Aristotle, the tutor of Alexander the Great, and one of the most eminent philosophers that Greece ever produced. Alexander was at considerable expense in procuring animals for his examination. Aristotle's history of animals is divided into nine books, and consists chiefly of generals. He treats, in the first place, of the anatomy of animals; then, of their generation at great length; and maintains a doctrine which, in consequence of his authority, long continued prevalent in the schools, we mean the doctrine of equivocal generation. The last part of his work is occupied with the dispositions of animals. Ile notices many curious particulars, which were copied by Elian, Gesner, and Aldrovandus; and, from these authors, made their way into the writings of Buffon; who has, in consequence, gained credit for many original observations, which do not belong to him. Aristotle divides animals into viviparous and oviparous. The first division comprehends quadrupeds; the second, birds, fishes, and insects. Every body now knows that this division is defective, for some quadrupeds, (lizards for example,) are oviparous, while there are various fishes and insects that are viviparous. Pliny, in his Natural History, has not neglected animals. He has devoted Pliny four books to the consideration of them. The 8th book of his work treats of land animals, or quadrupeds; the 9th, of fishes; the 10th, of birds; and the 11th, of insects. He has less arrangement than Aristotle; and his zoology must be admitted to be inferior to that of the Grecian philosopher. Indeed, it is a mere sketch; but a sketch executed by the hand of a master. Ælian, a Greek writer, of the second century of the Christian era, published Ælian a work on animals, in 17 books. An edition of this book, in two quarto volumes, was edited by Gronovius, and published in London, in 1744. It contains little or no original matter, and is, in every respect, except in bulk, inferior to the writings of his predecessors. These are the only ancient writers, deserving of notice, who wrote upon zoology. The science, for many ages, slumbered in oblivion, and can scarcely be said to have drawn the attention of mankind for a moment, before the auspicious period of the revival of letters. Soon after this period two very laborious writers on zoology appeared, namely, Aldrovandus and Gesner. Ulysses Aldrovandus was an Italian, and published his zoology at a very ad- Aldrovandus. vanced age. It consists of six very thick folios. He treats, first, of quadrupeds, then of birds, fishes, whales, insects, and serpents. He has given wooden figures of many of the animals which he describes; and several of them are tolerably exact representations. The book is an immense mass of erudition, ill-digested, and introduced without discrimination; and contains a prodigious quantity of matter totally unconnected with the subjects of which he treats. Gesner, like Aldrovandus, arranged his voluminous history according to the Aristotelian method. Johnston. Willughby. He Johnston, a Dutch zoologist, published his work on zoology, in 1657. can be considered in no other light than as a copyist of Gesner and Aldrovandus; but as he left out the extraneous matter with which these authors are loaded, he, in point of fact, considerably improved the subject. Such nearly was the state of zoology, when the Royal Society was constituted; for it would be tedious to enumerate all the writers who attempted, with various success, to illustrate particular branches of this extensive subject. The Aristotelian arrangement had not been altered; but a great improvement had been introduced, by enumerating and describing every particular animal, and by giving figures of them, which contributed materially to remove doubt and ambiguity. Soon after the establishment of the Royal Society, a new and more brilliant ara in the science of zoology commenced. This was owing chiefly, if not entirely, to the exertions of two illustrious Fellows of the Society, Willughby and Ray; and to the generous liberality of the Society, and some of the most eminent Members, who agreed to defray the expense of the publication of Willughby's works. Francis Willughby, Esq., was a gentleman of Warwickshire, born in 1634, and the intimate friend, companion, and patron of Mr. Ray, with whom he had contracted an acquaintance at Cambridge; an acquaintance soon warmed into friendship by the congeniality of their tastes and their pursuits. With Mr. Ray, he made repeated journies through the different counties of England, in order to become acquainted with its plants and animals; and with Mr. Ray, Mr. Shippon, and Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, he made a three years' tour on the continent, with the same objects in view. He had made extraordinary collections of birds and fishes, and