248 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science, 



tures over the body of a pig. He afterwards devoted himself 

 to anatomy, and became very celebrated. In France the same 

 prejudices existed, and Gonthier, in whose school Vesahus, Eus- 

 tachius, Fallopius, — and probably Michael Servetus of famous 

 memory, the original discoverer of the circulation of the blood, 

 and the victim of the brutal bigotry of the Calvinists — studied, 

 taught the elements of the science, principally by dissection 

 of the lower animals. But the successful individuals in animal 

 anatomy, were Rondelet of Montpelier, and Belon of Mans. The 

 first had studied with Gonthier. He published at Lyons, in 1554, 

 a natural history of fishes in eighteen books, in which both the 

 zoological and zootomical characters of these animals are given. 

 In this book, written in the infancy of zoology, he includes all 

 the inhabitants of the waters, whether fish, cetacea and amphi- 

 bious mammalia, chelonia, (turtles,) moUusca or Crustacea ; whilst 

 at the same time he draws a line between those which breathe 

 by gills, and those which breathe by lungs. This work is dis- 

 tinguished for the detail, as well as the ability with which he pur- 

 sues his physiological inquiries. — This great animal anatomist 

 died in 1566. 



His cotemporary Belon of Mans, also wrote a natural history, 

 "des Estranges Poissons Marins," distinguished for the minuteness 

 of his anatomical and physiological observations. But his work 

 " L'Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux," published at Paris in 

 1555, illustrated with spirited wood cuts, is exceedingly curious, 

 and replete with observations of a truly original character, for 

 ornithological anatomy became for the first time a science in his 

 hands. He was a great enthusiast, and had travelled in Greece, 

 Arabia, India, and Egypt, devoting himself to natural history. 

 In his quaint manner, he says,* " No animal ever fell into my 

 hands, that I did not dissect it, as soon as it was in my power. 

 Whence it came that I have examined the internal parts of two 

 hundred different species of birds. It is not strange, therefore, 

 if I am able to describe the bones of birds, and to figure them so 

 accurately." 



* " One ne tumba animal entre nos mains, veu qu'il fut en notre puissance, duquel 

 n'ayons fait anatomic. Dequoy est advenu qu'ayons regarde les intericures parties de 

 deux cents diverses especes d'oyseaux. L'on ne doit done trouver estrange si nous des 

 crivons maintenant les os des oyseaux, etles portray ons si exactment." — L'Histoire de 

 la Nature des Oyseaux. A Paris 1555. Liv. 1. chap. xii. 



