Many of the objects we have described in our pages were described and illustrated by Hooke more than two hundred years ago. The sea mat, despite his accurate observations, he mistook for a seaweed, as many later naturalists have done. The stinging hairs of nettle he made out in every detail. Fish scales, bee stings and birds’ feathers all came under his notice. The foot of a fly he described with wonderful accuracy; the scales of a butterfly’s wing and the head of a fly were all studied and described in detail. On the life history of the gnat he made many blunders, but he saved his reputation by remarkable observations upon the _Chelifer_, a curious parasite of the fly which we mention in our pages, and upon the silver fish, a little creature which frequents sugar and starch. Neither of these organisms had been described before. Fleas, lice, vinegar-eels and spiders were also studied by this indefatigable worker, a worthy collection indeed, but Hooke, like others of his time, was an observer first and foremost. As a methodical, scientific worker he was of little account. Living about the same time as Hooke, the celebrated Italian, Malpighi, laid the foundations of much of our present-day knowledge of plant structure. Various romantic stories have been told concerning certain imaginary events which led Malpighi to take up the study of plant structure, but the scientist himself refuted these picturesque stories. Suffice it to say that his book on the subject, _Anatome Plantarum_, though imperfect in many respects and, as might be conjectured in so early a work, often inaccurate, contains a large number of astonishingly good drawings; many of the original drawings, by the way, executed in red chalk, are in the possession of the Royal Society.