HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY. 13 



vertebrates found consideration, since they stand next to man in 



structure. Thus there appeared in the same century with VesaFs 



> 

 Human Anatomy drawings of skeletons of vertebrates by the 



Nuremberg physician Goiter; the anatomical writings of Fabricius 

 ab Aquapendente, etc. 



Beginning of Zootomy. But later attention was turned also to 

 insects and molluscs, indeed even to the marine echinoderms, 

 ccelenterates, and Protozoa. Here, above all, three men who lived 

 at the end of the seventeenth century deserve mention, the Italian 

 Malpighi and the Dutchmen Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoek. 

 The former's " Dissertatio de bombyce" was the pioneer for insect 

 anatomy, since by the discovery of the vasa Malpighii, the heart, 

 the nervous system, the tracheae, etc., an extraordinary extension 

 of our knowledge was brought about. Of Swammerdam/s writings 

 attention should be called particularly to " The Bible of Nature," 

 a work to which no other of that time is comparable, since it con- 

 tains discoveries of great accuracy on the structure of bees, May- 

 . flies, snails, etc. Leeuwenhoek, finally, was a most fortunate 

 discoverer in the field of microscopic research, by him introduced 

 into science. Besides other things he studied especially the 

 minute inhabitants of the fresh waters, the ' infusion-animalcules/ 

 a more careful investigation of which has led to a complete reversal 

 of our conception of the essentials of animal organization. 



The Dawn of Independent Observation. The great service of 

 the men named above consists chiefly in that they broke away from 

 the thraldom of book-learning and, relying alone upon their own 

 eyes and their own judgment, regained what had been lost, the 

 blessing of independent and unbiassed observation. They spread 

 the interest in observation of nature over a wide circle so that in 

 the eighteenth century the number of independent natural-history 

 writings had increased enormously. There were busy with the 

 study of insect structure and development, de Geer in Sweden, 

 Reaumur in France, Lyonet in Belgium, Rosel von Rosenhof in 

 Germany; the latter besides wrote a monograph on the indigenous 

 batrachia, which is still worth reading. The investigation of the 

 infusoria formed a favorite occupation for the learned and the laity, 

 as Wrisberg, von Gleichen-Russwurm, Schaffer, Eichhorn, and 

 0. F. Miiller. In most of the writings the religious character of 

 the contemplations of nature are extraordinarily emphasized, and 

 since we find that among these writers numerous clergymen 

 (Eichhorn in Danzig, Goeze in Quedlinburg, Schaffer in Regens- 

 burg) attained distinction, we have a sign that a reconciliation 



