304? Dr Cfadgie-s Observations on thei.^^^^y^ 



into Italy, enabled him to spend much of his time in that toiini' 

 try, and to procure much of the zootomical and zoological infor*.' 

 mation with which his History of Fishes abounds. It appears 

 even that his subsequent appointment (1565) to the professoru 

 ship of medicine in the University of Montpellier, did not pre^ 

 vent him from attending the Cardinal, and collecting materials 

 for zoology and zootomy* ^^^^ »i' ^^ '^^'i ■ '^ ;>^orij ni JBffi 



The principal work of Rbndelet i^ his Natural HiStdiy'df 

 Fishes, published at Lyons in 1554, in eighteen books ; and it 

 is valuable in giving not only the zoological, but much of the 

 anatomical history of these animals. The first four books of 

 this work are devoted to the explanation of the principal exter- 

 nal and anatomical characters of fishes. In the eleven succeed- 

 ing ones he describes more than 200 species of fishes, and 

 though in the number of genera several changes have taken 

 place since his time, he has described at least 120. The six- 

 teenth book contains an account of three species of turtle, and 

 an interesting sketch of the cetaceous and amphibious mammalia ; 

 and in the seventeenth he describes several genera of mollusca 

 and Crustacea, ^^^ Jq^oxij ^^m bd l 



From this ari^angemeht^ofliis" subject, it may be seen that 

 Rondelet emplo}'s the term^sk, in a sense too extensive; and 

 indeed beseems to hav^ included under this denomination every 

 living inhabitant of the waters. It would be unjust, however, 

 to his anatomical knowledge, to represent him as confounding 

 them all under one general head. He has drawn an accu- 

 rate and distinct line between the fishes properly so named, or 

 those which breathe by gills, and the ichthyoid or fish-like ani- 

 teials, which breathe by lungs ; and he repeatedly takes occasion 

 to point out the resemblance between the anatomical structure of 

 the latter and that of the other Mammalia. a .a 



It would lead me much beyond the limits within whlcK'^t 

 inust confine this sketch, were I to give even a general account 

 of the valuable researches of Rondelet. A few points onlv, 

 which may sliew his talent for observation, I shall specify. In 

 the first nine chapters of the third book, he considers the general 

 characters of the head, eyes, ears, mouth, snout, jaws, teeth, 

 nostrils and lips, and tongue and palate. He then examines 

 ihe windpipe and lungs, and observes that their place is supplied 



