RONDELET 47 



seems that the highly specialised and dominant group 

 of Teleostean fishes has become adapted in most intricate 

 ways to the exigencies of aquatic life, and that no 

 simple principle of division is likely to prove natural 

 here, any more than in the class of Birds. Ichthyolo- 

 gists, like ornithologists, can only remove this or that 

 blot, with little hope of complete success, even in the 

 distant future. 



Yet another book on fishes was brought out nearly at 

 the same time with those of Belon and Rondelet, by 

 Hippolito Salviani (1514-1572), a physician of Eome, 

 whose work, Aquatilium Animalium \_Historia\ dated 

 1554, was only completed in 1558, as the colophon 

 shows. The three authors were all physicians, and all 

 were patronised by Cardinal Tournon. Salviani's book is 

 chiefly remarkable for its beautiful engravings on copper, 

 which in some copies are delicately coloured. 



THE ENCYCLOPAEDIC NATURALISTS OF THE 

 RENAISSANCE 



We must briefly notice a class of writers who were 

 highly esteemed in their day, though most of them did 

 little to advance natural history, because they relied 

 upon other aids than that first-hand study, which is 

 essential to lasting progress in the interpretation of 

 nature. Encyclopaedic learning was the passion of 

 sixteenth century scholars, who loved to transcribe 

 copious extracts from ancient authors into their Adver- 

 saria in the hope of some day digesting them into books. 

 Zoology and botany were treated like history or 

 philology by writers who failed to perceive that Pliny 

 iind iElian were by no means trustworthy witnesses on 



