12-i HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY. 



The reforms of Linnaeus, in all parts of natural history, appear as if 

 they were mainly dictated by a love of elegance, symmetry, clearness 

 and clefiniteness ; but the improvement of the ichthyological system 

 by Artedi seems to have been a step in the progress to a natural 

 arrangement. His ge-nera, 9 which are forty-five in number, are so well 

 constituted, that they have almost all been preserved ; and the sub- 

 divisions which the constantly-increasing number of species has com- 

 pelled his successors to introduce, have very rarely been such that 

 they have led to the transposition of his genera. 



In its bases, however, Artedi's was an artificial system. His charac- 

 ters were positive and decisive, founded in general upon the number 

 of rays of the membrane of the gills, of which he was the first to 

 mark the importance ; upon the relative position of the fins, upon 

 their number, upon the part of the mouth where the teeth are found, 

 upon the conformation of the scales. Yet, in some cases, he has 

 recourse to the interior anatomy. 



Linnaeus himself at first did not venture to deviate from the footsteps 

 of a friend, who, in this science, had been his master. But in 1758, in 

 the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae, he chose to depend upon 

 himself, and devised a new ichthyological method. He divided some 

 genera, united others, gave to the species trivial names and character- 

 istic phrases, and added many species to those of Artedi. Yet his 

 innovations are for the most part disapproved of by Cuvier ; as his 

 transferring the chondropterygian fishes of Artedi to the class of rep- 

 tiles, under the title of Amphybia nantes ; and his rejecting the 

 distinction of acanthopterygian and malacopterygian, which, as we 

 have seen, had prevailed from the time of Willoughby, and introducing 

 in its stead a distribution founded on the presence or absence of the 

 ventral fins, and on their situation with regard to the pectoral fins. 

 "Nothing," says Cuvier, "more breaks the true connexions of genera 

 than these orders of apodcs, juyulares, thoracici, and abdominales" 



Thus Linnaeus, though acknowledging the value and importance of 

 natural orders, was- not happy in his attempts to construct a system 

 which should lead to them. In his detection of good characters for an 

 artificial system he was more fortunate. He was always attentive to 

 number, as a character ; and he had the very great merijt 10 of introdu- 

 cing into the classification the number of rays of the fins of each species. 

 This mark is one of great importance and use. And this, as well as 



Cuvier, p. 71. 10 p. 74. 



