Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnaeus Part 6

plucked). We eat of them at Dunbar. They are in bigness little inferior to an ordinary goose. The young one is upon the back black, and speckled with little white spots, under the breast and belly grey. The beak is sharp-pointed, the mouth very wide and large, the tongue very small, the eyes great, the foot hath four toes webbed together. It feeds upon mackrel and herring, and the flesh of the young one smells and tastes strong of these fish. The other birds which nestle in the Ba.s.se are these; the scout, which is double ribbed; the cattiwake, in English cormorant; the scart, and a bird called the turtle-dove, whole-footed, and the feet red. There are verses which contain the names of these birds among the vulgar, two whereof are,

'The scout, the scart, the cattiwake, The soland goose sits on the lake, Yearly in the spring.'

"We saw of the scout's eggs, which are very large and speckled. It is very dangerous to climb the rocks for the young of these fowls, and seldom a year pa.s.seth, but one or other of the climbers fall down and lose their lives, as did one not long before our being there. The laird of this island makes a great profit yearly of the soland geese taken; as I remember, they told us 130 sterling. There is in the isle a small house, which they call a castle; it is inaccessible, and impregnable, but of no great consideration in a war, there being no harbour, nor any thing like it. The island will afford gra.s.s enough to keep thirty sheep.

They make strangers that come to visit it _Burgesses of the Ba.s.se_, by giving them to drink of the water of the well, which springs near the top of the rock, and a flower out of the garden thereby. The island is nought else but a rock, and stands off the land near a mile; at Dunbar you would not guess it above a mile distant, though it be thence at least five. We found growing in the island, in great plenty, _Beta marina_, _Lychnis marina nostras_, _Malta arborea marina nostras_, _et Cochlearia rotundifolia_."

In this sketch, short as it is, there are several inaccuracies, and yet it is on the whole more correct than some later accounts of the same interesting islet.

On the restoration of Charles II., when there was a prospect of peaceable times, and the church of England was re-established, Mr Wray took orders, though he continued a fellow of Trinity College. But his views of preferment were blasted by his resolution not to subscribe to the conditions implied in the Act of Uniformity, by which divines were required to declare that the oath ent.i.tled the Solemn League and Covenant was not binding on those who had sworn it. The reason of his refusal did not, however, arise from his having himself taken the oath, which he never did, having always believed it to be unlawful, but from his considering those who had taken it as still under an obligation to abide by it. In consequence of this opinion he deemed it proper to resign his fellowship in 1662.

On leaving Cambridge he resolved to go to the Continent, with the view of extending his knowledge of natural history, to which he had long been devoted. Accordingly, in the spring of 1663, accompanied by Mr Willughby, Mr Skippon, and Mr Bacon, his pupils, he crossed to Calais, and traversing the Low Countries, visited Germany, Italy, and several islands in the Mediterranean. In returning homewards he directed his way through Switzerland and France, and arrived in his own country in the spring of 1666, with a rich store of materials for the cultivation of his favourite science. He now occupied himself in reading the works that had been published during his absence; in reviewing and arranging Mr Willughby's collections; and in making a catalogue of such plants as were natives of the English soil. He was also employed during the winter in forming a table of plants and quadrupeds to ill.u.s.trate the famous work of Dr Wilkins on a "Real or Universal Character." In the summer of 1667, he made a journey into the west, accompanied by his favourite pupil. While on this excursion the two friends described many natural objects, and in particular examined the Cornish mines, and the methods employed for smelting ores.

His fame as a naturalist being now fully established, he was solicited to become a member of the Royal Society, which he accordingly entered in 1667. The remainder of this year he spent with his friends in Suss.e.x and Warwickshire. In 1668, he made a journey into Yorkshire and Westmoreland, where he a.s.siduously exerted himself in collecting plants and animals. The greater part of the winter was pa.s.sed in Warwickshire, with Mr Willughby, who in the following spring engaged with him in a series of experiments on the ascent and descent of the sap in trees, the results of which were published in the Philosophical Transactions.

