270 Count Lacepede on the Natural Histori/ of Fishes. 



than 1400 in his Sy sterna^ which appeared after M. de La- 

 cepede's first volumes, and which was compiled under circum- 

 stances much more favourable. 



These numbers will still appear small to those who may be 

 aware that the Royal Cabinet in Paris alone now contains up- 

 wards of 4000 species of fishes ; but such has been the activity 

 of science over all the world, since the opening of the seas, that 

 all the collections have been doubled and tripled, and an entirely 

 new era has commenced in natural history. This circumstance 

 derogates nothing from the merit of the writer, who did all that 

 it was possible to do at the period when he commenced his in- 

 vestigations ; and such was M. de Lacepede. Even at the pre- 

 sent day there is no work on the history of fishes superior to 

 his, and he is always quoted on the subject. The work of Dr 

 Shaw, in which the descriptions are arranged according to Lin- 

 naeus's system, is much indebted to Lacepede. And even when 

 the immense materials collected in these latter years shall have 

 been put together in another work, the brilliant pieces of colour- 

 ing, full of sensibility and deep philosophy, with which M. de 

 Lacepede has enriched his work, will not be forgotten. Science, 

 from its nature, is every hour advancing ; there is no observer 

 who may not outdo his predecessors in facts, nor any naturalist 

 who may not improve upon their systems ; but the great wri- 

 ters will not remain the less immortal. 



The natural history of fishes was followed, in 1804, by that of 

 the Cetacea, which terminates the great system of vertebrate ani- 

 mals. M. de Lacepede considered it as the most perfect of his 

 works ; and in fact he treated the historical and descriptive part, 

 that referring to the organisation, and the methodical characters, 

 better than in any other. His style also rises in some measure 

 in proportion to the grandeur of the objects. He augments by 

 about a third the number of species, enrolled before him in the 

 great catalogue of animals ; but since his time this department 

 of science has also been improved. The posthumous work of 

 Camper, and those of some other naturalists, have thrown much 

 light upon the osteology of the Cetacea. 



