The Work of Sivammerdain . 47 



full of errors. A little later, Columella, though usually 

 careful and accurate in his observations, still gave voice to 

 the prevailing errors, though much that he wrote was val- 

 uable and more was curious. As Mr. Langstroth once 

 said to me. Columella wrote as one who had handled the 

 things of which he wrote; and not like Virgil, as one 

 who was dealing with second hand wares. Pliny the 

 elder, who wrote in the second century, A. D., helped to 

 continue the erroneous opinions which previous authors 

 had given, and not content with this, he added opinions of 

 his own, \vhich were not only without foundation but were 

 often the perfection of absurdity. 



After this, nearly two thousand years passed with no 

 progress in natural histoi'v; even for two centuries after 

 the revival of learning, we find nothing worthy of note. 

 Swammerdam, a Dutch entomologist, in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, wrote a general history of insects; 

 also, " The Natural History of Bees." He and his Eng- 

 lish contemporary, Ray, showed their ability as naturalists 

 by founding their systems on the insect transformations. 

 They also revived the study and practice of anatomy, 

 which had slept since its first introduction by Aristotle, as 

 the great stepping-stone in zoological progress. I never 

 open the grand work of Swammerdam, with its admirable 

 illustrations, without feelings of the most profound respect 

 and admiration. Though a very pioneer in anatomy, and 

 one of the founders of Natural Science, and possessed of 

 lenses of very inferior quality, yet he wrote with an accu- 

 racy and illustrated even minute tissues with a correctness 

 and elegance that might well put to the bhuh many a mod- 

 ern writer. 



Ray also gave special attention to Hymenoplera, and 

 was much aided by Willoughby and Lister. At this time 

 Harvey, so justly noted for his discovery of the circulation 

 of the blood, announced his celebrated dictum, " Omnia ex 

 ovo " — all life from eggs — which was completely estab- 

 lished by the noted Italians, Redi and Malpighi. Toward 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, the great Linnaeus 

 — " the brilliant Star of the North " — published his " Sys- 

 tema Naturse," and threw a flood of light on the whole 