Although botany seems to have been his princ.i.p.al study, his attention was by no means confined to it, for, like most naturalists of the time, he was a general collector. The materials which he had acc.u.mulated in the course of his journeys having now increased to a great extent, he began to digest his observations; commencing, rather oddly, with a set of proverbs, which he made ready for the press, although they were not published till 1672. In 1669, he also prepared his Catalogue of English Plants, which was printed in the following year.

At this time he changed his name to Ray, omitting the initial letter; the altered mode of spelling being, as he conceived, more correct. In one of his notes to Dr Lister he mentions his having had an offer of L.100 per annum to travel with three young n.o.blemen, expressing, at the same time, his unfitness for the office, and his unworthiness of so large a salary. To this his friend replies: "I joy you of the condition offered you. If you accept it, I wish you all the satisfaction and comfort in the world of it; and I pray G.o.d, of his infinite mercy, to preserve you in your travels, and to send me home again my dear friend well. Fix not long with them in any place; for the gentry of France are very proud, and will soon (when acquainted) learn them to despise their tutors, however well deserving." This proposal, however, Mr Ray rejected, being in a weak state of health, and considering it more expedient to continue his pursuits.

In the spring of 1671, he had an attack of jaundice, of which, as he informs Dr Lister, he "got pretty well rid." On recovering, he pursued his experiments on the motion of sap, and in summer visited several of his acquaintances; after which, in July, he commenced a journey to the northern counties, taking with him Thomas Willisel, from whose a.s.sistance in collecting and describing plants he derived much profit.

In this erratic mode of living,--at one time wandering over the country in quest of its rarer productions, at another residing with his friends at their country-seats, enjoying their conversation, and deriving instruction from the inspection of their collections,--Mr Ray must have experienced much real happiness; one princ.i.p.al source of which, however, was now dried up. He had scarcely returned from his excursion when he was informed of the dangerous illness of Mr Willughby, who, having been seized with violent pain in his head, followed by pleurisy and fever, expired in the thirty-seventh year of his age, on the third day of July 1672.

The character of this estimable man and excellent naturalist cannot be better described than in Dr Derham's words:--"His example deserves the imitation of every person of great estate and honour. For he was a man whom G.o.d had blessed with a very plentiful estate, and with excellent parts, capable of making him useful to the world. And accordingly he neglected no opportunity of being so. He did not (as the fashion too much is) depend upon his riches, and spend his time in sloth or sports, idle company-keeping, and luxury; but practising what was laudable and good,--what might be of service to mankind. And among other virtuous employments, one he much delighted in was the searching after, and describing of, animals (birds, beasts, fishes, and insects), which province he had taken for his task, as Mr Ray had that of plants. And in these matters he was a great master, as he was also in plants, fossils, and, in short, the whole history of nature; to which I may add that of coins, and most other curious parts of learning. And in the pursuit and acquest of this knowledge he stuck neither at any labour or cost. n.o.ble monuments of which he left behind him in those posthumous pieces which Mr Ray afterwards published."

To render a separate article unnecessary, some particulars may here be given respecting that distinguished individual. He was born in Lincolnshire in 1635, and, as has already been mentioned, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, under the tuition of Ray, whose most intimate friend he continued to be until the period of his premature and lamented death. Dr Derham states, from a conversation which he had with Ray a short time before his last illness, that "these two gentlemen, finding the history of nature very imperfect, had agreed between themselves, before their travels beyond sea, to reduce the several tribes of things to a method; and to give accurate descriptions of the several species, from a strict view of them." Both entered upon the task with an enthusiasm which could have been excited only by an intense love of nature, and although Ray was more successful in the event, Willughby was not less industrious during his short career. Ornithology and ichthyology seem to have been his favourite studies, and in prosecuting them he formed an extensive museum, not, however, excluding other objects. In 1668, he married the daughter of Sir H. Bernard, and settled at Middleton Hall in Warwickshire, where he continued his researches under the eye of his former tutor. His untimely death prevented the publication of his several essays, which were left to the care of Mr Ray, who was also one of the executors of his will. As a special mark of his friendship, besides bequeathing an annuity of 60, he confided to him the education of his two sons, Francis and Thomas, the first of whom died before attaining his twentieth year. The younger was one of the twelve peers created on the same day by Queen Anne, on which occasion he received the t.i.tle of Lord Middleton.

