H. A. Hagen

“ The history of the origin and development of collections of natural history is not devoid of interest, perhaps even profitable for science and for the important question as to which would be the most convenient arrangement of a collection. ”

“ Following the history of our subject, our attention is called to the very striking fact that all departments of science before the Reformation fell gradually into the power of the predominant church, which hurled an anathema against all further investigations. ”

“ The noble and brave inhabitants of Spain, the valiant and intelligent people of Italy, the nervous and quick-minded French, the accurate and slow Germans, all were in the same way subdued, and prepared to recognize nothing but the ideas approved by the church. Curiously enough, there never existed a stricter censorship of published books, the censors being at first Catholic priests and afterwards principally Jesuits, and their opinions are printed on the first page of many old works on natural history. ”

“ It is sure that at the end of the fifteenth century linen paper was everywhere used, and cheap enough to displace the costly parchment. It is obvious that the common use of paper was a great advantage to every student. Botanical collections were only possible when the preservation of dried plants could be afforded. Just at this time the name herbarium, with its present meaning, seems to have originated.
Before this time, objects of natural history accompanied only by chance the more valuable objects of trade. Now science seemed suddenly to be awakened, or rather new-born. ”

“ Every one was in haste to study the new objects, never seen before, and arriving in great numbers from newly-discovered countries. It was a natural consequence that those of the old country should be compared with the new ones, and every student was surprised to find so much around him that he had never known before. ”

“ Paper, a very important object for collections, has been known since the beginning of culture in the East, but the use of it became gradually less and less, on account of heavy taxes upon it, from the beginning of the Christian era to the sixth century, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the use of it was nearly forgotten. Cotton paper was carried by Arabs to North Africa in the tenth century, and two centuries later to Spain. Curiously enough the manufacture of linen paper was discovered through an intentional fraud. ”

“ Conrad Gesner, a naturalist from Switzerland, a student of vast erudition and clear judgment, may be considered the renovator of natural science. History begins a new volume with his name, and his works are for the next centuries of the same importance as those of Albertus Magnus for earlier times. ”

“ I cannot omit here to mention that nearly all interest shown in science was manifested by Protestants, the few honorable exceptions being mostly priests, who understood the times, and the necessity of being always among the foremost, in order not to lose their ascendency. ”

“ The works of Aristotle were known to him only in the Arabian translation, and he apparently possessed no collection; at least, in going through his works, it is evident that the animals were described after living or fresh specimens.
Science, during the next three centuries, did not advance in a remarkable way; we find nothing but repetition of the statements of Albertus and his disciples, Cantipratanus, Bartholomæus Anglicus, Roger Bacon, Vincentius from Beauvais, and others. ”

“ Some methods of preserving objects were of course known to the ancients, but these methods were the same as those used for the preservation of food or of corpses, and generally not at all adapted or sufficient to preserve objects in a manner to make them fit for scientific purposes. ”

“ The desire to possess the largest collections increased in a way easily to be understood, especially as the invention of the printing-press had now afforded facilities for making the facts known to the world in a very short space of time. ”

“ The horns of the renowned obnoxious steer from Macedon were presented by King Philip to the temple of Hercules; the abnormal omoplate of Pelops was in the temple at Elis; the horns of the so-called Indian ants, in the temple of Hercules at Erythris; the crocodile brought home by the expedition to the sources of the Nile, in the temple of Isis at Cæsarea. A large number of similar cases are quoted in Professor Beckman’s above-mentioned paper. The choice of places devoted to religious service, for such deposits, was very appropriate, every spoliation of them being considered sacrilege. ”

“ Not the least prominent object of the museum is an obelisk, made in the Egyptian fashion, to celebrate the memory of the conversion of the Swedish Queen Christina, the daughter of the most prominent king in the Thirty Years’ War, Gustavus Adolphus, the fact of the conversion being expressed on the obelisk in thirty-three different languages. ”