388 The History of Ichthyology 



ing them by the addition of fabulous stories and foolish super- 

 stitions, never going back to nature herself, "who leads us to 

 absolute truth whenever we wander." A few observations 

 were made by Caius Plinius, Claudius ^Elianus, Athenaeus and 

 others. Theophrastus (370-270 B.C.) wrote on the fishes 

 which may live out of water. About 400 A.D., Decius Magnus 

 Ausonius wrote a pleasing little poem on the Moselle, setting 

 forth the merits of its various fishes. It was not, however, 

 until the middle of the seventeenth century that any advance 

 was made in the knowledge of fishes. At that time the devel- 

 opment of scholarship among the nations of Europe was such 

 that a few wise men were able to grasp the idea of species. 



In 1553, Pierre Belon (1518-64) published his octavo vol- 

 ume of 448 pages, entitled " De Aquatilibus," in which numerous 

 (no) species of fishes of the Mediterranean were described, 

 with tolerable figures, and with these is a creditable attempt 

 at classification. At about this time Ulysses Aldrovandi, of 

 Bologna, founded the first museum of natural history and 

 wrote on the fishes it contained. In 1554-58, Ippolito Salviani 

 (1513-72), a physician at Rome, published a work entitled 

 "Aquatilium Animalium Historia," with good figures of most 

 of the species, together with much general information as to the 

 value and habits of animals of the sea. 



More important than these, but almost simultaneous with 

 them, is the great work of Guillaume Rondelet (1507-57), "De 

 Piscibus Marinis" (1554-55), at first written in Latin, later 

 translated into French and enlarged under other titles. In 

 this work, 244 different species, chiefly from the Mediterranean, 

 are fairly described, and the various fables previously current 

 are subjected to severe scrutiny. Recognizable woodcuts rep- 

 resent the different species. Classification, Rondelet had none, 

 except as simple categories for purposes of convenience. More 

 than usual care is given to the vernacular names, French and 

 Greek. He closes his book with these words : 



"Or s'il en i a qui prennent les choses tant a la rigueur, qui 

 ne veulent rien apparouver qui ne soit du tout parfait, je les 

 prie de bien bon cueur de traiter telle, ou quelque autre his- 

 toire parfaitement, sans qu'il i ait chose quelconque k redire 

 et la receverons e haut louerons bien vouluntiers. Cependant 



