XXV1U PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE 



He atones for the necessary vices of his alpha- 

 betical classification, by a secondary method, 

 which consists in giving in succession the ancient 

 and modern names, the form, the habitat, the 

 anatomical peculiarities, the uses, the habits, 

 and finally, the mythological history of each 

 fish described. In his History of Birds similarly 

 arranged, there is also much erudition displayed, 

 and many excellent remarks upon those species 

 peculiar to the Cantons of Switzerland. We 

 may mention now, by the way, that a work on 

 Insects published by Dr. MoufFet, an English 

 physician in 1634, was the joint production of 

 Gesner and other great Naturalists of note, at 

 that period. 



Aldrovandus may be considered, as probably 

 the most laborious compiler that ever existed. 

 After the protracted labour of sixty years, he 

 left behind him fourteen folio volumes on Na- 

 tural History. As most of these were published 

 by his successors, we may consider him, though 

 born in 1525, as appertaining rather to the 

 seventeenth than to the sixteenth century. 

 Buffon speaks in terms of praise of this compila- 

 tion of Aldrovandus, as to the quality of ma- 

 terials, the plan, the divisions, and the painful 

 exactness of the descriptions. He grants, how- 

 ever, the great admixture of fable, and the 



