Page:The American naturalist. (IA mobot31753002156567).pdf/90

84 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.

The middle of the fifteenth century, and the time immediately following, is one of the most striking periods in history. The invention of printing, the discovery of America and of the way around Africa to the East Indies, the overwhelming amount of gold and silver gained by trade or war in those new countries and suddenly inundating all Europe, followed by the momentous times of the Reformation, made a change in fashion, in study, and in knowledge, never seen before, and perhaps never to be seen again. Art and science advanced in the same rapid manner, the latter prepared in some way by the large immigration of learned Greeks, after the destruction of the Greek empire by the Ottomans.

The same great time produced some discoveries of the highest importance to the existence and preservation of collections; the most important, now considered by millions as the greatest calamity, being that of alcohol. This fluid was known to alchymists long before, but the use of it as medicine, as drink, and for the preservation of animal substance, certainly not much before 1483. A poem printed in that year, in Augsburg, set forth the excellent qualities of the fluid, and stated decidedly that it had been proved that all meat, fish, and fowl put up in alcohol would be well preserved, and would never decay. But ten years later we find the same use and abuse of alcohol as at the present time. The use of alcohol for the preservation of objects offered the additional advantage of their being easily seen and studied. Something else was needed, however, namely, good transparent glass jars or bottles, and the means of closing them as well as possible. I have not been able to ascertain the time of the first manufacture of transparent glass bottles; I suspect, however, that it may belong to some earlier time. The use of cork to close bottles dates surely after the middle of the sixteenth century, as in 1550, at least in France, it was known to be used only for soles. Before this time, and even a century later, wax or resinous stoppers were used.