276 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



acquainted with several foreign languages, in- 

 cluding Spanish and German, and was interested 

 in hieroglyphics. He studied medicine in 1645 at 

 Padua, and there acquired those " rare tables of 

 veins and nerves " which he afterwards gave to 

 the Royal Society ; attended Lefevre's course 

 of chemistry at Paris in 1647 ; was skilled in 

 more than one musical instrument, learned dancing 

 and, above all, devoted himself to horticulture. 



When travelling abroad, he made a point of 

 visiting the " cabinets " of collectors, for, at that 

 time, public museums, which, in fact, grew out 

 of these cabinets, were non-existent. The follow- 

 ing quotation records the sort of curiosities at 

 which men marvelled in the year 1645 : 



i 



" Feb. qkh. We were invited to the collection 



of exotic rarities in the museum of Ferdinando 

 Imperati, a Neapolitan nobleman, and one of the 

 most observable palaces in the citty, the re- 

 pository of incomparable rarities. Amongst the 

 naturall herbals most remarkable was the Byssus 

 marina and Pinna marina ; the male and female 

 cameleon ; an Onacratulus ; an extraordinary 

 greate crocodile; some of the Orcades Anates, 

 held here for a great rarity ; likewise a salamander ; 



