50 MEMOIR OF 



that he had a divided and inconsiderable share in; 

 their preparation and merit. We believe this criti- 

 cism is substantially unjust, and wholly untrue. 

 The Abbe thus explains himself " As the first six 

 volumes were Aldrovandi's, although the others 

 wore compiled by various authors after his death, 

 yet they are ascribed to him, either because they 

 are continuations of his design, or compiled from 

 his memoirs, or written according to his plan, or, 

 perhaps, with a view of recommending the latter 

 volumes by so famous a name/' But this is all 

 uncertainty and mere conjecture, the vague and 

 hasty suggestions of one whose, very expressions 

 demonstrate a total ignorance of the actual state of; 

 the facts. 



Aldrovandi early sketched the plan of his " Me- 

 morial." He was fifty years in executing it. In 

 his first published prospectus, so to speak, he ima- 

 gined the treatise on Quadrupeds would precede 

 that on Fishes; to which would succeed the Mollus- 

 ca, Crustacea, &c. Botany, and Fossils. As early, 

 however, as the year 1600, a change in the order of 

 publication was anticipated, and it was announced 

 to the public as follows Plants, Mollusca, Fishes, 

 Quadrupeds, and Fossils. This order, we have 

 seen, was nearly followed ; with one striking excep- 

 tion, however, viz. as to the Plants, which was 

 the last that appeared. But it is of this work on 

 Plants, which it was anticipated would have taken 

 the precedence of others published during the 

 author's iife, that the critic ventures to declare 



