Gardner : Rise of the Literature of Entomology, 19 



medical writers who rank certain insects among their Materia 

 Medica, or on the other hand give receipts for the cure of the baneful 

 effects caused by bites and stings ; others, again, are names of well- 

 known classical authors — Greek and Latin — who draw similies from 

 insects and their economy. But of a great number I can find no ' 

 mention, and I suppose we may conclude that they were possibly only 

 M.SS. which have since perished with the names of their authors also. 



I must now digress a little to follow the vicissitudes of Conrad 

 Gesner's papers on Entomology. I mentioned them above as having 

 been purchased at his death by Joachim Kamerarius, and afterwards 

 falling into the hands of Dr. Wotton, who sent them to a publisher 

 in London named Thomas Penn, also a great student of Nature, and 

 an observer of insects in particular. For some reason or other Penn 

 did not fulfil his commission, and at his death these poor knocked- 

 about papers fell into the hands of Dr. Muffet, who purchased them 

 along with some other M.SS. by Dr. Wotton and T. Penn, to incor- 

 porate with his " Theatrum." We thus see that Thomas Muffet's 

 book contains the writings of Gesner, Wotton, and Penn, which he 

 weaves together into a tangible form, adding and correcting from the 

 authors whose names he enumerates at the commencement of his 

 work ; in addition to these, his own observations and those of certain 

 entomological friends he seems to have had, form no small part of the 

 contents. Soon after completing his book Dr. Muffet seems to have 

 died, leaving it in M.S., in which state it lay for many years almost 

 forgotten. 



Meanwhile, while Muffet had been writing his book, and after his 

 death, numerous other works were published containing more or less 

 brief accounts of insects. These may be divided in the same manner 

 as before, to guide us in our search. In the first class — books on 

 medicine — we find insects mentioned by Bauhin, who in 1598 

 published a " History of the wonderful Medicinal Spring in the 

 Duchy of Wirtemburg, with many Figures of various Insects found 

 in the Xeighbourhood." (^^j This Bauhin obtained his greatest fame 

 as a botanist ; he and his brother are said to have labored for forty 

 years for the advancement of that science. In the same class of 

 books insects are casually treated of by Laurent. Catelan, a chemist 



(17) Historia admirabilis fontis Bollensis, in ducato "Wirtenburgico,, cum pltirimis 

 figuris -variorum Insectarum quae in et circa lianc fontern reperiimtur ; in 4to, 

 Blontisbeligardi, 1598 ; in German, in 4to, Stutgarten, 1602. He also mentions 

 iiLsectsin De aquis medicatLs nova methodus, in 4to, Mont., 1605-7-12; and a book 

 witk no other title tlian "Vivitur Ingenio caetera mortis eiant treats of insects 

 and i>lants. 



