XVI – XVIIcenturies

XVIIIcentury

"Individual differences

between living beings

are directly proportional to them

mental development"

K. Lorenz

In contrast to botany, the development of descriptive and systematizing zoology during the period under review followed slightly different paths. "Primary inventories" of numerous animal species were carried out on a larger scale. However, work on the classification of animals and the creation of rational systems of the animal world was carried out much more weakly. The vast region of lower invertebrate animals has been little affected by research. The situation in zoology changed radically only at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.

Descriptions and attempts to classify animals inXVI – XVIIcenturies

Intensive work on compiling encyclopedic summaries containing descriptions of animals began in the 16th century. A typical example of zoological research of the 16th century can be considered the work of K. Gesner.

K. Gesner (Konrad Gesner) (1516 – 1565) – Swiss naturalist, philologist and bibliographer. Author of the encyclopedic five-volume “History of Animals,” which contained all then known zoological forms. Based on Aristotle’s classification, he described animals in detail in the following order: four-legged viviparous and oviparous, birds, fish and aquatic animals, snakes and insects. The material was arranged in alphabetical order, which is typical for zoological work of this period. The description of each species followed certain rules. First, the name of the animal was given, then information was provided about its geographical distribution, body structure and life activity, its relationship to the environment, instincts and morals, significance for humans were described, and information about this form available in the literature was provided. Gesner did not have clear ideas about the species, there was no clear nomenclature and terminology. In some cases he brought together really close forms, in other cases he grouped them arbitrarily. Gesner's works contain elements of independent research, but the main value is that his work played a large role in the dissemination and systematization of zoological knowledge.

Several similar works were published in the 16th - 17th centuries:

G. Rondel, a French doctor and zoologist, published a work devoted to the description of fish (1554);

P. Belon - French zoologist studied and described birds (1555);

T. Moufet - a London doctor published a work on insects;

U. Aldrovandi, an Italian naturalist, described a number of new, mainly exotic, species of animals. Author of the works “Ornithology” (1599-1603), “On Insects” (1602), etc.;

E. Wotton is an English doctor and naturalist; his work “On the Differences of Animals” (1552) seems more profound. He described a large number of both higher and lower animals, while generally adhering to the principles of Aristotelian classification. In his descriptions there is a natural grouping of animals and their artificial association;

J. Klein, a German naturalist, made reports on fish, birds, mollusks and various marine invertebrates. They attempted to develop principles for the artificial classification of animals;

J. Ray is an English biologist, in his works he tried to classify animals, just like Wotton, he proceeded from the Aristotelian division of animals into blood-bearing and bloodless. Rey divided blood-bearing animals (vertebrates) into lung-breathing and gill-breathing animals. Among lung-breathing animals, he distinguished between viviparous and oviparous animals. When identifying more specific divisions, Rey also took into account other features in the structure of the body. When classifying insects, Ray took into account the peculiarities of their structure and metamorphosis.

In general, the situation with the development of systematic principles in zoology was much worse than in botany. The divisions within large systematic groups were especially unclear - great arbitrariness reigned here. There were no clear criteria for systematization, and the use of the concept “genus” was unclear.

Botanists, serving the needs of medicine, Agriculture or production, had to be able to very accurately distinguish between species, since different species of the same genus often had different technological or medicinal properties. Zoological material in most cases did not require such fine differentiation.

Zoological research inXVIIIcentury

A significant step forward was the animal system of K. Linnaeus. He proposed his first classification of animals in 1735 in his System of Nature. Subsequently, most zoological classifications, until the beginning of the 19th century, adopted the system set out in the tenth edition of this work (1758). Linnaeus's merit was the introduction of clear four-member taxonomic divisions (class - order - genus - species). Within a species, he also identified varieties of “variation.”

Linnaeus clearly showed the stepwise diversity of organic forms - the subordination of systematic categories. He divided animals into six classes: mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, insects and worms; Linnaeus placed man at the head of the order of primates, to which he also included apes. Linnaean classification of invertebrates was very imperfect. Linnaeus' system was the crowning achievement of artificial systems and was widely accepted. Most scientists of the 18th century adhered to the direction that Linnaeus gave to zoological research.

Some researchers focused not on systematizing zoological materials, but on studying and describing various aspects of animal life. The most characteristic in this regard were the works of J. Buffon.

J. Buffon (Georges Louis Buffon) (1707 - 1788) - French naturalist, he owned one of the most famous works of that time - “Natural History”, 36 volumes of which were published in 1749 - 1788, co-authored with L. Dobanton and others ., and volumes 37–44 were completed in 1805 by B. Lacepede. This work contained many wonderful essays about the life of animals, their distribution, vital activity, connection with the environment, etc. Buffon's work laid the foundations of zoogeography.

