268 AN INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY 



animals. They reveal a remarkable familiarity with the facts of 

 comparative anatomy, physiology, and embryology. Aristotle's 

 ideas later furnished the starting point for the founding of our 

 modern systems of classification and theories of evolution, but 

 his greatest contributions to zoology were the methods of work 

 which he introduced. He was a critical compiler, and, from the 

 fabric of scattered facts and fancies which existed at his time, 

 produced a compact and fairly accurate account of animals. He 

 was not content, however, to accept old statements, but verified 

 everything by careful examinations of the animals themselves, 

 and added many new facts. 



2. THE ROMAN PERIOD 



Pliny (23-79 A - D l d an active public life under the Roman 

 Empire as a naval commander. His writings consist of thirty- 

 seven volumes, which had a great influence on the ideas of natu- 

 ralists during succeeding centuries. Unfortunately, they are not 

 critical, combining fact, fable, and fancy in accounts of dragons, 

 gorgons, and other imaginary monsters. As a whole, Pliny's 

 influence was detrimental to zoological progress, and helped 

 inaugurate an era of superstition. 



Claudius Galen (130-200 A.D.) was a Greek physician who 

 practiced for a time in Rome. He was the greatest anatomist of 

 antiquity, and his writings remained the best on the subject until 

 the sixteenth century. These works were the results of his own 

 careful studies and dissections of the higher animals, and his 

 descriptions were remarkably clear and forceful. 



3. MIDDLE AGES 



The Middle Ages are a blank, so far as zoological progress is 

 concerned. Superstition was rampant, and the belief in various 

 fabled animals was prevalent. All zoological questions were 

 referred to the ancient authorities, and original investigation was 

 at a standstill. In one controversy a series of papers was pub- 



