42 Dr. J. E. Gray on a MS. of Laurence Theodore Gronov. 



a MS. description, was offered for public sale in a collection of 

 objects of vertu in Bond Street. 



At the time of the sale and while on view the MS. could not 

 be found; however, as a slight examination of the specimens 

 showed they were a partially named collection of about the time 

 of Gronov (better known by his Latinized name of Gronovius), 

 who was, without doubt, one of the best ichthyologists of the 

 latter part of the last century, and by a person who used the 

 names which he had introduced, and I found there were sundry 

 Dutch names on the specimens, and the paper of Dutch manu- 

 facture, I considered the collection even without the MS. would 

 be an advantageous purchase. 



The day after the sale the MS. was found and delivered, and 

 I was much pleased to find it consisted of 120 separate sheets 

 of gilt-edged quarto letter paper, containing the generic and spe- 

 cific characters and detailed descriptions of the new species in the 

 collection, with a reference to their synonyma, illustrated with 

 84 similar sheets, consisting of original drawings of the more 

 important species, some engravings extracted from Gronovius's 

 ^ Museum Ichthyologicum,' and some of the original drawings 

 from whence other figures in that work and the 'Gazophylacium ' 

 of the same author had been engraved. 



A careful examination of the MS. convinced me that it must 

 have been written by that author, and was a revision and exten- 

 sion of his other works on Ichthyology, and must have been pre- 

 pared between 1774 and his death in 1777. I am led to this 

 conclusion froni the following reasons : — 



1. In referring to the works of other authors the name pre- 

 cedes the reference, but in referring to the ' Museum Ichthyolo- 

 gicum ^ and the ' Gazophylacium ^ (which is referred to through- 

 out the whole MS.) the name is always oinitted, and only the 

 title of the work cited. 



2. Under the genus " Teuthis Linnaa '' the author refers as 

 a synonym to " Hepatus nobis,'' and this genus was established 

 by Gronovius in the ' Zoophylacium,' n. 352. 



3. The style of the work exactly agrees with that of his pre- 

 ceding works, and the author uses the technical terms peculiar 

 to him, and explained in the '^ Museum Ichthyologicum.' 



4. The new species are fully described ; but when the species 

 is described at length in the ' Zoophylacium,' he only refers to 

 the page where it is to be found. 



But all doubt of the authorship was set at rest by observing 

 that in several instances the author states at the end of the 

 species, "Descripsi in Zoophylaceo, p. 113. n. 362," and once, 

 " Descriptionem exhibui in Zooph. p. 24." 



If there had remained any doubt I might have added, the 



