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838 ©oXe£’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
coaft, and collefted various marine produdtions. On the 13th of Mav, he landed in
Holland; and, pafling through the Hague, Leyden, Amfterdam, and the circle of
Weltphalia, arrived at Berlin on the 12th of June.
To commence the praétice of his profeffion, his father fent him to Hanover for the
purpofe of procuring the place of furgeon in the allied army; but on his arrival in
July, the peace being nearly concluded, he returned to Berlin. He there paffed a
year, which he chiefly employed in preparing materials for a Fauna Infectorum Mar-
chica; ora Delcription of the Infects in the March of Brandenburgh ; the manufcript
of which now remains unpublifhed in the poffeflion of profeffor Sandford, at Leyden,
becaufe the author diffidently efteemed it unworthy of publication.
Animated by his predile€tion for natural hiftory, he extorted his father’s confent to
fettle in Holland, and arrived in September at the Hague, where he obtained a fettle-
ment through the recommendation of Gaubius.
His reputation as a man of {cience being eftablifhed, he was elefted Fellow of the
Royal Society of London, and member of the academy Des Curieux de la Nature; to
both of which focieties he had previoufly fent fome interefting papers.
His intimacy with the moft celebrated naturalifts in Holland, particularly with thofe of
the Hague, who had juft eftablifhed a literary fociety ; the free accefs which he had to the
mufeum of the Prince of Orange,and other curious cabinets; the fy{tematic catalogues of
thofe collections which he drew up, feveral of which he gave to the public, contributed to
advance his knowledge of natural produétions in the various parts of the globe; and to
furnifh him fuch materials as gave birth to thofe accurate compofitions which have
defervedly diftinguifhed him as the firft zoologift of Europe. One of his firft works in
this branch of fcience, which rendered him eminently confpicuous, was Elenchus Zoo-
phytorum.
J he attention which Pallas beftowed on the Zoophytes, or animal-plants, in the
inveftigation of the worms infefting the human body, particularly the uncommon na-
ture ot the ¢enia, or tape-worn, as he acknowledges, feems to have led him into this
line of natural fcience. In this work, which is printed in o€tavo, after treating on the
nature of thefe animals in a general way, and giving the various opinions of authors
relating to the place they ought to hold in the Syftem of Nature, he defcribes, from
his own infpeétion, more than two hundred and feventy fpecies of thofe worms and
animalcules, which are known under the generical names of polypes, corals, madre«
pores, corallines, fea pens, ¢enia or tape-worm, fponges, fea-fans, &c.
The free accefs which he had to the mufeum of the Prince of Orange, and other
curious colleétions in Holland, enabled him to enrich his work with the defcription of
various produétions, brought from both Indies. He has defcribed each fpecies at large,
and given it a new name, charatteriftic of its real diftinGtions ; and (what efpecially in-
creafes the value of his work) he has extricated, as far as poflible, the fynonyms of
former authors, both ancient and modern; thus rendering his book highly ufeful to
thofe who are curious in this branch of natural hiftory.
In a dedication to his Mifcellanca Zoologica, publifhed in the fame year, the author lays
before the Prince of Orange a plan for a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and to the
other Dutch fettlements in the Eaft Indies ; and which, impelled by an ardour of fcien-
tific knowledge, he offered to undertake and fuperintend. This plan, calculated to
improve our acquaintance with the natural hiftory of thofe regions, was ftrongly re-
commended by Gaubius, and approved by the Prince; but was obftructed by the
author’s father, who recalled him to’Berlin.
4 Pallas,
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