Divisions. illustrious Society. Now as almost every man of science in the British empire, who has flourished since the original establishment of this Society, has been enrolled among its Fellows, our work will contain in fact a history of the progress of the sciences in Great Britain during the last 150 years. By comparing this progress with the present state of each science, we shall discover at a glance what portion of each originated in Britain, and what portion on the Continent. This comparative view cannot but be highly gratifying to a British reader. We are far from wishing to depreciate the merits of the illustrious philosophers on the Continent: they have been numerous and highly respectable. But owing no doubt to the superior advantages attending a free government, a much greater number of discoveries than ought to have fallen to our share, if we attend only to the comparative population of the different countries, have originated in Britain. All the subjects treated of in the Philosophical Transactions may be arranged under the five following divisions. I. NATURAL HISTORY. II. MATHEMATICS. III. MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY. IV. CHEMISTRY. V. MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. We shall consider each of these divisions in succession in the five following books; taking the liberty of passing over some of the subjects more slightly than others; either when they occupy only an inferior department in the Philosophical Transactions, or when they are of such a nature as not to be well susceptible of compression and generalization. BOOK I. OF NATURAL HISTORY. NATURAL History, as far at least as it constitutes a department in the 1 Botany. 3 Mineralogy. 2 Zoology. 4 Geography and Topography. These will occupy our attention successively in the four following Chapters CHAP. I. OF BOTANY. Botany. BOTANY, or that part of Natural History which treats of plants, is one of the most delightful branches of human knowledge, and has always commanded a very numerous body of enthusiastic cultivators, ever since it assumed the form of a science. If we take it in its most extensive signification, it consists, in reality, of three distinct parts, which have been usually cultivated by different individuals. To the first part belongs the collection of plants, their description, Division of and their artificial arrangement into a system in such a manner that every species may be sufficiently distinguished from all the others, and that it may be in the power of every person who understands, and is in the possession of the system, to discover by means of it the name of every plant with which he may happen to meet. This first part of botany is an essential preliminary to the other two; for it is obvious that no communication whatever can be handed down respecting plants, till we are in possession of the means of discovering the plants, concerning which the writer treats. The second branch of botany may be called the anatomy and physiology of plants. It is exceedingly curious and important. It originated in Britain, and indeed took its rise from the Royal Society; and almost all the additions to it, even to our own times, have been made by the Members of that illustrious body. The third branch of botany relates to the agriculture and economical uses of plants. D Origin of We shall take a general view of these three departments of botany, as far as the labours of the Royal Society are connected with them in the three following sections. SECT. I.-Of the Description and Arrangement of Plants. It is to this branch of the science that the term Botany, in common language, is confined. It has always been considered as highly interesting, and has been followed by numerous and enthusiastic cultivators. It must be considered as entirely modern. The ancients, indeed, have left us descriptions, though they are imperfect ones, of many plants; but no systematic arrangement seems ever to have been attempted or conceived by them. Hence the obscurity and uncertainty which overhang all that they have left us on the subject. The Greek and Roman writers, who treat professedly of plants, unless Aristotle be included, (and the botanical works ascribed to him are unquestionably spurious,) are only three; namely, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus. Pliny. Theophrastus, a native of Lesbos, the disciple and successor of Aristotle, born about 370 years before the Christian era, was one of the most celebrated of all the ancients. He wrote two treatises on plants, both of which have come down to us almost entire. The first, entitled History of Plants; the second, On the Causes of Plants. In these works he mentions and even endeavours to describe about 500 species. But his descriptions are so imperfect, and his allusions so doubtful, that, in spite of the unwearied exertions of his commentators, many of the species to which he alludes remain ambiguous.* As a commencement of the study, however, the books have their value, and certainly deserve to be examined as literary curiosities. Dioscorides. Pliny. Dioscorides, a Greek writer, who published a work on Materia Medica, lived, there is every reason to believe, during the reign of Nero. Though he was rather a collector of receipts than a botanist, he was long considered, it is difficult to conceive for what reason, as the prince of botanical writers. Every thing of any value respecting plants was supposed to exist in his works, and therefore indefatigable pains were bestowed by modern commentators, in order to determine the species to which he alludes. But these labours have, if possible, been attended with less success than those bestowed upon his predecessor, Theophrastus.