RONDELET 45 



naming all tlie principal bones, and thus indicating 

 their homologies. This is an early and interesting 

 example of that comparative method which has since 

 proved so fertile. 



Belon was much interested in the enrichment of 

 French gardens by new exotic species, and is said to 

 have introduced the cedar of Lebanon into western 

 Europe. 



GUILLAUME EONDELET 



1507-1566 



Libri de Pisoibus Marinis. Fol. Lugd. 1554. 



Universse aquatilium Historise pars altera. Fol. Lugd. 1555. 



E.ondelet was professor of anatomy at Montpellier, 

 then a provincial capital, famous for its medical school. 

 It is only seven miles from the Mediterranean, whose 

 coasts are full in view from the celebrated Promenade 

 de Peyrou. In Rondelet's day the sea-fisheries were 

 important, and offered good opportunities to an anatomist 

 who sought to enlarge biological knowledge. His repu- 

 tation as a naturalist attracted many students to Mont- 

 pellier ; among the number were Dalechamps, Clusius, 

 John Bauhin and L'Obel — a list of great distinction, 

 which might easily be enlarged. 



With Rondelet, as with other writers of his day, fishes 

 include aquatic animals of every kind. In his own 

 mind he distinguished, as Aristotle had done long before, 

 the blood-holding (vertebrate) fishes from the bloodless 

 (invertebrate), but by treating all together in his anato- 

 mical account, he rendered most of his generalisations 

 unserviceable. Copious extracts from ancient writers 

 weary the reader, and show how imperfectly Rondelet 

 foresaw that his own observations were to lay the 



