HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY, 435 
duction. Lister by his various writings elucidated many 
points relating to insects; and he may be regarded as the 
first modern who observed that spiders can sail in the 
air. But the most important of his works, and that on 
which his fame as an Entomologist is principally founded, 
is his admirable treatise De Araneis ; in which his sy- 
stematic arrangement of these animals leaves far behind 
all former attempts, and rivals that of the best modern 
Arachnologists. His specific descriptions are drawn 
with a precision till then unknown; and each is headed 
by a short definition of the species, which he calls the 
Trtulus, synonymous with the Nomen specificum of Linné, 
whose canon of twelve words it rarely exceeds. 
One of the most important events of this era was the 
complete exposure and refutation of the absurd doctrine 
of equivocal generation, which had maintained its ground 
in the schools of philosophy from the time of Aristotle. 
Our own immortal Harvey was the first who dared to con- 
trovert this irrational theory: and his dictum—Omnia ex 
ovo—was copiously discussed and completely established 
by two of the ablest physiologists that Italy has produced, 
Redi and Malpighi. 
Previously to the publication of the Historia Insecto- 
rum, no other works of eminence, with the exception of 
Madam Merian’s beautiful illustration of the metamor- 
phosis of the insects of Surinam, made their appearance: 
but in the interval of twenty-five years, which elapsed 
between the publication of that work and of Linné’s 
first outline of his Systema Nature, Entomologists became 
more numerous and active. In England the pious and 
learned author of the Physico and Astro-Theology was 
celebrated for the assiduity with which he studied in- 
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