British naturalist, highly regarded by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus (1707-1778), who called him one of the brightest stars of natural history. In 1754, elected member of the Royal Society of London. In 1755, published in London a book on corals, translated into French the following year, which won him an international reputation. His name is linked to a type of simple microscope suitable for the study of small aquatic organisms placed in a glass vessel. The device became very popular in the mid-18th C. It was also used by Felice Fontana (1730-1805), Director of the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale in Florence.