R. Reaumur (René Reaumur), a French naturalist, described the structure and vital activity of insects in the six-volume work “Memoirs on the History of Insects” (1734 - 1742). His descriptions of insect instincts are especially detailed.

C. Bonnet (Charles Bonnet) (1720 - 1793) - Swiss naturalist, described arthropods, polyps and worms. Received new scientific data about the life and instincts of insects. He observed the parthenogenetic reproduction of aphids, the regeneration process in worms, hydras, starfish, snails, and crayfish; described cases of abnormal regeneration. He was the first to suggest that regeneration is one of the forms of adaptation of some animal species to the unfavorable influences of the external environment.

A. Tremblay (Abram Tremblay) (1710 - 1784) - Swiss naturalist, his experimental studies on the nutrition, reproduction and regeneration of hydras were very popular. Discovered the phenomenon of regeneration of a whole organism from its part. The research he carried out contributed to the wider use of experiment in biology.

L. Spallanzani (Lazzaro Spallanzani) (1729 - 1799) - Italian biologist, studied regeneration and the process of fertilization in lower vertebrates. Published (1768) observations on the process of restoration of some parts of the body of cold-blooded animals (salamanders, crayfish). For the first time he conducted an experiment on artificial insemination of mammals.

During this era, many zoological works of a monographic nature were published, devoted to individual classes of the animal world. They contained a large amount of systematic material, and some provided information about the life of animals. This includes works:

I. Fabricius - Danish entomologist;

J. Bruguière, a French naturalist, described well invertebrates, especially mollusks;

B. Lacepede is a French naturalist, author of extensive summaries on the natural history of fish, amphibians and reptiles;

M. Brisson - French ornithologist, published a six-volume work (1760).

In the 18th century they received further development microscopic studies of protozoa.

In general, it should be noted that at the end of the 18th century, about 18 - 20 thousand species of animals were studied and many important observations and discoveries were made in the field of zoology.

Numerous travels undertaken in the 17th - 18th centuries greatly expanded information of a zoogeographical nature. Large new faunistic and zoogeographical material was collected thanks to the research of Russian naturalists: S.P. Krasheninnikov, G.V. Steller, P.S. Pallas, V.F. Zuev, I.I. Lepekhin, N.Ya. Ozeretskovsky and others .

Study of fossil organisms

Fossil organisms have been known since ancient times. In the 16th – 17th centuries, information about them expanded greatly. The French amateur naturalist P. Bernard (Palissy Bernard), who collected and described animal fossils, demonstrated his collection in Paris in 1575.

The German scientist of the 16th century G. Bauer (Georg Bauer), who gained worldwide fame thanks to his work on geology, mineralogy and mining, paid great attention to the description of the fossil remains of animal and plant organisms.

Descriptions of fossil mollusks, brachiopods, echinoderms, and fish are given in the writings of N. Steno (Nikolaus Steno) in the 17th century. Even more data on fossil organisms was collected in the 18th century. J. Hunter (John Hunter) had a large collection of various fossils in his museum. The Swiss N. Large In 1708 he published the essay “History of Fossils,” which contained 163 tables of good drawings of the remains of fossil animals. A. Jussier in 1718 described numerous prints of fossil plants that he discovered in France in the coal mining area.

Early work on the remains of extinct organisms did not yet include the understanding that fossil forms are links in the chain of development of living beings, that they are genetically related to modern animals and plants. In the 15th – 17th and even in the 18th centuries there were ideas that fossils are not the remains of organisms at all, but “peculiar stones”, “a play of nature”.

However, there were scientists who expressed absolutely correct views on the nature of fossil forms. These included Leonardo da Vinci, Palissy, Bauer, Hooke, Hunter, Rey, A. Jussier, Buffon, Lomonosov, Adanson and others.

It is characteristic that most scientists, being in the position of metaphysical ideas, could not admit that fossils are the remains of organisms that belonged to some other species, different from those that inhabit the earth’s surface at the present time. Many scientists believed that fossils were the remains of organisms modern species who died in large numbers during some disasters or global flood. In cases where during excavations the remains of organisms that were completely different from modern ones were discovered, it was argued that they belonged to some living but not yet discovered species living in other countries. This is exactly how A. Jussier explained the presence in France of fossil remains of plants characteristic of the tropical zone. He believed that these plants, as a result of some catastrophe, were torn out of the soil in their places of growth and transferred to France. This is how “catastrophism” was born.

At the same time, in the 18th century, an opposite view appeared in the interpretation of geological phenomena, according to which the change in the earth's surface occurred slowly and gradually under the influence of the same forces that continue to change it today. Thus, the opposite direction to “catastrophism” arose - “uniformitarianism”, which, along with “Lamarckism”, acquired particular importance in the history of biology, being the prerequisites for the evolutionary teachings of Charles Darwin.

Blooms in the 16th century descriptive zoology or zoography.

