40 MEMOIR OF 



discovery of others. " It is, perhaps, impossible, at 

 the present day, when the investigation of nature 

 is so much facilitated, by the accumulation of the 

 knowledge of ages in every department of physical 

 science by the commercial relations existing in 

 all parts of the globe by a tried method of 

 observation, experiment, and induction and, 

 finally, by the possession of the most ingenious 

 instruments, to form any adequate idea of the 

 numerous difficulties under which this ancient 

 naturalist laboured."* It is remarkable, that as 

 it is not known that Aristotle had any companion 

 in the scientific pursuit of zoology, so there is 

 no record of any follower, at however great a 

 distance, till Pliny the elder, born in the reign of 

 Tiberius, in the twentieth year of the Christian 

 era, that is, nearly three centuries and a half after 

 the death of Aristotle. 



It appears that Pliny travelled into Germany, 

 Spain, Africa, and perhaps Britain, Egypt, and 

 India ; that he was engaged in political and 

 military services, and yet, at the same time, that 

 he devoted himself so sedulously to literature, as 

 that scarcely any one before him had written so 

 many books. 



He compiled thirty-six volumes of natural 

 history, chiefly from the works of other writers, 

 amounting, as he asserts, to 2000 volumes. The 

 very names even of many of these authors would 

 now be unknown but for Pliny's own enumeration 



* Macgillivray. 