Mr Ray accordingly betook himself to the instruction of these two young gentlemen, the eldest of whom was only four years of age at the period of their father's decease. For their improvement he composed his Nomenclator Cla.s.sicus, which was published in 1672, and which, with respect to the names of natural objects, was much more accurate than any that had previously appeared. Having resolved to discharge his duties with fidelity, he was obliged to give up the thoughts of another botanical excursion which he had meditated, as well as to refuse the invitation of Dr Lister, who wished him to live in his house at York.

This eminent physician and naturalist, who was one of Ray's most intimate friends, was born, in 1638, in the county of Buckingham. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and having chosen the medical profession, settled at York as a pract.i.tioner. In the year 1683, he removed to London, when he took the degree of doctor at Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Having, in 1698, attended the Earl of Portland on his emba.s.sy to France, he published, when he returned, an account of the journey, which was ridiculed by Dr William King in a parody, in consequence of the minute observations in natural history which it contained. In 1709, he was made physician in ordinary to Queen Anne; but he occupied this post only two years, as he died in February 1711. Omitting his medical writings, which are not of much importance, we may observe, that besides composing several papers which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions, he published the following works on sh.e.l.ls, which are referred to by the naturalists of the present day as important productions:--

Historia Animalium Angliae, with three tracts on spiders, land and fresh-water sh.e.l.ls, and marine sh.e.l.ls, together with fossils having the form of sh.e.l.ls. 4to, London, 1678.

Exercitatio Anatomica de Cochleis. 8vo, 1694. Exercitatio Anatomica Altera, de Buccinis Fluviatilibus et Marinis. 8vo, 1695. Exercitatio Anatomica tertia Conchyliorum Bivalvium. 4to, 1696.

Historiae sive Synopsis Conchyliorum libri iv., 2 vols. folio, 1685-1693.

An edition was published, in 1770, by Mr Huddesford, keeper of the Ashmolean Library at Oxford. Of this work there is a new impression by Mr Dillwyn, with a scientific index. The plates of the Historia Conchyliorum were executed from drawings by his daughters, and are in general accurate.

As a specimen of the correspondence which naturalists hold with one another, we may present the following letter to Mr Ray:--

"SIR,--August 18, I pa.s.sed through Marton Woods, under Pimco-Moore, in Craven. In these woods I then found very great plenty of _Mushromes_, and many of them then wither'd, and coal-black; but others new sprung and flourishing. They are some of them of a large size, and yet few much bigger than the _Champignon_ or _ordinary red-grilled eatable Mushrome_, and very much of the shape of that; that is an exactly round cap, or crown, which is thick in flesh, and open deep gills underneath; a fleshy, and not hollow, round foot-stalk, of about six fingers breadth above ground, and ordinarily as thick as my thumb. The foot-stalk, gills, and cap, all of a milk-white colour. If you cut any part of this _mushrome_, it will _bleed_ exceeding freely and plentifully a pure white juice. Concerning which, note,

"1. That the youngest did drop much more plentifully and freely than those that were at their full growth and expansion. That the dried and withered ones had no signs of milk in them that I then discern'd.

"2. That this milk tastes and smells like pepper, and is much hotter upon the tongue.

"3. That it is not clammy or roapy to the touch.

"4. That although I used the same knife to cut a hundred of them, yet I could not perceive all that time, that the milk changed colour (as is usual with most vegetable milks) upon the knife blade.

"5. That it became, in the gla.s.s viol I drew it into, suddenly concrete and stiff, and in some days dried into a firm cake, or lump, without any _serum_ at all.

"6. That it then also, when dried, retained its keen biting taste, as it does at this day, yet not so fierce: Its colour is now of a yellowish green, yet very pale.

"7. This milk flows much faster from about the outmost rimm, or part equivalent to the bark of plants, than from the more inward parts, &c.

