MEMOIR OP RONDELET. 43 



torpedo, deserving to be sought after on that account 

 alone. The gall-bladder is long, the gall watery ; 

 the spleen blackish. If we examine this fish through 

 the mouth, when its body is distended as much as 

 possible, the whole seems pellucid ; and by the light 

 admitted, it appears like a lantern of frightful ap- 

 pearance. The rana marina can live a considerable 

 time out of water. We have seen them sometimes 

 live two days on the shore among grass, and have 

 known them seize with their teeth the foot of a fox 

 in search of prey in the night and hold it till morn- 

 ing, from which we may form an opinion of the 

 strength of its mouth and teeth. The flesh is soft, 

 excrementitious, and unsavoury." * 



These specimens, which it is unnecessary to 

 multiply, will convey some idea of the character 

 and properties of Rondelet's famous work. Not a 

 small number of the Mediterranean fishes he des- 

 cribes are so rare, that they were not again seen by 

 naturalists till the time of Risso and Savigny. This 

 work furnishes nearly all that has been said re- 

 specting the fishes of the Mediterranean by Ges- 

 ner, Aldrovandi, Willughby, Artedi, and Linnasus. 

 Bloch does not say much about them ; but Lacepede 

 was not a little indebted to Rondelet. The work 

 was translated into French (Lyons, 1558), and this 

 translation has been ascribed to Laurent Joubert, 

 the friend of Rondelet, and also his biographer ; by 

 others it is assigned to Desmoulins. Boussuet wrote 

 an abridgement of the ' De piscibus marinis' in Latin. 

 * Page 363—367. 



