FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 
125 
fishes, and insects, which he had digested into a 
method of his own contriving, yet also leaving 
few of their descriptions and histories so full and 
perfect as he intended them.” Mr Willughby is 
known to have considered llelon as the best 
writer on ichthyology whose works were extant 
in his day. Their systems are said to have some 
resemblance, but not to the extent of depriving 
Mr Willughby’s of a claim to invention. 
The following years of Mr Ray’s life were 
occupied in the publication, at different intervals, 
of several excellent works, none of which, 
however, were in any way connected with Mr 
Willughby. 
In the last year of his life he resolved to com- 
plete Mr Willughby’s History of Insects. In a 
letter to Dr Derham, who had just been to visit 
him, dated August 16, 1704, he writes, “ It .is 
high time that I give you thanks for the kind 
visit you made me here, and those rare insects 
you were pleased to communicate. I am now 
entering on a History of Insects, &c. The main 
reason which induces me to undertake it is, be- 
cause I have Mr Willughby’s history and papers 
in my hands, who had spent a great deal of time, 
and bestowed much pains upon this subject, when 
there were few that minded or were diligent 
about it, though now there are many 5 and it is a 
pity his pains should be lost.” 
In the last letter * Mr Ray wrote to Dr Derham, 
Philosophical Letters, p. 342. 
