60 THE bbe-kebper's gdidb ; 



spcct 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 accuracy, 

 and illustrated even minute tissues with a correctness and 

 elegance that might well put to the blush many a modern 

 writer. His description of the bee's tongue is more accurate 

 than that even of the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica. 



Ray also gave special attention to Hymenoptera, and was 

 much aided by Willoughby and L<ister. 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 established by the noted 

 Italians, Redi and Malpighi. Toward the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, the great Lfinnseus — " the brilliant Star of 

 the North " — published his " Systema Nature," and threw a 

 flood of light on the whole subject of natural history. His 

 division of insects was founded upon presence, or absence, and 

 characteristics, of wings. This, like Swammerdam's basis, was 

 too narrow, yet his conclusions were remarkably correct. 

 Lfinnaeus is noted for his accurate descriptions, and especially 

 for his gift of the binomial method of naming plants and 

 animals, giving in the name the genus and species, as Apis 

 mellifera, which he was first to describe. He was also the 

 first to introduce classes and orders, as we now understand 

 them. When we consider the amount and character of the 

 work of the great Swede, we can but place him among the first, 

 if not as the first, of naturalists. Contemporary with lyin- 

 nKus (also written Linne) was Geofi^roy, who did valuable 

 work in defining new genera. In the last half of the century 

 appeared the great work of a master in entomology, DeGeer, 

 who based his arrangement of insects on the character of wings 

 and jaws, and thus discovered another of Nature's keys to aid 

 him in unlocking her mysteries. Kirby well says, " He united 

 in himself the highest merit of an anatomist, a physiologist 

 and as the observant historian of the habits and economy 

 of insects, he is above all praise. What a spring of self-im- 

 provement, enjoyment and public usefulness, is such an ability 

 to observe as was possessed by the great DeGeer. 



Contemporary with Linnaeus and DeGeer was Reaumur, of 



