Acalepha) ; 

 and, though their knowledge of these animals is not more accurate than that of 

 Aristotle, a new era in the natural history of animals begins Avith them and 

 Gessner. 



SECTION II. 



THE NATURALISTS OF THE SLXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 



The connection between the extraordinary impulse which the natural sciences 

 received in the second half of the sixteenth century, and the preceding momentous 



Caii Plini secundi Historiaj Naturalis libri xxxvii. 

 The third part, devoted to Zoology, contains notes 

 and dissertations by G. Cuvier. 



Most of what is contained in Pliny respecting the 

 Acalephs (Lib. ix. cap. 45) is compiled from Aris- 

 totle, though it appears from his description, that he 

 must have observed these animals himself, as he 

 mentions the manner in which they move about, 

 and seize their prey. As the name Zoophytes has 

 been applied to the lower animals by most writers 

 on natural history since Pliny, it is not out of 

 place to mention here, that that word was first used 

 by Sextus Empiricus, and no doubt suggested by 

 a passage of Aristotle quoted above (note on jj. G), 

 in which the gradation from the higher animals to 

 the plants is alluded to. But, far from constituting 

 a progress in science, that designation introduced 

 only confusion, or at least served to propagate a 

 fiilse impression that there were living beings truly 

 partaking at the same time of the nature of ani- 

 mals and plants. Nothing can be further from the 

 truth than to ascribe such a view to Aristotle as 

 his commentators Gaza and Budajus have done ; 

 for, though Aristotle alludes to a gradation among 

 animals, and to a sort of transition from them to 

 the plants, which ho considers as inanimate, he no- 

 where regards those animals which are immovable. 



like plants, as ambiguous in their character, but 

 everywhere speaks of them as living animals, and 

 alludes to the Sponges as plants. These erroneous 

 notions have been entertained for nearly two thou- 

 sand years, until Peyssonel demonstrated the ani- 

 mal nature of the expanded individuals of these 

 so-called Zoophytes, in which some of his prede- 

 cessors had fancied they saw real flowers. 



^ The readers who may wish for more informa- 

 tion respecting the progress of science during this 

 and the following periods, in which the natural 

 history of the Acalephs made comparatively less 

 advance than that of other classes, are referred 

 to G. Cuvier, Histoire des sciences naturelles 

 depuis leur origine jusqu'a nos jours, Paris, 1841- 

 184.3, 5 vols. 8vo., and Histoire des progres des 

 sciences n.aturelles depuis 1789 jusqu'ii nos jours, 

 Paris, 1829, 4 vols. 8vo. — DeBlainville, His- 

 toire des sciences de I'organisation et de leurs pro- 

 gres, Paris, 1847, 3 vols. 8vo. — Also, Srix Ge- 

 schichte und Beurtheilung aller Systeme in der 

 Zoologie nach ihrer Entwickelungsfolge von Aris- 

 toteles bis auf die gegenwiirtige Zeit. Niiremberg, 

 1811, 1 vol. 8vo., and for the middle ages in 

 particular: Pouciiet, Histoire des sciences natu- 

 relles an moyen age, Paris, 18.53, 1 vol. 8vo. 



