136 Notice of British Naturalists. 



Art. XIY. — Some Notice of British Naturalists; by Rev. 

 Charles Fox, Cor. Mem. of the N. Y. Lye. of Nat. Hist. 



Continued from Vol. xxxvi, No. 2, p. 230. 



Ray had two contemporaries whose names are still remembered 

 with respect. To the first we owe the origin of British Con- 

 chology. 



Martin Lister was descended from an old and respectable 

 Yorkshire family ; but his parents, having removed from their 

 own county, had settled in Buckinghamshire, where he was born 

 in 1638. His earlier education was superintended by his uncle, 

 Sir Matthew Lister, Physician to King Charles I, and President 

 of the Royal College of Physicans in London. At the usual age 

 he entered the University ; and in 1658, being then but 20 years 

 of age, he took his degree at St. John's College, Cambridge. Like 

 Ray he appears to have distinguished himself here by his abili- 

 ties and his classical attainments ; and two years after, he was 

 created by the royal mandate, a fellow of his College. The pro- 

 fession which he now chose to pursue was that of medicine ; and 

 having traveled for some time upon the continent, in order to per- 

 fect himself, as was then usual for persons of his education, about 

 five years after he had become a fellow, he settled at York to 

 practice as a physician. Whether he had heretofore, paid any at- 

 tention to the study of Natural Historjr, further than his profession 

 required, does not appear; but it was not till 1671 that he first 

 became an acknowledged writer upon the subject. The only 

 periodical work of importance, the pages of which were at this 

 time open to accounts of miscellaneous scientific discoveries, 

 was- the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Lon- 

 don. In this work we find Lister's first paper, — " Ohservatiojis 

 on an acid liquor ohtainedj from ants and 'perha'ps other insects." 

 After having thus once began, he was a frequent contributor ; and 

 he appears to have been not only an acute observer, but likewise 

 a careful collector of miscellaneous facts on a variety of subjects. 

 His papers in the Philosophical Transactions amount, in the 

 whole, to about forty ; several of which are upon antiquities, and 

 one or two upon the anatomy of Testacea. But his principal 

 works, and those upon which his fame and usefulness as an au- 

 thor chiefly rest, are — I. Hisioria Animaliunh Aiiglia, tres 