"8. I observed these _mushromes_ even then, when they abounded with milk (not to be endured upon our tongues) to be exceeding full of _fly_-maggots; and the youngest and tenderest of them were very much eaten by the small grey naked snail.

"You can tell me what author describes this mushrome, and what he t.i.tles it.

"I have revised the History of Spiders, and added this summer's notes. Also I have likewise brought into the same method the land and fresh water snails, having this year added many species found in these northern lakes. And by way of Appendix, I have describ'd all the _sh.e.l.l-stones_ that I have anywhere found in England, having purposely viewed some places in Yorkshire where there are plenty. The tables of both I purpose to send you. I am not so throughly stocked with sea-sh.e.l.ls as I wish and endeavour. I aim not at exoticks, but those of our own sh.o.r.es. Concerning _St Cuthbert's Beads_, I find 3 species of them in Craven: and this makes it plain, that they have not been the back-bone of any creature, because I find of them ramous and branched like trees.

"York, October 12, 1672."

Soon after Mr Willughby's death, Mr Ray lost another of his best friends, Bishop Wilkins, who died on the 19th November 1672. Being thus deprived of some of those persons whose intercourse had afforded him the purest pleasure, he began to think of consoling himself by marriage; having formed an attachment to a young woman recommended by her personal and mental accomplishments. She was the daughter of Mr John Oakeley of Launton, in Oxfordshire. They were married in Middleton Church, on the 5th June 1673. This lady gave him important a.s.sistance in educating Mr Willughby's children; and afterwards, by her unremitting attentions and constant affection, contributed to enliven his mind, when he was labouring under the pressure of protracted disease.

In the year just named, he published an account of the observations which he had made in his travels on the Continent, to which was appended a catalogue of plants observed in foreign countries, and also, about the same time, his Collection of Unusual or Local English Words, adding to it a catalogue of English birds and fishes, and an account of the way of smelting and refining metals and minerals. Mr Oldenburgh, the secretary of the Royal Society, having solicited him by numerous letters to communicate any discoveries which he might have made, he sent several papers, some of which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions, as well as a discourse concerning seeds and the specific differences of plants, which was read to the members.

In 1674 and the following year, he was busily engaged in the task of preparing for the press Mr Willughby's observations on birds. These notices had been committed to paper without any method, and left in a very imperfect state, so that the trouble of revising and digesting was of no light kind. Without at all detracting from the merits of the author, whose labours, according to Dr Derham, were such, "that he allowed himself little or no time for those recreations and diversions which men of his estate and degree are apt to spend too much of their time in, but prosecuted his design with as great application, as if he had been to get his bread thereby," it may fairly be presumed, and indeed has been generally admitted, that the greater part of his works belong in fact to Mr Ray, who, however, claimed no merit in the performance. The book was published in 1676, in Latin, with engravings, which, in the t.i.tlepage, are designated as _icones elegantissimi et vivarum avium simillimi_, although few who inspect them will be disposed to concur in the opinion now stated. It was afterwards translated into English by his affectionate editor, and put forth with large additions in the year 1678. Derham apologizes for the inferior execution of the plates, which were done at the charge of the author's widow.

"Considering," says the Doctor, "how well the engravers were paid for their labour, it is great pity they had not had some able person in London to have supervised them, that they might have given better likenesses to the birds than what most of them have. But this is what Mr Ray could only complain of, but not help, by reason of his being in Warwickshire, at a distance from London, where every thing was transacted by letters,--a method which could never afford sufficient directions in a matter of that nature." The descriptions, however, are in general excellent, regard being had to the state of science at the time when they were written. Some of them, indeed, are very imperfect, and there is, besides, a deficiency of method, which becomes more striking when they are compared with those of Temminck or Selby, or any other of our best modern ornithologists.

In this important work birds are divided into _Terrestrial_ and _Aquatic_. The former are disposed in the following order:--

In the first place, land-birds are either furnished with hooked-bill and claws, or have these organs nearly straight.

Those with hooked-bill are carnivorous and predatory or frugivorous. The former are either diurnal, that is, hunt by day, or nocturnal, seeking their food by night.

