THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 135 



All the innumerable fables which had passed 

 from book to book in the old bestiaries disap- 

 peared, for Ray ever showed a healthy scepti- 

 cism with regard to the marvellous. He, 

 further, edited Willughby's "History of 

 Fishes," but perpetuated the mistake of his 

 predecessors in retaining whales amongst that 

 group. In a rather rationalistic mood he 

 argues that the fish which swallowed Jonah 

 must have been a shark. Perhaps the weakest 

 of the three great histories the History of 

 Insects was due to the fact that Ray edited it 

 in his old age. 



Ray was always a fine field naturalist, and 

 his catalogues of Cambridgeshire plants long 

 remained a classic. We may perhaps sum up 

 the contributions of this great naturalist in 

 the words of Professor Miall. "During his 

 long and strenuous life he introduced many 

 lasting improvements fuller descriptions, 

 better definitions, better associations, better 

 sequences. He strove to rest his distinctions 

 upon knowledge of structure, which he person- 

 ally investigated at every opportunity . . . 

 His greatest single improvement was the divi- 