The largest zoographers were: Gessner, the author of the extensive “History of Animals” (1551-1558), Aldrovandi (1522-1605), who made an attempt to build a system of birds in his “Ornithology”, Rondelet (1507-1556), Belon (1517-1564) and other researchers.

The main merit of these and many other researchers was description of animal forms. Thus, Belon, who traveled a lot, did relatively much to understand the animals of the Asian and African coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. In the 16th century it was also started description of the fauna of Scandinavia and Russia. A number of scientists devoted themselves to studying the fauna of America, East India, and Africa (Johann Leo). On the other hand, special works appear devoted to individual animal groups, especially mammals, birds, snakes, fish, insects and molluscs.

Thus, during the period described, a vigorous inventory of plant and animal forms took place.

Along with purely “inventory” work, in the 16th and XVII centuries developing rapidly anatomy.

In the field of animal anatomy, the beginning was made by the works of Andrea Vesalius, Gabriel Fallopius, Girolamo Fabrizio, Bartholomew Eustachius, Harvey and other scientists.

Gesner Conrad

Gesner Conrad (26.3.1516 -13.12.1565), Swiss naturalist, philologist and bibliographer was born in Zurich. From 1537 a professor in Lausanne, from 1541 a doctor in Zurich, where he died of the plague. Author of “History of Animals”, the first zoological encyclopedia of that time. Konrad Gesner's History of Animals was written more than four hundred years ago (1551). She was born in those ancient times when many species of African fauna lived in the imagination of people only as supposed, known from stories, often mysterious, and sometimes simply fictional. Therefore, one should not be surprised that sometimes these descriptions were simply distorted and had no basis in reality. scientific basis. And yet we consider the work of Professor Gesner to be one of the valuable scientific publications in the field of zoology.

Based mainly on Aristotle's classification, Gesner described the animals in detail in this order:

• quadrupeds viviparous and oviparous,
• birds,
• fish and aquatic animals,
• snakes and insects.

In each volume, the material is arranged in alphabetical order of animal names; Some related forms are grouped around one type animal. Gesner's work played a major role in the dissemination and systematization of zoological knowledge. It has been reprinted and translated several times over the course of more than 100 years. Scientific work Gesner's book was an important step forward on the path of knowledge of various species of animals that had previously been little studied or nothing was known about them. Gesner took his rightful place among progressive figures who, in the most varied forms and in the most various areas Sciences, over the centuries, have expanded the knowledge and experience of mankind and thereby influenced its development.

Gesner's work can be seen as an experiment that laid the foundation for subsequent, ever-expanding research.

Karl Clusius (February 19, 1526 - April 4, 1609) - Dutch, French botanist, one of the most important European botanists of the 16th century, considered the main botanist of his time, a central figure in the vast European network of plant exchanges, founder of the Dutch bulbous plant industry, professor of botany, mycologist, " father of mycology", physician, naturalist and humanist.

Charles Clusius was born in the city of Arras into a wealthy, well-educated Catholic family. Clusius's father, Michel de Lecluse, was a nobleman and served as a councilor in the provincial court of Artois. Karl Clusius studied in Switzerland, Germany and France. He studied law and philosophy at the University of Ghent. At the beginning of 1550 Clusius spent some time in Switzerland; in 1551 he was in Montpellier, studying with Professor Guillaume Rondelet. The environment of Montpellier, with its wealth of plants, was particularly suitable for the development of Clusius's botanical inclinations; over the years he learned no less than eight languages ​​and gained extensive knowledge on a wide range of subjects.

One contemporary described Clusius as the father of all beautiful gardens in Europe. Clusius contributed to the introduction of the potato crop to Europe and also introduced tulips to the Netherlands.

Karl Clusius specialized in mycology, as well as the study of plants and animals. Clusius described many new plants and animals of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. He was the first to identify certain plant families. Clusius described 47 “genera” and 105 “species” of mushrooms, supplementing the description with fairly accurate watercolor illustrations. Most of the mushrooms from the Codex Clusius can be fairly accurately identified from the illustrations.

On this page we are trying to reflect only reliable facts about different forms of life on Earth

• Konrad Gesner, History of Animals, 1551

• Introduction

• Buffalo.
• The buffalo is completely black and tall, like the slender Hungarian ox, however, it has stronger limbs and rougher skin. He has a steep, wide forehead, and on it, around the horns, there is a lot of curly hair. They say that this animal was first a wild cow and lived in the wild places of Africa, from where it came to Europe. There are also rumors that the buffalo is a peaceful and calm animal, but it can also fly into a rage. Therefore, a ring is inserted into the buffalo's nose so that it can be taken anywhere. When he gets angry, he rushes terribly and scatters the earth around him with his furious hooves. And although the buffalo does not know how to run well, in a rage he rushes at every wall and does not pay attention to fire, arrows, or swords. But as a calf he is very playful, affectionate and meek. As soon as he grows up, he becomes angry and stubborn.
• The buffalo is a very useful animal. Buffalo milk is as good as cow's milk and is made from it. delicious cheese, in Rome called muchacho. Buffalo meat is tough and not very suitable for eating. Buffaloes are used especially as draft animals because one buffalo can pull as much as two horses. Buffalo horns and hooves are used to make rings that are worn on the fingers and bracelets that are worn on the arms and legs to protect against seizures.
• If anyone passes near a herd of buffaloes, he should be careful that he does not have anything red on him or in his hands. The red color is especially strong in buffalos
• annoys.

