184 APPLICATION OF THE NAME TEUTHIS—GILL. 



Y. 



Far from the ''first restriction" of Texthis being to KSigaitus (as 

 claimed by Jordan), it was not till near tlie close of tlie first half of the 

 nineteenth century that any proposition to that effect was i)ublished. 



In 1849 Dr. Cantor,^ in his < 'atalogue of Malayan Fishes, nsed the 

 name Teutliu in place of Siganus or Amphacanthus. 



In 1854 Dr. Gray published a '' Catalogue of Fish collected and 

 descril)ed by Lawrence Theodore (ironow," now in the liritish Museum, 

 and this was the first publication of a raanuscrii)t of that great ichthy- 

 ologist, who died in 1778. Unfortunately no attempt was made by an 

 editor to coUocate the sheets in systematic order,- and hence we find 

 closely allied genera often widely removed and approximated to those 

 with which they have no affinity. Among those widely separated are 

 Teuthis (p. 142) and Acronurus (p. 190). The former name had been sub- 

 stituted by Gronow for his own Heputus, but restricted to the Sigani, 

 and the latter was a new name for the Acanthuri. 



In 1861 Dr. Giiuther^ followed Cantor and Gronow in retaining the 

 name Teuthis for the amphacanthoid fishes and AcfuithurKs for the sur- 

 geon fishes; he also revived the name Acronurns for what are now 

 known to be young of the Acanthuri, although none were known to 

 Gronow himself.^ 



The example thus set by Dr. Giinther has been generally followed by 

 his successors. 



VI. 



It may become known to some, that about 1840 Bonaparte recognized 

 two families bearing the same names as the Giintherian — Teuthididie 

 and Acanthurida^, — and it might naturally be supposed that the names 

 represented the same groups defined by Giinther. Even if such were 

 the case, the past nomenclature would not be affected thereby, and at 

 most a change of opinion on the part of Bonaparte would have been 

 manifested. Islevertheless, even such change did not really take jilace, 

 and the names in question simply indicate a strange mental phase or 

 confusion that existed for a short time. The status may be of suffic- 

 ient interest to detail. 



1 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, XYIII, p. 1189. 



'-" Some person, evidently not the author, or one well conversant -with the subject, 

 has marked the genera in the manuscript," which had never been sewed together, 

 with a conse«iuent number. (Gray in Preface, pp. vi. vii.) The sequence of the 

 Zoophylaciuui sliould have been adojjted. 



"Catalogue of the Acanthopterygian Fishes, III, p. 313. 



^"The name is taken from Gronow. who intended to apph' it to fishes of tliis 

 family." (Giinther, III, p. 845.) 