The diurnal carnivorous birds are either large, as the _eagles_ and _vultures_, or small. Of the former there are two kinds, the _generous_, as the peregrine falcon, lanner, goshawk, &c.; and the _ign.o.ble_, as the _buzzard_, kite, &c. The smaller predatory birds are the _shrikes_, and birds of paradise.

The nocturnal birds of prey are the _owls_.

The _frugivorous_ birds with hooked-bill are the _macaws_, _parrots_, and _parrakeets_.

Those having the bill and claws nearly straight, are divided into large, middle-sized, and small. The large are the _ostrich_, _emeu_, and _dodo_; the middle-sized are the _crows_ and _woodp.e.c.k.e.rs_, _peac.o.c.k_, _pigeons_, &c.; the small are such birds as the _swallow_ and _lark_, which have the bill slender, and the _sparrow_, _greenfinch_, &c., in which it is thick.

The _aquatic_ birds are of two kinds; some frequent watery places, without being capable of swimming, while others betake themselves to the water.

Of the former some are large, as the crane; others of smaller size. The latter either live on fish, as the _heron_, _spoonbill_, _stork_, _ibis_, &c., or search for insects in the mud, as the _oyster-catcher_, _plover_, _sandpiper_, &c.

Of the swimming water-birds some have the toes separated, as the _coot_ and _water-hen_; while in others they are united by membranes. The web-footed birds are either long-legged, as the _flamingo_ and _avocet_, or furnished with short legs. Of the latter some have three toes, as the _penguin_, _auk_, &c.; others have four. The four-toed aquatic birds either have all the toes webbed, as the _pelican_, _gannet_, _cormorant_, &c., or have the hind toe loose. Of the latter some have a narrow bill, which is hooked at the tip in the _merganser_ and _albatross_, or acute and straight in the _divers_ and _gulls_. Others have the bill broad, as _geese_ and _ducks_.

Of the figures which accompany the descriptions there certainly are not ten that bear a tolerably accurate resemblance to their originals; but, in criticizing ornithological plates, we are apt to forget that it was not until Audubon displayed his drawings that artists began to see how well nature might be imitated.

Mr Willughby's sons having been withdrawn from Mr Ray's inspection, in 1675, he left Middleton Hall where he had resided, and removed with his wife to Sutton Cofield, about four miles distant, where he continued till Michaelmas 1677, when he went to Falborne Hall in Ess.e.x, near his native place. In the course of his residence there his mother died, to whom he was affectionately attached, and of whom he says that she stuck constantly to her profession, and never "left the church in these times of giddiness and distraction." Immediately after this event he repaired to Black Notley, where he resolved to remain during the "short pittance of time he had yet to live in this world."

He now finished his Methodus Plantarum Nova, which was published in 1682; and laboured at his Historia Plantarum Generalis, of which the first volume appeared in 1686, the second in the following year, and the third in 1704. In compiling this great work, he received much valuable a.s.sistance from his friends, but more especially from Sir Hans Sloane and Dr Tancred Robinson. With respect to the former of these publications, it may be stated, that it was founded upon the labours of his predecessors, such as Caesalpinus and Jungius, as well as on the writings of Morison, whose method he princ.i.p.ally followed. He divided plants into woody and herbaceous. The woody kinds he again divided into trees and shrubs, distinguishing the trees by their possessing buds; which he showed to be, in fact, new plants annually springing from the old ones. The families were better defined, the cla.s.ses characterized with more precision, and various terms introduced which were of great advantage as tending to render the language of botany more appropriate.

The General History of Plants is his most celebrated work on the vegetable kingdom. In it he describes with considerable exactness and perspicuity all the species which his predecessors had made known, adding those that had been discovered in his own time. All botanists who have spoken of this work agree in considering it as one of immense labour, although, as the greater part was avowedly borrowed from other writers, it has not the advantage of ranking among those that have resulted from original observation.

About the same time he revised and arranged Mr Willughby's papers relative to fishes, which, being put in order for the press, and communicated by Dr Robinson to the Royal Society, were published at the charge of that learned body; the engravings having been executed at the expense of several of the members. This important treatise appeared in 1686.