• Virgo-monkey
• The monkey maiden, Sphinx in Latin, has brown hair, two nipples on her chest, and her appearance resembles a maiden of gentle beauty. Diodorus Siculus says that these monkeys are terribly fond of playing various pranks. They can never be tamed to such an extent that they do not harm those who torment them. But with those who leave them alone, they live in peace. Some pundits claim that they have a head, shoulders and arms like a maiden, an upper body like a dog, wings like a bird, a human voice, claws like a lion, and a tail like a dragon.
• Palephatus told an interesting story about this animal: a certain Cadmus had an Amazon wife named Sphinx, whom he took with him on a military campaign against the Thebans, whose king was the Dragon. Cadmus killed the king, conquered his country and married his sister Harmony. The Sphinx, having learned that Cadmus had taken another woman as his wife, destroyed his palace, and raised the people against Cadmus. Many residents followed her and set up a camp in the mountains. Meanwhile, the Sphinx visited Cadmus and took his beloved dog so that his heart would be tormented by melancholy. She fortified herself on the mountain, every day she attacked Cadmus’s subjects, took them captive and then burned them, until Cadmus promised a high reward to the one who killed the Sphinx. A young man named Oedipus took up this task. At night he rode up the mountain on horseback and beat the woman, thus putting an end to the war.

• Monkey
• A monkey looks a little like a human in appearance, but in its internals it is the most different from a human of all animals. Monkeys most often live in barbarian countries, especially Mauritania. There they can be seen in numerous herds, as Strabo and Posidonius describe. All the vast lands between Egypt and the Nubian kingdom are full of amazing monkeys.
• Of all the animals, the monkey is the most curious; it wants to imitate everything, but it always does the opposite. Mithanius claims that a monkey can learn to play chess.
• Monkeys are caught in the following way: since a monkey is an animal that wants to imitate a person in everything, it can be easily caught. A hunter who wants to catch a monkey sits under the tree on which the monkey is sitting, fills a goblet with water and washes his face. Then this cup is filled again, but with glue. The monkey will come up and, like the hunter, will want to wash his eyes too. At the same time, she will cover them so much that she will no longer see, after which she is easy to catch.
• If someone is bitten by a monkey, it is good to apply crushed and dried radish peel to the wound. Ox bile also helps if applied to the wound in time.
• Doctors and paramedics can use the heart of a monkey - dried and ground into powder, it will cure heart disease and also help with incipient consumption. If we put a monkey's heart under a sleeping person's head, he will have nightmares.
• The Chinese make beautiful brown paint from monkey blood.

• Unicorn
• The unicorn is an animal that is often described, but no one has ever seen it before. It should, however, be remembered that a horn can grow in a person during certain diseases, as the great scientist Bartholin was kind enough to describe in his “Observationes”. Some birds and insects also have horns. In Rome, Cardinal Berberini is shown a snake with real horns, as Hernandé describes it.
• Mr. Louis of Rome writes that in Mecca, in Arabia, two unicorns are kept in closed cages, which are sometimes shown to people. The larger one, the size of a three-year-old foal, with one horn on its forehead, was five and a half feet long. The smaller one is the size of a one-year-old foal, and the horn is the size of four fingers. Both are brown in color. They have a head like a deer, a not very long neck and a sparse mane. The hooves in front are cloven. The unicorn is supposed to be a wild beast, but for all its wildness, it is cute.
• No one in Europe has yet seen this beast, so we can only trust travelers to distant countries and the descriptions they give us. The mentioned animal probably lives in the world, otherwise no one would be able to see the horns. Therefore, we will assume that this beast lives in India, Arabia and Mauritania. There are rumors that there is also a water unicorn in the world.
• Some pundits, in particular Albert, claim that the unicorn loves virginity so much that if he sees a girl, he goes to her, puts his head on her lap and calmly waits until he is grabbed and tied up. Arluny believes that the unicorn can smell the girl.
• They say that only small unicorns can be caught, and the adults are never caught alive.

