CHAPTER XXII 

 THE HISTORY OF ICHTHYOLOGY 



CIENCE consists of human experience, tested and 

 placed in order. The science of ichthyology repre- 

 sents our knowledge of fishes, derived from varied 

 experiences of man, tested by methods or instruments of 

 precision and arranged in orderly sequence. This science, in 

 common with every other, is the work of many persons, each 

 in his own field, and each contributing a series of facts, a 

 series of tests of the alleged facts of others, or some improve- 

 ment in the method of arrangement. As in other branches 

 of science, this work has been done by sincere, devoted men, 

 impelled by a love for this kind of labor, and having in view, 

 as "the only reward they asked, a grateful remembrance of 

 their work." And in token of this reward it is well some- 

 times, in grateful spirit, to go over the names of those who made 

 even its present stage of completeness possible. 



We may begin the history of ichthyology with that of so 

 many others of the sciences, with the work of Aristotle (383- 

 322 B.C.). This wonderful observer recorded many facts con- 

 cerning the structure and habits of the fishes of Greece, and in 

 almost every case his actual observation bears the closest mod- 

 ern test. These observations were hardly "set in order." The 

 number of species he knew was small, about 118 in all, and it 

 did not occur to him that they needed classification. His ideas 

 of species were those of the fishermen, and the local vernacular 

 supplied him with the only names needed in his records. 



As Dr. Gtinther wisely observes, "It is less surprising that 

 Aristotle should have found so many truths as that none of his 

 followers should have added to them." For nearly 1800 years 

 the scholars of the times copied the words of Aristotle, confus- 



387 



