RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. XXix 



overwhelming prolixity of the performance. 

 The Baron characterizes it as an ill-digested 

 collection, and troublesome to consult. 



Of Johnston's performance we shall say no- 

 thing, but that it is a servile abridgment from 

 Gesner, Aldrovandus, Sec, without a particle of 

 new matter, but full of all the errors of his pre- 

 decessors. His book, however, published at Am- 

 sterdam in 1657, is no unfavourable specimen of 

 the engraving of those days ; but many of the 

 figures are incorrectly drawn, others fabulous. 



But we must not pass in silence such men as 

 Redi and Swammerdam, to whom entomology 

 is so much indebted, though we can only afford 

 to name them. Nor must we neglect our 

 countrymen Willoughby, and John Ray who 

 was the first naturalist from the time of Aris- 

 totle, who produced anything like a scientific 

 arrangement. His system we shall notice here- 

 after ; suffice it to say at present, that he proved 

 the principal guide to the labours of Linnaeus. 

 In the compositions of his friend and pupil 

 Willoughby, he is supposed, with just founda- 

 tion, to have had an ample share. The latter 

 wrote on Ornithology and Ichthyology. His 

 four books on the History of Fishes, were re- 

 vised, corrected, and augmented by Ray, and 

 published by the order and at the expense of 



Vol. I. e 



