Lefevre — The Advance of Zoology in the Nineteenth Century. 73 



vance of zoology was not likely to make rapid strides. The 

 state of mental stagnation and perversion in regard to animal 

 life during this period is well indicated by the Physiologus or 

 Bestiarius, names given to a class of books of great popu- 

 larity during the Middle Ages which served as encyclopedias 

 of the zoology of the time and which fairly represent the 

 attitude of mind then existing toward animal life. The books 

 contain absurd and symbolical descriptions of about seventy 

 animals, many of which are creatures of fable, as, for example, 

 the dragon, the unicorn, and the phoenix; and the stories are 

 nearly all written for the purpose of illustrating some relig- 

 ious or moral teaching. Witness the following: *' The uni- 

 corn has but one horn in the middle of its forehead. It is 

 the only animal that ventures to attack the elephant ; and so 

 sharp is the nail of its foot, that with one blow it rips up the 

 belly of that most terrible of all beasts. The hunters can 

 catch the unicorn only by placing a young virgin in the 

 forest which it haunts. No sooner does this marvelous 

 animal descry the damsel, than it runs towards her, lies down 

 at her feet, and so suffers itself to be taken by the hunters. 

 The unicorn represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who, taking 

 our humanity upon him in the Virgin's womb, was betrayed 

 by the wicked Jews, and delivered into the hands of Pilate. 

 Its one horn signifies the gospel truth, that Christ is one with 

 the Father." 



After this legendary period, it was not until 1552 that the 

 darkness was broken by a ray of light, and interest in scientific 

 investigation awoke. In that year appeared the work of the 

 Englishman, Wotton, '*De Differentiis Animalium," which 

 was essentially a return to Aristotle and a rejection of the 

 absurdities of the Middle Ages. To Aristotle's classification 

 he added one other group, under the avatfia^ namely, the 

 Zoophyta, or ** plant animals," in which he included Holo- 

 thurians, Star-fishes, Medusae and Sponges. 



To about the same period belong the writings of Conrad 

 Gesner, Ulysses Aldrovandi of Bologna, and Johnstone, whose 

 works, however, are a more or less critical compilation of 

 stories, records and pictures of animals, representing the 

 knowledge of zoology of the time and gathered from the great 



