It was the custom among the Assyrian people to preserve corpses in honey, and this did very well also for delicate objects. When Alexander the Great conquered Suza, he found a very large and expensive quantity of purple dye two hundred years old, preserved in an excellent condition by an external layer of honey. Covering the objects with wax preserved them well, but for scientific purposes not better than the mummies of animals found to this day in the Egyptian pyramids. The celebrated book of Numa Pompilius, found in his grave, was entirely covered with wax, and, though five hundred years old, in perfect condition.
The long space of time after Christ’s death, nearly twelve centuries, is entirely devoid of interest concerning natural history. Curious enough, and perhaps explaining this lack of interest, is the fact that in the earlier centuries of the Christian era the study of natural history was believed to be in some way a proof of religious infidelity. The reason of this will probably be found in the lack of education and study of the disciples and nearly all the apostles. Discussion would have been impossible, difficult, or of doubtful result. Simple faith covered all. So it happened that the prominent works of Aristotle were nearly lost in Europe. Translations of these into the Arabian language, introduced in the tenth century through Spain, and again translated into Latin, were used, and the original text was perhaps not known until the fifteenth century in the west of Europe. Except a few scanty pages in the works of Saint Isidorus, there was nothing written about natural history before the time of Albert the Great, and of course no collections existed. We are told by Begin, in his work on the natural history of the Middle Ages, that rich abbeys and cloisters possessed indeed some collections of medicinal or poisonous plants, of fossils, minerals, and shells. Even in the time of the Crusaders, such collections were augmented by frequent voyages in foreign countries. Some of these curiosities are still preserved: for instance, in the treasury of St. Denis, in France, the feet of a griffin, sent to Charles the Great by the Persian Shah; some teeth of the hippopotamus, and similar objects.
The vast erudition of the celebrated Albertus Magnus, a Catholic priest born in Bollstadt, in Germany, extended even to natural history. His works are in every way admirable. The manifold voyages of this savant, his long residence in very different places, Cologne, Paris, Rome, and Regensburg, facilitated the observation of different animals. The works of Aristotle
