INTRODUCTION. 
15 
as they go. Alexander, it is said, gave him nine hundred 
talents to collect materials, and put at his disposal several 
thousand men, for hunting specimens and procuring infor¬ 
mation. 
The Romans accomplished little in natural science, though 
their military expeditions furnished unrivalled opportuni¬ 
ties. Nearly three centuries and a half after Aristotle, Pliny 
(a.d. 23-79) wrote his “ Natural History.” He was a volu¬ 
minous compiler, not an observer : he added hardly one new 
fact. He states that his work was extracted from over two 
thousand volumes, most of which are now lost. 
During the Middle Ages, Natural History was studied in 
the books of the ancients; and at the close of the fifteenth 
century it was found where Pliny had left it, with the addi¬ 
tion of many vague hypotheses and silly fancies. Albertus 
Magnus, of the thirteenth century, and Conrad Gesner and 
Aldrovandus, of the sixteenth, were voluminous writers, not 
naturalists. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, men 
began to observe nature for themselves. The earliest note¬ 
worthy researches were made on Fishes, by Rondelet (1507- 
1556) and Belon (1517-1564), of France, and Salviani (1514- 
1572), of Italy. They were followed by valuable observa¬ 
tions upon Insects, by Redi (1626-1698), of Italy, and Swam¬ 
merdam (1637-1680), of Holland ; and towards the end of 
the same century, the Dutch naturalist, Leeuwenhoeck 
(1632-1723), opened a new world of life by the use of the 
microscope. 
But there was no real advance of Systematic Zoology till 
the advent of the illustrious John Ray (1628-1705), of Eng¬ 
land. His “ Synopsis,” published in 1693, contained the first 
attempt to classify animals according to structure. Ray was 
the forerunner of “the immortal Swede,” Linnaeus (1707- 
1778), “the great framer of precise and definite ideas of 
natural objects, and terse teacher of the briefest and clearest 
expressions of their differences.” His chief merit was in de¬ 
fining generic groups, and inventing specific names. 3 Scarce¬ 
ly less important, however, was the impulse which he gave 
to the pursuit of Natural History. The spirit of inquiry, 
which his genius infused among the great, produced voyages 
of research, which led to the formation of national museums. 