in these he had been greatly assisted by Mr. Ray. But, before he had time to complete his arrangements, far less to commit the result of his labours to the press, he was snatched away by a sudden death, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. He left to Mr. Ray the charge of educating his two infant sons, with an annuity of 70 pounds; which constituted, ever after, the chief part of Mr. Ray's income. In the year 1676, Mr. Ray published the Ornithology of his friend; to which he himself had given arrangement, and which he had enriched with many valuable materials drawn from his own stores. It was published under the following title: ORNITHOLOGIE LIBRI TRES: in quibus Aves omnes hactenus cognitæ in Methodum Naturis suis convenientem redacta accuratè describuntur. Iconibus elegantissimis et vivarum Avium simillimis Eri incisis illustrantur. Totum Opus recognovit, digessit, supplevit Johanes Raius. Mr. Ray translated this book into English, and published it two years after with large additions. The figures were engraved at the expense of Mrs. Willughby, and were wholly inadequate to the merit of the work. In 1686, the Ichthiology of Mr. Willughby was likewise published by Mr. Ray. It had been left in a still more imperfect state than the ornithology. Mr. Ray wrote the whole of the first and second books himself, and probably added a great deal of new materials to the two others. The work was printed at Oxford, at the expence of the Royal Society, the Members of which contributed to furnish the plates; indeed, by far the greatest part of them were engraved at the expence of Sir Robert Southwell, at that time President of the Royal Society. The book came out under the following title: Francisci WVillughbeii, Armig. DE HISTORIA PISCIUM Libri quatuor, jussu et sumptu S. Reg. Lond. editi. Totum Opus recognovit, cooptavit, supplevit, Librum etiam primum et secundum integros adjecit J. Raius. Ray contributed more materially to the improvement of zoology, than any Ray. other person of the age in which he lived. His classification was greatly superior to that of any preceding writer. He divided animals into sanguinea and exsanguinea. The sanguinea were subdivided into those that breathe with lungs, and those that have gills. The former are separated into those whose heart has two ventricles, and those which have only one. The latter division contains reptiles; the former viviparous quadrupeds, whales, and birds. The animalia bronchiis respirantia include all fishes properly so cailed; the whale, and all the exsanguinea being excluded. The animalia exsanguinea are divided into greater and less: the latter division contains insects; the former is again subdivided into three genera; the first of which includes the mollusca; the second, the crustacea; and the third, the testacea, or shell-fish. Upon this arrangement it is not necessary to make any observations. The subsequent classification of Linnæus was merely an extension and improvement of the method of Ray. The first of Mr. Ray's zoological works, if we except the ornithology and ichthyology of Willughby, which he edited, was his Synopsis Quadrupedum; published in 1693. Soon after he drew up his Synopsis Avium et Piscium; as we learn from his letters, and from the preface to those works, by Dr. Derham; but the manuscripts lay unpublished in the hands of the bookseller, till they were purchased by Mr. Innys, and prepared for the press by Dr. Derham; who added the figures, and made some additions. They were published in 1713, after Mr. Ray's death. The last work in which Mr. Ray engaged, was his Methodus Insectorum. He had been accumulating materials for it during many years, and was at last induced to engage in it at the age of seventy-five, by the persuasion of Dr. Derham. He confined his object to British insects. Mr. Ray did not live to finish this work. It was published, after his death, by Dr. Derham, in 1710. Linnæus, the great reformer of botanical classification, did not neglect Linnæus. zoology. His powers of arrangement were so great, and his industry so indefatigable, that this extensive branch of natural history lies under almost as many obligations to him as botany does. His Systema Nature was first pub L Pennant. lished in 1785; and he continued to improve it during the whole period of his life. The Linnæan classification of animals is generally considered as the most unexceptionable, and has been much more universally followed than any other, notwithstanding the great number of systems which have made their appearance, during the last century, in various parts of Europe, especially in France; where, from the influence and celebrity of Buffon, less justice was done to Linnæus than in other countries. Linnæus divided animals into six classes; namely, mammalia, birds, amphibia, fishes, worms, insects. His