HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 445 



tion. Lister by his various writings elucidated many 

 points relating to insects ; and he may be regarded as 

 the first modern who observed that spiders can sail in 

 the air. But the most important of his works, and that 

 on which his fame as an Entomologist is principally 

 founded, is his admirable treatise De Araneis; in which 

 his systematic arrangement of these animals leaves far 

 behind all former attempts, and rivals that of the best 

 modern Arachnologists. His specific descriptions are 

 drawn with a precision till then unknown; and each is 

 headed by a short definition of the species, which he 

 calls the Titulus, synonymous with the Nomen specifi- 

 cum of Linne, whose canon of twelve words it rarely ex- 

 ceeds. 



One of the most important events of this era was the 

 complete exposure and refutation of the absurd doctrine 

 of equivocal generation, which had maintained its ground 

 in the schools of philosophy from the time of Aristotle. 

 Our own immortal Harvey was the first who dared to 

 controvert this irrational theory : and his dictum Om- 

 nia ex ovo was copiously discussed and completely 

 established by two of the ablest physiologists that Italy 

 has produced, Redi and Malpighi. 



Previously to the publication of the Historia Insecto- 

 rum, no other works of eminence, with the exception of 

 Madam Merian's beautiful illustration of the metamor- 

 phosis of the insects of Surinam, made their appearance: 

 but in the interval of twenty-five years, which elapsed 

 between the publication of that work and of Linne's 

 first outline of his Systema Natures, Entomologists be- 

 came more numerous and active. In England the pious 

 and learned author of the Physico and Astro-Theology 



