14 ON THE ICHTHYOLOGICAL SYSTEM 



we find even the Halieuticon ascribed to Ovid, remark- 

 able as containing the names of fifty-three species of fish 

 then known '. 



In the decline of letters, we observe him consulting the 

 fathers, although from such authorities only a solitary fact 

 might perchance be elicited 2 . When letters were nearly lost, 

 such writers as Isidore of Seville are mentioned, to show that 

 the species of fish then known were reduced to a number 

 scarcely exceeding thirty. As learning rekindled, and light 

 spread anew, he commences a series of notices in chronological 

 succession, amongst which we find the names of Albertus Mag- 

 nus, Vincent of Beauvais, Massaria, Paulus Jovius, Gyllius, 

 Lonicerus, Belon, Salviani, Rondelet, Conrad Gesner, Aldro- 

 vandus,Thevet,Lery,Clusius,Delaet,Nieremberg, Hernandez, 

 Prince Jean-Maurice, Piso, Margrave, Bontius, Nieuhof : fur- 

 ther on we find Haller, Borelli, Malpighi, Steno, Harvey, 

 8wammerdam,Valisnieri,Needham, Collins, Jonston,Valentyn, 

 Ray, Willughby, Sloane, Iago, Catesby, Hughes, Edwards, 

 Marsigli, Artedi, and finally, Linnrcus, Pennant, Pallas, Bloch, 

 Lacepede, and an immense list of recent authors. Among 

 the number here noticed, and still more of those whose names 

 we have omitted, many are reviewed by the author, merely 

 on account of a single anatomical record of some one viscus 

 of a fish, or for observations on one particular species 3 . All 

 the articles relating to ichthyology in the transactions of the 

 numerous scientific societies of Europe, America, and in the 



1 Pliny, xxxii. c. 2. ascribes this little poem to Ovid ; it is found in 

 some editions of his works, and in the Poetae Latini Minores : but modern 

 critics consider Gratius Faliscus as the author ; perhaps for no better 

 reason than that he wrote the Cynegeticon. C. 



2 St. Ambrose, Comment on Genesis ; Eustathius, Hexaemeron ; even 

 George Pisides. i'ia!)fi(pov KOff/xoi'oyia, &c. 



3 Among the researches in anatomy are a variety of inaugural theses 

 and notices of isolated discoveries relating to ichthyology. 



2 



