OF BARON CUVIElt. 17 



commenced in silence the career of deep researches which 

 form the basis of his present system l . But even at the pre- 



1 Baron Cuvier commenced his labours in ichthyology in the year 1788, 

 by studying and dissecting species near their native element, on the coast 

 of the Channel and Normandy. He resumed this kind of labour at 

 Marseilles in 1803, and in the years 1809, 1810, and 1813, at Genoa, and 

 on different parts of the coast of Italy. At different periods he visited 

 and inspected many museums of the continent and of England, and 

 carried his researches so far, as to send his assistant, M. Valenciennes, to 

 Antwerp, to ascertain the question of the existence of the tripteronotus, 

 or daulen of Rondelet. Besides the constant supply of fresh specimens 

 furnished to him at Paris, he could examine the collections (mostly in 

 spirits) called the Old, in the King's cabinet ; that of Peron, from the 

 Pacific; of the Stadtholder of Holland, brought from the Hague, and 

 mostly collected in the Indian Seas ; another Indian series, named Com- 

 mersons ; those of Laroche, from Ivica ; and of Lalande, from the Medi- 

 terranean ; all of which were consulted for the first edition of the Regne 

 Animal. Since that time, the French navy and scientific travellers, in 

 obedience to the directions issued by the ministers of marine and the 

 interior, have caused great additions to be made to the stores in the royal 

 museum. Strangers also have zealously co-operated in his wishes. 

 Messrs. de Lalande and Auguste St. Hilaire, Prince Max. of Neuweid, 

 and Mr. Spix, furnished specimens from Brazil ; Messrs. Richard and 

 Leblond, Poiteau, Leschenault, and Doumere, from Cayenne ; Messrs. 

 Pley, Lefort, Achard, Ricord, and Poey, from Martinico, Guadaloupe, 

 Porto Rico, Columbia, St. Domingo, and Cuba; Humboldt, from the 

 Cordilleras ; Bosc, Milbert, Lesueur, De Kay, Mitchill, and Pylaie, from 

 the United States and Newfoundland ; Mr. Richardson, from the Polar 

 regions ; Messrs. Roger, Geoffroy, and Mareschaux, from Senegal, Egypt, 

 Tunis, and the Bisertan lake ; Sonnerat, Leschenault, and Mathieu, from 

 the Indian Ocean, Isles of France and Bourbon; Messrs. Diard and 

 Duvaucel, Kuhl and Van Hasselt, Reinwart and Temminck, from the 

 Australian seas, the Moluccas, the Ganges, and upper rivers of India ; 

 Dussumier, from China ; Ehrenberg, from the Red Sea and Nile ; 

 Tilesius and Langsdorff, from Japan and Kamtschatka ; Messrs. Risso, 

 Bonelli, and Savigny, from Nice and Italy ; Biberon, from Sicily ; 

 Leach, from Malta; Admiral de Rigny, from the Levant ; Gamba, from 

 the Phasis and Don ; the Grand Duchess Helena of Russia, fish from 



VOL. X. C 