† Pliny, the elder, may be considered as almost the only naturalist who * Sprengel has bestowed uncommon pains in ascertaining the plants mentioned by Theophrastus. In his Historia Rei Herbarice, Tom. I. p. 71, he has given a table of no fewer than 355 species, with their Linnæan names. + Sprengel, in his Hist. Rei Herbariæ, Tom. I. p. 156, has given a very copious list of the plants mentioned by Dioscorides, with their Linnæan names. appeared among the Romans. He lived during the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, and fell a sacrifice to his curiosity during an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in the 56th year of his age and the 79th of the Christian era. His Natural History is one of the most interesting monuments which antiquity has left us. It was compiled, as he himself informs us, from the works of 2500 preceding writers, and includes every branch of natural knowledge with which the ancients were acquainted. His work is divided into 37 books, and 16 of these are devoted to plants. He mentions above 600 species; but in many places is far from accurate, often translating from Theophrastus and Dioscorides, without understanding the correct meaning of these authors, as has been sufficiently proved by Hermolaus Barbarus, Nicolaus Leonicenus, and some others of his early commentators. Like his predecessors, he treats of those plants only which were employed in medicine, or applied to the various purposes of domestic œconomy. * The Arabians added but little to the botanical knowledge which they derived Arabians. from the Greeks. That nation in fact was never more than half civilized, and their learned men were nearly destitute of invention, and leaned entirely on the Grecian improvements, which they contented themselves with translating and transfusing into their own language. No progress in botany can be expected during the dark ages of Europe. The cultivation of the sciences was first revived in Italy, where knowledge began to be valued in consequence of the commerce of the different states and the enlightened patronage of the Italian princes. The cultivation of the Greek language was encouraged, and the classic stores of the ancients investigated with The first step towards the revival of botany, was to study the works of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, and to determine, as far as possible, the plants which these writers describe. These endeavours produced a whole herd of commentators and translators, who acquired a splendid reputation Commentaduring the 16th century. But it was soon found that without an examination care. * Sprengel has given the Linnæan names of a great number of the plants mentioned by Pliny. Hist. Rei Herb. Tom. I. p. 200. + Some of the most distinguished of these, were 1. Georgius Valla, a native of Placentia. He published, in 1501, an epitome of all the Greek writers on medicine and materia medica. 2. Hermolaus Barbarus, a noble Venetian, who died in 1493. He published, in 1492, a corrected edition of Pliny. The performance was too hasty; yet he corrected many of Pliny's errors, though he overlooked the most weighty. 3. Marcellus Vergilius, a Florentine. He was the first that undertook to correct Dioscorides. He published a corrected edition of that writer with a commentary, at Florence, in 1518. 4. Nicolaus Leonicenus, a Venetian of prodigious learning. He was long a professor at Ferrara, and lived till he was above 100. He elucidated the works of Serapion and Pliny. 5. Joannes Manardes, of Ferrara. He was born in 1462, and died in 1536. He illustrated the works of Mesues, and corrected Marcellus Vergilius's edition of Dioscorides. tors. Gesner. Casalpinus. of the plants themselves, it would be vain to expect to make out the descriptions of the ancients. This consideration induced various medical men to make collections of the plants which grew in the countries where they resided, and to publish catalogues containing the result of their labours. This soon informed botanists that every thing respecting plants was not contained in the writings. of the ancients; that, in truth, the ancients had attempted to describe, or enumerate, only a very small number of plants, while the great body had escaped their attention.* But these publications, though they tended to increase the knowledge of plants, were far from being entitled to the name of scientific. They were mere catalogues, without any attempt at arrangement. The real founder of botany, as a science, was Conrad Gesner, who was born at Zurich, in Switzerland, in 1516. He was destined for the church; but marrying at an early age, he was reduced to the most abject poverty, and obliged to turn himself to the study of medicine. He afterwards practised in his native city, and died of the plague in 1565, in the 49th year of his age. He first suggested the idea of a methodical arrangement of plants, according to classes, orders, genera, and species: an idea which all true botanists have followed ever since, and to which the very existence of botany, as a science, is to be ascribed. He pitched upon the fruit as the part of the plant from which the characters were to be drawn. Andrew Casalpinus, born at Arezzo, in the district of Florence, in 1519, attempted an arrangement of plants, founded also upon the fruit. His knowledge of plants was too limited to enable him to accomplish his plan with success. But his descriptions are excellent, and the new views which he suggested were of the highest importance. The number of botanical writers, who had by this time appeared in various parts of Europe, was so great, and the names applied to the same plants so numerous and discordant, that the subject was thrown into the greatest confusion; and, unless some person had arisen willing to undertake the herculean labour of arranging the chaotic mass, the science itself was in danger of * The first publishers of botanical catalogues, were 1. Symphorianus Can pegius, of Lyons, physician to the Duke of Lorrain. He published an account of various French plants in 1538. 2. Otho Brunfels, a physician, in Bern, who died in 1534. He delineated the plants of his country in wood. His Herbarium was published in 1537. 3. Hieronimus Tragus, the Friend of Brunfels, born in 1498, died in 1554. His book on the history of plants was published by Conrad Gesner, in 1532. 4. Leon Fuchsius, a physician, at Ingolstadt, born in 1501, died in 1565. He published a history of plants 5. Antonius Musa Brasavolus, a Venetian. He published at Lyons, in 1537, an excellent book, entitled Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum. |