09 



MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



studies, which had suffered a considerable interrup- 

 tion. His residence there, however, was but short, 

 not upwards of a year, for the senate of Berne had 

 founded an academy at Lausanne, and prevailed on 

 him to become one of the teachers. Here he conti- 

 nued for about three years, employed, most of that 

 time, in teaching Greek. His worldly circum- 

 stances being by this time greatly improved, he 

 was enabled to reside for about a year at Mont- 

 pellier, then the seat of a celebrated school of me- 

 dicine, and the resort of learned men from all parts 

 of Europe. Here he formed a friendship w4th Ron- 

 delet, professor of medicine at Montpellier, and one 

 of the ablest naturalists of his age, whose excellent 

 work, De piscihus mmHnis^* illustrated with wood- 

 cuts of great merit, has rendered his name known 

 and honoured even in the present day. It was, in 

 all probability, owing to his intercourse with this 

 naturalist, and others then residing at Montpellier, 

 that his predilection for the study of Nature w^as 

 fully confirmed, and the resolution, w^hich he ap- 

 pears to have formed at a very early period of his 

 life, of illustrating it by his writings, first carried 

 into effect. 



* Gulielmi Rondeletii Libri de piscibus marinis, in quibus 

 vcKB Piscium effigies exprcssoe sunt. Lugduni, 1.554, 1 vol. 

 fol. The figures are rudely engi-aved, as might be expected 

 from the state of the art at that period, but the outlines are in 

 general accurate, and highly characteristic of the species. We 

 will not say this much, however, for the Bishop-fish, and some 

 others, which afford curious instances of the credulity of 

 the age. 



