Note 1387 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
Hist. Naturelle, Premier Discours. The truth is that all Buffon’s censures on Aldrovandus fall equally on Gesner, who is not less accumulative of materials not properly bearing on natural history, and not much less destitute of systematic order. The remarks of Buffon on this waste of learning are very just, and applicable to the works of the sixteenth century on almost every subject as well as zoology.