• Hyena
• The hyena is considered a type of wolf and is similar in appearance to it, as well as the shape of its teeth, gluttony and predatory character. She has the same color as a wolf, only more shaggy. Some say that a hyena's eyes turn into precious stones after death. Hyenas eat all kinds of carrion and even, they say, rakes dead people out of the graves. They see perfectly at night and are able to imitate human voices and the voices of cats. They recognize people by name, and then at night they call them, and when a person leaves the house, the hyena insidiously strangles him, which does not seem plausible.
• Roasted hyena meat helps against gout. And hyena bone marrow mixed with vegetable oil is a proven cure for nervous diseases.

• Chameleon
• The chameleon is a type of lizard that lives in Africa, India and the island of Madagascar. It looks partly like a lizard and a crocodile, and partly like a rat. The size from head to tail is seven or eight fingers. He is distinguished by his exceptional thinness and the fact that he allegedly does not have a drop of blood in his body. There is blood only in the eyes and in the heart. It has everything inside except the spleen. Theophrastus says that his whole body is filled with lungs. Landius writes that his tongue is very long. The sight of him is disgusting. Chameleons move very slowly and enjoy climbing trees.
• They constantly open their mouths because they feed on air and dew, but some say that with their long tongue they catch flies and eat them. They hatch from eggs, burrow into the ground in winter, and emerge from there in summer. There is no animal more fearful than a chameleon. Their biggest enemy is snakes. Chameleon bile ointment cures cataracts in three days.
• Its eggs are poisonous.
• Crocodile
• The crocodile is an ugly and cruel beast that belongs to the group of lizards. Some crocodiles reach a length of 20 to 26 cubits, but usually no more than 10 cubits. They are yellow in color, covered on the back and sides with some kind of thick shields that no arrow can pierce. You can only wound him in the stomach, which is white. Aristotle writes that crocodiles see poorly under water, but in the air they have acute vision. This animal does not have a tongue, but it has a huge and long toothed mouth, in which the teeth are as even as on a comb. Its tail is the same length as the rest of its body, and it uses it for swimming. Hatched from eggs that are the size of goose eggs. The crocodile has strong claws or sharp nails on its feet. This animal is not found here; it lives only in Egypt, Africa, on the Nile River and its tributaries.
• Crocodile is an aquatic animal. It feeds in water and warms itself in the air. It usually stays in the water at night and is on land during the day. It feeds on everything it comes across: it devours people old and small, all kinds of animals, such as calves, dogs and various fish.
• Crocodiles are treacherous beasts of prey, hostile to all other animals. Friendship is recognized only with a bird called trochylis. A crocodile always has a lot of leftover meat in its mouth and between its teeth. When he lies down in the sun to sleep, he always does so with his mouth open; the bird enters his mouth and pecks out the remaining meat from his teeth, which is good for the crocodile and no harm to the bird.
• Fat crocodile, which is completely white, rubbed on patients suffering from high fever. Crocodile blood helps with eye diseases.

• Leopard
• The leopard is a terrible, voracious and dexterous animal, always ready to shed someone's blood. Leopards live along rivers, where there are many trees and bushes, or in similar places. They love wine terribly, they can drink huge amounts of it, and usually you need to catch them when they are intoxicated. They often engage in gluttony, and having eaten too much, they go to bed and sleep until everything is digested. Epian describes the insidious way in which leopards lure monkeys: the leopard, having tracked down a herd of monkeys, comes closer to them and lies down on the ground, legs spread wide, mouth and eyes open - not breathing, pretending to be dead. When the monkeys see this, they are overcome with great joy, but, distrustful by nature, they first send the bravest monkey to find out everything. The monkey, with his heart pounding with fear, creeps up to the leopard, looks into his eyes, sniffs him to make sure that he really is not breathing. The monkeys, seeing that nothing has happened, stop being afraid and begin to dance and jump around the motionless enemy with joy. When the leopard sees that the monkeys have spent a lot of effort and have lost all caution, he jumps up, tears several monkeys into pieces, and eats the fattest of them. The leopard hates humans terribly; it even tears drawn people to pieces. But if he sees the head dead person, leaves.
• Leopard fat is good for dizziness and heart weakness.
• Leopard bile is highly poisonous and kills a person in an instant.

