CONRAD GESNER. 105 



The sixteenth century produced a little band of 

 worthies, who^ without having made great acquire- 

 ments, may yet be justly styled the fathers of modern 

 zoology. These were Guillaume Rondelet, a physi- 

 cian of IMontpellier; Hippolito Salviani, also a physi- 

 cian, and a native of Citta di Castello in Umbria ; 

 Conrad Gesner, surnamed the German Pliny, who 

 was born at Zurich, and followed the same profes- 

 sion ; Pierre Belon, a Frenchman ; and Aldrovandi, 

 professor at Bologna. In presenting a sketch of the 

 lives and labours of these venerable sages, we shall 

 begin with him whom Haller characterizes as a pro • 

 digy of knowledge, monstrum eruditionis. 



Conrad Gesner, one of the most celebrated of this 

 class of naturalists, was born at Zurich on the 26th 

 March 1516. His parents were of an humble rank 

 in life, and having several other children, could not 

 have given him the benefit of a good education, had 

 it not been for the kindness of his maternal uncle, 

 a clergyman, who imparted to him the rudiments 

 of knowledge, and instructed him in botany. This 

 relative, however, died while he was yet at an 

 early age ; and when not more than fifteen he was 

 also deprived of his father, who was killed at the 

 battle of Zug, in which the celebrated reformer 

 Zuinglius or Zwingle lost his life. The small pa- 

 trimony left by his parent having been divided 

 among a large family, Gesner was reduced to great 

 distress, which was heightened by a dropsical affec- 

 tion. Recovering from this disease, he resolved to 

 seek his fortune in another country, and going to 

 Strasburg, entered into the service of Wolfgang Fa- 

 bricius Capito, professor of Hebrew in the university 

 of that city. Soon after, receiving pecuniary assist- 



