Konrad Von Gesner, a Swiss naturalist and philologist, born in Zurich, March 26, 1516, died there, Dec. 13, 1565. He studied at Zurich, Strasburg, Paris, Basel, and Montpellier, and was successively master of a school at Basel, teacher at Lausanne, and practising physician and professor at Zurich. His first important work was Bibliotheca Universalis (Zurich, 1545-,9), containing the titles of all the books then known in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, with criticisms, summaries, and specimens. In 1555 appeared his Mithridates de Differentiis Linguarum, having accounts of 130 ancient and modern languages. His most important work, Historia Animalium, published between 1551 and 1556, is a summary of all that was then known of zoology. His Opera Botanica (published by Schmiedel, Nuremberg, 1753-9) gives particular attention to the flower and the fruit, and suggests the possibility of a classification by means of the organs of fructification.