classification of birds, and of insects, constitutes the best part of his system; and it is, at the same time, the most original. Pennant, one of the most celebrated and valuable of British zoological writers, followed chiefly the classification of Ray. He does not treat of insects and worms, but confines himself to the larger animals. This is the case, also, with Buffon, who owes his celebrity chiefly to his style. He neglected and despised artificial classification, and bestowed much of his time in endeavouring to establish certain favourite systematic opinions; all of which, perhaps without exception, are erroneous and absurd. Royal Society. Though zoology has always constituted a favourite pursuit with the Members of the Royal Society, and though it is indebted to that learned body for a very considerable part of the progress which it has made, yet, from the nature of the Philosophical Transactions, it is not possible that they should contain any thing like a complete system of zoology; or an artificial classification of animals. All that we have a right to expect, is a variety of detached papers on zoological subjects; we find in them, reckoning from the commencement of the work to the year 1800, no fewer than 290 papers, connected with the arrangement and description of animals. These papers, as might be expected, are of various merits; many of them excellent; others reaching only mediocrity; and there are 125 which seem, in the present advanced state of the science, scarcely to be entitled to any attention whatever. It is curious to observe, that a large proportion of these trifling papers were published when Martin Folkes, Esq., was President of the Society; and not a few of them were written by Mr. Arderon, an inhabitant of Norwich, who seemed to possess abilities and industry, but to be totally illiterate, as far as systematic zoology was concerned. No fewer than 301 species of animals are described in the zoological papers, published in the Transactions; several of which are new, but certainly not the whole; and it is difficult to say how many, Mammalia. But we shall have it in our power to judge with more accuracy of the zoological papers, in the Philosophical Transactions, if we take a view of the different classes of animals in succession; and we may adopt the Linnæan classification, as more usually followed in this country. I. MAMMALIA. The species of mammalia hitherto discovered and described amount to about 250. The most celebrated arrangements of these animals are those of Ray, Klein, Linnæus, Brisson, and Daubenton. Buffon follows no arrangement whatever. Pennant has adopted the arrangement of Ray. Klein was the zoological antagonist of Linnæus, and has written successfully on most parts of the science; though his system, as a whole, appears to be considerably inferior to that of his celebrated antagonist. The French naturalists object to Linnæus the new meanings which he has given to the names of his orders, and the forcible union of animals of very different natures under the same order; but they do not attend to the object of an artificial classification, which is merely to facilitate the learner in discovering the name of every animal. Every artificial arrangement is, in fact, intended to supply the place of a lexicon of natural history, and of course that arrangement deserves the preference which can be consulted with the greatest facility.. scribed in the The species of mammalia described in the Transactions amount to 36. The Species defollowing is a list of the names of these animals, with the names of the authors Transactions. to whom we are indebted for the account of them: Mus lemmus, or sable mouse. Sir Paul Rycaut. Mustela lutreola, or lesser otter. Dr. Steigertahl. Phoca barbata, or great seal..... Dr. Parsons. Mr. John Reinhold Forster. Asiatic rhinoceros... Ditto. . Ditto. . Ditto. Sciurus vulgaris, or common squirrel... Ditto. Physeter catodon, or spermaceti whale. Field mouse. .. Ditto James Robinson, Esq. Antelope picta, or nyl ghau. Dr. William Hunter. Canis lagopus, or arctic fox. Mus sylvaticus, or field mouse..... . . . . . . . Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Mr. John Reinhold Forster. Tyger cat, of the Cape of Good Hope.. Ditto. The animals described by Forster were from Hudson's Bay. The greater number, if not the whole of them, had been previously described by Mr. Pennant. II. BIRDS. The species of birds are much more numerous than those of the Birds. quadrupeds; about 1800 have been described and classified. Belon was one of the first of the moderns who treated of these animals. published in 1555, and forms a single folio volume. lished in 1686 by Ray, established a new era in this His history of birds was Willughby's work, pubbranch of natural history. |