• a lion
• The lion is the king of four-legged animals, as can be seen from his broad and shaggy back, his majestic posture, his gait and important appearance and his strong claws. This is a brave, beautiful, courageous and cheerful animal. There are male and female sexes, and the lioness is smaller and does not have a mane. Males have long manes and are generally considered stronger, bolder, and more predatory than females.
• Lions have different colors. Some are dark red, others are yellow or white, some are black. Their eyes are gray-black and fiery sparkling, causing horror and fear, and they sleep with their eyes open. They have sharp teeth, a hard tongue and a strong, jointless neck so they cannot see behind them. They have a narrow stomach, and there is nothing in their stomach except intestines. They have a long tail with a lush tassel at the end. They often fan themselves with their tail and beat it with it, preparing for battle. They have five claws on their front paws, but only four on their hind paws, and they can retract and extend them as they please, like a cat.
• A lioness can be recognized by the fact that she has no mane and has two nipples hanging from her stomach. The insides of a lion are the same as those of a dog. Galen says that the lion has especially strong muscles on his temples. And Epianus believes that lions have no bone marrow in their bones, but Fallopius writes that he once found some bone marrow in them.
• Lions are naturally warm-blooded, and therefore cannot stand the sun's rays. They walk the same way as camels, only faster, so that their backs shake. If a lion is chasing some kind of animal, it usually overtakes it by jumping, but when it runs away, it does not jump.
• Lions do not cause any particular harm unless they are forced to do so by hunger. And when they are full, then they are friendly and cheerful. The male and female never hunt together; each lives independently and eats meat that it produces for itself. When a lion becomes old and can no longer get food for himself, he comes to the village and attacks people, children and livestock. He drinks very rarely and little.
• A lion is a proud, brave, strong and courageous animal. He strives for victory, but at the same time he is peaceful, fair and loyal to those with whom he lives. He loves his cubs very much and protects them without sparing their lives. When a lion walks, he covers his tracks with his tail so that the hunter does not track him down and find the cubs. Elian tells the following story about the love of lions for their cubs. One day a bear found a lion couple's hole. One day he unexpectedly came there, tore to pieces the lion cubs, ate some of them, and then he himself left in great fear and climbed a tall tree to avoid the lions’ revenge. When the lions discovered the crime, dejected, they followed the tracks and finally found the killer in a tree. And since the lions could not climb the tree after the bear, the lioness lay down under the tree and diligently began to guard. Meanwhile, the lion began to run through the valleys and mountains until he met a peasant with an axe. The peasant was terribly frightened. However, the lion approached him very peacefully and began to lick him. When the peasant saw that the lion did not want to do anything bad to him, he stopped being afraid and stroked the lion. The lion grabbed an ax in his mouth and led the peasant to a tree where the killer bear was still sitting on the branches, and began to point with the ax for the peasant to cut down the tree. Then the peasant cut down the tree, and the lions tore apart the bear, which fell from the tree, thereby avenging the murder. The lions escorted the peasant to the place from which he had come.
• When the lion gets old, the young lions provide him with food. They take him hunting with them, and when he gets tired, they leave him to rest. When they come with prey, the old lion eats with them. Lions eat the meat of various animals, especially camels, zebras and monkeys. Oxen and baby elephants are considered a delicacy. Lions cannot stand the smell of garlic, and therefore will never attack a person rubbed with garlic. The Roman Mark Antony harnessed lions to his chariot, which aroused the greatest admiration of the Roman people.
• If we hang lion's eye teeth around children's necks, then their teeth will not hurt until they are old.
• Lion fat drives disease out of the ears.
• Sextus recommended lion's meat as a good medicine against melancholy.
• Dried and powdered lion's blood should heal ulcers.
• Lion's liver soaked in wine cures liver ailments.

• Rhinoceros
• The rhinoceros is huge, like a bull, the color is like that of an elephant, and in appearance it looks like a wild boar - a horn protrudes above the nose, harder than bone. His forehead is adorned with beautiful hair, his back is spotted, and his skin is hard and rough, covered with such scales that no arrow can take it.
• Some claim that the rhinoceros has two horns, but others deny this. Boethius, who allegedly saw this beast dead twice, gives the following description: the beast is black or ashy in color, its skin, like that of an elephant, is all wrinkled, on the back and sides with deep folds. The skin is so strong that even a Japanese gun cannot penetrate it. The muzzle is similar to a pig's, only more pointed, and has a hard horn on it. Said horn can be black, it can be white, but most often it is grey. The size of a rhinoceros can be compared with an elephant, but its legs are much shorter. One variety of this animal, they say, still exists in Africa: no larger than a wild donkey, with legs like a deer, ears like a horse, and a tail like a cow. The rhinoceros supposedly feeds on sharp spines that cannot damage its hard tongue - the tongue is so sharp that if a rhinoceros licks a person or a horse, death can occur.
• Epian writes that rhinoceroses are unisexual and nothing is known about their reproduction.
• If a rhinoceros wants to attack an elephant, he will first sharpen his horn on a rock, and then drive the horn into the elephant’s stomach and rip it open. But if it doesn’t hit, but hits another place with its horn, the elephant will knock it down with its trunk and tear it to pieces with its tusks. These animals have a terrible hatred for each other. In the city of Lisbon, where there are many people and among them respectable merchants, one could once see a rhinoceros that forced an elephant to run away from it, and then there were many stories testifying to the dexterity, cunning and speed of this beast. When a rhinoceros is wounded, it rushes through the forest with a menacing howl and noise around a large bush or tree and grunts like a pig.
• Isidore writes that this beast cannot be caught except with the help of a pure girl. It is only unknown whether he confused this beast with a unicorn?

