432 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



CORRESPONDENCE 



LACEPEDE'S TABLEAUX. . . . DES MAMMIFERES ET DES OISEAUX ; 1799 



Lacepede' s "Memoire sur line nouvelle table methodique des animaux a mamelles " 

 was read before the Institute on 21 Prairial an 7 [9 June 1799]. It was published in the 

 Memoires de l'lnstitut, vol. iii., in 1801. Louis Agassiz quotes the table as Mem. de 

 l'lnstit., iii., 1797, an obviously incorrect date ; but many others have quoted it as 1799 

 without giving any evidence as to the accuracy of the quotation. As great importance 

 attaches to the proper date of this paper, it became necessary for me to investigate the 

 matter carefully, but I could not discover any definite statement except that of Engel- 

 mann, who in his Bibl. Hist. Nat. 1846, p. 376, refers to it as "in-4. Paris, an vii. 

 (1799). Plassan. (38 pag.)." Up to the present, however, I have completely failed to 

 find this 4to tract ; it cannot be a separate of the Mem. de l'lnst. paper because that was 

 printed by Baudouin, and Engelmann gives Plassan as the printer of the tract ; besides 

 the pages of the Institute paper are 32 against 38 of the tract referred to by Engelmann. 

 But I have found, quite by accident, in Didot's issue of Buffon's Hist. Nat., 18mo Paris, 

 76 vols., 1799-1806, in the xiv. vol. of Quadrupedes, this interesting tableau, and it is 

 dated 1799, and it was printed by Plassan. The title of the two papers (for the birds 

 are included) are as follows :—" Tableau des divisions, sous-divisions, ordres et genres 

 des Mammiferes, Par le C ea Lacepede ; Avec l'indication de toutes les especes decrites par 

 Buffon, et leur distribution dans chacun des genres, par F. M. Daudin " (pp. 143-196). 



"Tableau des sous-classes, divisions, sous-divisions, ordres et genres des Oiseaux, 

 Par le C en Lacepede ; Avec l'indication de toutes les especes decrites par Buffon, et leur 

 distribution dans chacun des genres, par F. M. Daudin " (pp. 197-346). Both of these 

 are referred to as one tract, " in-18. Paris, 1802. Plassan," by Engelmann, Bibl. 

 Hist. Nat. 1846, p. 322. , 



It will be noted first— That the Genera only are by Lacepede ; and secondly— that all 

 the species are by F. M. Daudin. 



As the period 1798-1801 is a critical one for nomenclature, I need do no more than 

 point out the interest of this recovery ; but my friend Oldfield Thomas hopes to prepare 

 an analysis of the Mammalia. Ornithologists will find many interesting points to con- 

 sider in nomenclature when comparing the above paper with Daudin's ' ' Traite 

 Elementaire," which it undoubtedly precedes. 



C. Davies.Sherborn, 



17th Nov. 1897. I NDEX Animalium. 



Mr R. Quick writes from the Homimau Museum, that an examination of Mr Harrison's 

 collection of flints from the Plateau gravels of Kent has convinced him that these are 

 truly primitive implements. He thus agrees with Sir Joseph Pretwich, and considers 

 that Mr Cunnington's reasoning in our last number (pp. 327-333) is not cogent. 



Erratum.— Page 321, line 25. For ' Siberian ' read ' Silurian.' 



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