42 MEMOIR OF 



They serve, however, when contrasted with the 

 zoology of Aristotle, to bring into deserved pro- 

 minence the inventor of an original system. 



No real improvements in zoology were made 

 during the next sixteen hundred years. In the 

 16th century a few writers appeared whose re- 

 maining works indicate the dawn of a brighter 

 era. These deserve a brief notice in the succes- 

 sion in which they lived. 



CONRAD GESNER, born at Zurich, 1516; a 

 prodigy of application ; but his works, though 

 evincing some improvements in Botany, are now 

 regarded as merely literary curiosities. 



PIERRE BELON, in 1553 ; whose works exhibit 

 some improvements in Ichthyology, particularly 

 in the department of sea-fishes. 



HIPPOLITO SALVIANI, A. D. 1554; whose 

 works on Ichthyology contain still farther im- 

 provements, but are chiefly valuable on account 

 of the beautiful and accurate plates which they 

 contain. 



GILLAUME RONDELET, A.D. 1554; whose works 

 on Ichthyology contain some traces of classifica- 

 tions based on affinities. 



ULY&SES ALDROVANDI, or ALDROVANDUS, who 

 died A.D. 1605. He wrote thirteen folio volumes, 

 four only of which were published by himself, 

 namely, three on birds, and one on insects. The 

 rest appeared after his death. 



He can be ^regarded merely as a compiler a 

 modern Pliny. 



With regard to all these, it is asserted by an 



