236 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 

 writers for its learning and for the elegance of 

 its language. 



Dr. Caius (1510-1573) in his terse style wrote 

 " De Canibus Britannicis libellus," 1570, and 

 this was " drawne into Englishe " under the 

 name " Of Englishe Dogges " by Abraham Fleming 

 in 1576 and published in London. Caius wrote 

 his little book as a contribution to Conrad 

 Gesner's " History of Animals/' but owing to 

 Gesner's death it was not incorporated in that 

 work. 



From the sixth year of Henry the Eighth until 

 the death of Queen Elizabeth all the learned men 

 of Europe who were interested in nature turned 

 to Gesner, the incomparable naturalist of Zurich 

 (1516-1565). Born of humble parents, he learned 

 and taught and wrote with untiring perseverance 

 and energy until he became the most erudite and 

 the best known man of learning of his day. Quite 

 apart from his acquirements in what we now 

 regard as science, he was a most remarkable 

 linguist and bibliographer. In 1537 he held the 

 Professorship of Greek at Lausanne, and in his 

 " Mithridates " he made one of the earlier at- 

 tempts at comparative philology, considering all 

 language from the Ethiopic to the Gypsy. In 