• Elephant
• Some of these animals live in the mountains, others in the valleys, and some in swamps or swampy places. They naturally love damp places. They live in large numbers in warm regions, but cannot tolerate the cold. The elephant is the largest animal living on Earth. The male is larger than the female. He is completely black, bald, his back is hard, his stomach is soft, his skin is wrinkled. With folds on their belly they catch flies and other annoying insects. Elephants can relax their skin and then wrinkle it again; they catch insects in the folds, squeeze them there and kill them. Each elephant's mouth has four molars on each side, which they use to chew food. Above the teeth there are two large and long fangs protruding from the upper gums. There is, however, a difference between a female and a male - the male’s fangs are not as large as those of the female. The fangs can be up to ten feet long and are so heavy that a grown man could not lift them. Wartman writes about such a pair of tusks that weighed 336 pounds. Some believe that fangs should not be considered teeth, but rather horns, because they sometimes fall out and grow back. The elephant has a short and wide tongue, but an unusually long nose, called a trunk, which it uses instead of hands.
• Elephants have an excellent memory. If someone offends them, they will remember it and take revenge even many years later.
• The color white is hated so much that people become enraged at the very sight of it.
• The elephant serves food and drink with its trunk, because the trunk is so mobile and bends so much that the elephant can stretch it out and then twist it again. The trunk is hollow and supplies air for the elephant to breathe. An elephant can grab the smallest thing with its trunk, for example, a coin or some other small thing, and give it to its owner. When an elephant crosses water, its trunk rises. The trunk has such strength that it can tear out a bush or an entire tree with its roots. The elephant has a double heart, it does not have a gallbladder, but it has huge lungs. The hind legs bend like a person, although some argue that they have no joints. The legs are round and have five toes. The elephant lives for a very long time, some elephants live two hundred years, and some even count three hundred, but a lot of elephants die from all sorts of diseases and as a result of various unexpected events. After sixty years, elephants are at their best age. Many diseases kill elephants. But the cold is especially dangerous for them. An elephant can be saved from the cold by giving it thick red wine to drink. If an elephant eats a worm, which is called a chameleon, it immediately dies from poisoning. Here only wild olives can save him. These fruits contain an antidote. If an elephant swallows a leech, it faces great danger. It is useful for a tired elephant to anoint its back with vegetable oil, salt and water mixed.
• The elephant loves her cubs immensely, protects them from various dangers and would rather sacrifice her life than abandon her cub.
• The elephant can be completely tamed. He can hit a specified target with a stone, and he can also learn to write, read, dance and play the drum so perfectly that it is simply impossible to believe. Elephants are believed to worship the stars, the Sun and the Moon. When the sun rises, they turn towards it and raise their trunks, as if summoning the sun.
• Elephants are afraid of snakes. In Ethiopia, they say, there are huge snakes, up to thirty steps long, they don’t have any name, for some reason they are called suicides. As soon as the snake tracks the elephant, it crawls onto a tall tree and hangs down, hooking its tail on a branch. When the elephant approaches, she rushes into his eyes, tears them out, and strangles the elephant.
• Elephants serve people for riding instead of horses. Sometimes they are used for household work. An elephant can carry four people on its back. And if someone does not hold on and falls, he will catch him with his trunk so that he does not break. Residents of the Libyan country catch elephants only for their tusks, which are considered very valuable and are called ivory.
• Elephants incredibly love their homeland, and if they are taken to a foreign country, they never forget their native places, they sigh and yearn for their country so much that more than once they lose their minds from tears and suffering and die.
• Smoke from the burned elephant hair of all poisonous snakes will drive away. Elephant tusk rubbed with honey cures rashes and blemishes on the face.

• Dog
• Of all the animals, the dog is the most faithful and most useful to man. The dog has a developed mind, it knows its name and recognizes its owner after a long separation. She is understanding and can learn various tricks, so every time she listens to us, she gets a treat, and if she does something wrong, she gets a punishment. In the old days, the meat of young fat dogs was sacrificed to the gods.
• If someone is suffering from stomach illness, let him put a small dog on his stomach, it will relieve the illness. Dog blood causes hair to fall out; if someone is bitten by a rabid dog, dog blood will certainly save them.
• A proven medicine - cover where the dog bit you with dog hair. And we will remove warts if we rub them with dog urine.

• Zebra
• In the country of the Congo, as in other places in black Africa, there is an animal called the zebra. She looks like a mule, but is not sterile. And its coloring differs from all other animals. It has three different colors: black, white and chestnut and is colored in stripes from the back to the belly, three fingers wide.
• A zebra runs as fast as a horse.
• This animal gives birth to a baby every year. Zebras live in very large herds. Locals They consider the zebra a useless animal, not realizing that in times of peace and war it can replace a horse. But they live in ignorance, and have not heard anything about horses, and do not know how to tame the beast, and therefore they carry the burden on their own backs. They allow themselves to be carried by porters on their shoulders in high stretchers, and if they go on a long journey, then a crowd of porters accompanies them. The porters replace each other, and with their fast steps they will overtake the horse.

