20 MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 



in thb ^ubsbqiient history of Pallas ; and its great 

 utility to every student of science is so manifest, 

 that it is matter of surprise the example is not more 

 generally, not to say universally, followed. This 

 acquirement was so little troublesome to the learner, 

 that he still kept ahead of his youthful conirades in 

 his other studies; and not content with what was 

 taught by his masters, he employed his leisure hours 

 in the study of natural history ; and with such suc- 

 cess, that at the age of fifteen, he sketched ingenious 

 classifications of several groups of animals. 



It was in his fifteenth year that Pallas entered 

 seriously upon his professional pursuits, and com- 

 menced attendance on lectures upon anatomy and 

 physiology, botany and medicine, under Professors 

 Meckel, Sproegel, Rolof, and his father. So apt a 

 scholar was he in these several branches of science, 

 that in the beginning of the year 1758 we find him, 

 according to the account he gave to Mr Coxe, ena- 

 bled to read a course of public lectures on anatomy.* 

 Yet although thus occupied in his professional la- 

 bours, he found leisure to prosecute, under the special 

 auspices of one of his preceptors, Martin Schoeling, 

 the study of entomology and other brancfhes of 

 zoology. In the autumn of the same year he re- 

 paired to the university of Halle, where he attended 

 the lectures of the celebrated Segner on mathematics 



* See Coxe's Travels, and Rees's Cyclopedia, under " Pal- 

 las ;" where may be found by far the best sketch of his history 

 we have seen in the English tongue. 



