Scientific Reviewst 199 



remained stationary in the midst of the innumerable discoveries 

 which have enriched zoology, and created a new era in human 

 knowledge. IMany of the cetacea have been known from the 

 earliest antiquity. The writings of ancient authors, of Aristotle, 

 , of Pliny, of Elian, make mention of them under the name of 

 Cetus, or of Kd^d, (cete), which was also applied to large fishes 

 of the genus Squalus. This is the source of the name cetacea, 

 which has been in universal acceptation by the moderns. Observed 

 from the remotest times on the coasts of Celtic nations, the ceta- 

 cea received from them the name of Whall, (whale), and this word, 

 slightly modified by orthography, is used by all people of Teutonic 

 origin. The Italians and French on the coasts of the Atlantic and 

 Mediterranean apply the term souffleur, (blower or spouter,) or its 

 synonyme, to all the tribe. 



Aristotle speaks only of a single species of whale, and says that it 

 is a thousand feet in length, an exaggeration which proves that he 

 only knew it by popular report. He however places it in the In- 

 dian Ocean, and it is therefore possible that it may be the Balcena 

 mysticettis of which he speaks. He separates the cetacea from 

 other animals, to form a sort of genus. " We may establish," he 

 observes, " the genus of birds, that of fishes, that of cetacea," 

 &c. ; but nothing would induce us to suppose that he had any true 

 idea of these animals. 



The history of the dolphin is much more circumstantial, and we 

 cannot doubt that Aristotle was well acquainted with it ; but he has 

 so mixed the truth vnth fable, that it is requisite first to know the 

 facts before we can find them in his history. The porpess is the 

 phocena of Aristotle, according to most ichthyologists of the last 

 century ; but he names the Black Sea alone as its habitat, and 

 says that its siae may be less than that of the dolphin. The porpess 

 of the Mediterranean, however, appears to be, according to the 

 learned Scaliger, the tyrsio of the Greeks, although some authors 

 take the tyrsio to be the common seal. 



If, after Aristotle, we consult the works of Pliny, we draw there- 

 from but little additional knowledge. Under the description of 

 certain species, he has united the marvellous tales which seamen 

 have related of many kinds of marine animals. He was acquaint- 

 ed, however, with the use and functions of the spiracles, though he 

 gives no explanation of their mechanism. 



But, notwithstanding the critical labours of the moderns, it is 

 vain to attempt the positive determination of the animals of which 

 the ancients wrote; and even still more obscurity pervades the works 

 of the naturalists of later ages. Rising from the torpidity of along 

 and dark period, they found in monastic libraries the writings 

 which had been penned in the times of Greek and Roman glory, and 

 they seized with avidity every thing that had been related, prizing 

 hat most which was most marvellous. Their works, however, con- 



m numerous and important observations, and the natural historian 

 ' find it no unprofitable task to sift the wheat from the chafl^. 



