440 HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



thus having prepared the work for the press, intended 

 to dedicate it to queen Elizabeth 3 . Fate, however, 

 seemed still to frown upon the undertaking, for before 

 he could commit his labours to the press he also died, 

 and his book remained buried in dust and obscurity till 

 it fell into the hands of Sir Theodore Mayerne, baron 

 d'Aubone, one of the court physicians in the time of 

 Charles I., who at length published it, prefixing a Dedi- 

 cation to Sir William Paddy, baronet, M.D., in 1634-; 

 and it was so well received that an English translation 

 appeared twenty-four years afterwards. The work thus 

 repeatedly rescued from destruction was indisputably the 

 most complete entomological treatise that had then ap- 

 peared. And though the arrangement (in which there 

 is scarcely any attempt at system) is extremely defective, 

 the figures very rude, often incorrect, and sometimes 

 altogether false, yet as an introduction to the study 

 of insects its value at that day must have been very 

 considerable; and as a copious storehouse of ancient 

 entomological lore, it has not even at present lost its 

 utility. 



One of the most remarkable works of the era we ara 

 upon was published at Lignitz in the year 1603, by 

 Caspar Schwenckfeeld, a physician of Hirschberg, under 

 the title of Theriotrophium Silesia. This was probably 

 the first attempt at a Fauna that ever was made. In it 

 animals are divided into quadrupeds, reptiles, birds, 

 fishes, and insects. The Crustacea, Mollusca, and Zoo- 

 phytes, are included under fishes. He says of the Spon- 

 gi& that they are moved by animalcula which inhabit 

 them b . Did he borrow this observation from Aristotle, 

 * Thealr. Insect. E-pust. Dcd. i. ThcriolropJi. Silcs. 455. 