• Giraffe
• The giraffe is a type of camel. He is a big music lover. Even if he is very tired, upon hearing the song, he immediately continues on his way. A giraffe can run faster than a horse. Giraffe meat contains harmful juices, and is therefore difficult to digest and tasteless. However, its milk is sweeter and better than human milk. It is recommended to drink giraffe milk when a person has irregular stools; it also helps with joint pain.

Illustration from Gesner’s book “The History of Animals”

The Swiss scientist encyclopedist Konrad Gesner (Gessner), who lived 500 years ago, was one of the first to try to systematize and combine the information about animals known at that time into one scientific work. Since he himself had not been to various Africa and India, he relied on the stories of those who had been or said that they had been. So it turned out that, despite its undeniable scientific value, Gesner’s book “The Life of Animals” is replete with all sorts of funny descriptions. This publication contains the best of them. 🙂

From Gesner's History of Animals.

Swiss encyclopedist Konrad Gesner

Leopard

The leopard is a terrible, voracious and dexterous animal, always ready to shed someone's blood. They love wine terribly, they can drink huge amounts of it, and usually you need to catch them when they are intoxicated.

Epian describes the insidious way in which leopards lure monkeys: the leopard, having tracked a herd of monkeys, comes closer to them and lies on the ground, legs spread wide, mouth and eyes open - not breathing, pretending to be dead. When the monkeys see this, they are overcome with great joy, but, distrustful by nature, they first send the bravest monkey to find out everything. The monkey, with his heart pounding with fear, creeps up to the leopard, looks into his eyes, sniffs him to make sure that he really is not breathing. The monkeys, seeing that nothing has happened, stop being afraid and begin to dance and jump around the motionless enemy with joy. When the leopard sees that the monkeys have spent a lot of effort and have lost all caution, he jumps up, tears several monkeys into pieces, and eats the fattest of them. The leopard hates humans terribly; it even tears drawn people to pieces. But if he sees the head of a dead person, he leaves.

A lion.

Lion from Gesner's book

The lion is the king of four-legged animals, as can be seen from his broad and shaggy back, his majestic posture, his gait and important appearance and his strong claws. This is a brave, beautiful, courageous and cheerful animal.

Lions cannot stand the smell of garlic, and therefore will never attack a person rubbed with garlic.

If we hang lion's eye teeth around children's necks, then their teeth will not hurt until they are old.

Giraffe.

Giraffe from Gesner's book

The giraffe is a type of camel. He is a big music lover. Even if he is very tired, upon hearing the song, he immediately continues on his way.

Rhinoceros

Epian writes that rhinoceroses are unisexual and nothing is known about their reproduction.

If a rhinoceros wants to attack an elephant, he will first sharpen the horn on a rock, and then drive the horn into the elephant’s stomach and rip it open. But if it doesn’t hit, but hits another place with its horn, the elephant will knock it down with its trunk and tear it to pieces with its tusks. These animals have a terrible hatred for each other. In the city of Lisbon, where there are many people and among them respectable merchants, one could once see a rhinoceros that forced an elephant to run away from it, and then there were many stories testifying to the dexterity, cunning and speed of this beast. When a rhinoceros is wounded, it rushes through the forest with a menacing howl and noise around a large bush or tree and grunts like a pig.

Rhino looking for a virgin :)

Isidore writes that this beast cannot be caught except with the help of a pure girl. It is only unknown whether he confused this beast with a unicorn?

Monkey

Of all the animals, the monkey is the most curious; it wants to imitate everything, but it always does the opposite. Mithanius claims that a monkey can learn to play chess.

Monkeys are caught in the following way: since a monkey is an animal that wants to imitate a person in everything, it can be easily caught. A hunter who wants to catch a monkey sits under the tree on which the monkey is sitting, fills a goblet with water and washes his face. Then this cup is filled again, but with glue. The monkey will come up and, like the hunter, will want to wash his eyes too. At the same time, she will cover them so much that she will no longer see, after which she is easy to catch.

If we put a monkey's heart under a sleeping person's head, he will have nightmares.

Elephant.

Gesner's elephant

If an elephant eats a worm, which is called a chameleon, it immediately dies from poisoning. Here only wild olives can save him. These fruits contain an antidote. If an elephant swallows a leech, it faces great danger. It is useful for a tired elephant to anoint its back with vegetable oil, salt and water mixed.

Elephants are believed to worship the stars, the Sun and the Moon. When the sun rises, they turn towards it and raise their trunks, as if summoning the sun.