112 GUILLAUME RONDELET. 



mals, including tlie cetacea, turtles and seals, the 

 mollusca, and the Crustacea. In the second part, 

 shells, insects, zoophytes, and fresh-water fishes, are 

 described. These objects, although not methodi- 

 cally arranged, are often placed in such a manner 

 as to indicate that the author had some idea of 

 generic affinity. The anatomical details which he 

 presents are pronounced by Cuvier to be frequently 

 correct; but his descriptions, it must be granted, 

 are inferior to the figures, which are truly surprising 

 for the period at which he lived. In reference to 

 the fishes of the Mediterranean this work is indis- 

 pensable, and, indeed, to the ichthyologist generally 

 it is one of the most important that exists. The 

 descriptions and figures have been copied by Gesner, 

 in his work De Aquatilibus ; while Ray, Artedi, 

 and Linnaeus, have obviously profited by them. 



Rondelet, the son of an apothecary, was born at 

 Montpellier on the 27th September 1507. Being 

 originally of a very infirm constitution, he was 

 judged incapable of performing a part in active life, 

 and, accordingly, when his father's fortune was dis- 

 tributed, he received a sum merely sufficient to pro- 

 cure his admittance into a convent. As he grew up, 

 however, he improved in strength, and having no af- 

 fection for a monastic life, he commenced his studies 

 at the age of eighteen, and finished his general edu- 

 cation at Paris, where he was supported by his elder 

 brother. Having resolved to embrace the medical 

 profession, he returned in 1521) to his native city, 

 and afterwards settling at Pertuis, a small village in 

 Provence, he began to practise ; but not meeting with 

 success in the healing art, he endeavoured to procure 

 subsistence by setting up a grammar-school. This 



