ROESEL VON ROSENHOF 295 



first number of a monthly serial called Insecten-Belus- 

 tigungen, which consisted of a few pages of description 

 and a single quarto plate. The work became popular, 

 and sold so well that before long two plates instead of 

 one were issued with each part. In time the monthly 

 parts were collected into volumes, of which three and 

 an imperfect fourth were ready by 1759, the year of 

 his death. Roesel's plates, all engraved by his own 

 hand, amount to over three hundred, many of them 

 crowded with detail. Not even this laborious under- 

 taking sufficed for the author's energy ; he studied the 

 comet of 1744, and illustrated its changes by an 

 engraved plate ; he investigated the frogs, salamanders, 

 and lizards of Germany, and exhibited their structure 

 and development in twenty-four double-folio plates 

 (1758). His patient labours ceased only with his 

 life. In the year 1752 his health failed; he was 

 paralysed, and it seemed as if his labours were at an 

 end. But some strength returned. Though unable to 

 go abroad, he sent into the fields for water-weeds, and 

 with his unimpaired right hand engraved the beautiful 

 figures which fill the last twenty-seven plates of the 

 third volume of the Insecten-Belustigungen. By the 

 use of electrical and other treatment, his powers were 

 so far restored that he was able to go about the house 

 again. The sudden death of his wife in 1757 was a 

 heavy blow, but he went on bravely with his fourth 

 volume, and had completed forty plates, with their 

 descriptions, when the end came, March 27th, 1759. 



After Eoesel's death his son-in-law, Kleemann, en- 

 graved and published many more of the drawings, 

 mixed apparently with new ones, and thus completed 

 a fourth volume, his supplement being often counted as 

 Vol. V. Translations, continuations, and abridgements 



