MUSEUMS.

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Apollonius informs us, by Philostratus his biographer,that he saw some of those nuts in India , which were pre-served in the Grecian temples as curiosities. Lib. iii. c. 5.Numberless othe instances might be collected, but it isconceived the preceding may suffice.

We next observe upon collections made by princes andgreat men. Suetonius says Augustus had a collection ofnatural curiosities. Alexander the Great gave directions forall huntsmen, bird-catchers, and fishermen to send whateveranimals they could procure to Aristotle . There is littleroom to doubt that Apuleius, Theophrastus, and Pliny ,had all of them made such collections; as those naturalists ac-curately examined whatever they found, and, allowingfor the infancy of natural science, correctly described suchproductions. Theophrastus , in particular, undertook distantjourneys for that purpose; on the Getulian mountains, hecollected some rare specimens of petrifactions, which heconsidered to have been part of the effects of Deucalion’sflood. Modern naturalists, with philosophers, have muchcause to regret that the writings of this great philosopher,respecting these subjects, are lost.

Doubtless, a principal cause why the ancients had so fewnatural objects preserved, must have arisen from their igno-rance of the best mode of preservation. They certainlyused the best means they knew for that purpose, when theypreserved them in honey, brine, or wax ; but as these wereinadequate for common inspection, their inutility maybe assigned as the most probable cause for such neglect.The best preservative of perishable substances, that wasfirst suggested, there is room to believe, was salt. DionCassius relates that Pharnaces caused the body of his pa-rent, Mithridates , to be deposited in salt-brine, that itmight be transmitted to Pompey . A hippocentaur, probablya monstrous birth, being caught in Arabia, was broughtalive to Egypt, according to Varro , de Re Rustica, lib. ii. c.4.It died there; but was preserved in brine, and afterwards sentto Rome ; the Emperor deposited it in his collection, wherePliny saw it, as did Phlegon . Another hippocentaur was trans-mitted to the Emperor Constantine, at Antioch, of whichSt. Jerome bears evidence. A large ape, of the order ofPan, sent by the Indians to Constantine , happening to dieupon the road, from its confinement, was preserved insalt, and so conveyed to Constantinople . Even as late as1113, a like process was pursued with the body of St.Guibert, that it might keep during a long journey in summer;

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