LiyXEAN SOCIETr OF LOXBOK. 5 1 



lies in tlie fiict that it is the first reference catalogue wliich is 

 also a replete monograph adequately expressing a si<;niHcant 

 natural classification. It surveys the whole field of ichthyology, 

 discriminating and defining, group hy group, every order, i'aiiiily, 

 and genus, and every one ot: the seven thousand species known at 

 the time, whether represented in the Museum or not — the per- 

 vading idea being to make the collection not only accessible to 

 specialists and students, but also generally illuminating, and 

 furthermore perennially fruitful and recuperative to itself. No 

 doubt, there may be some parts of the original fabric of the 

 Catalogue that, in the light which it itself has helped so greatly 

 to spread, may now seem somewhat worn : opinions will ah^ays 

 fluctuate as to the limits of genera and families ; with extension 

 of knowledge views must necessarily change as to the phvletic 

 significance of i)articular structures and organs ; but, howsoever 

 any of its contents may become modified by time, nothing can be 

 eftaeed or lightly dismissed, and for quality and style, for coherent 

 comprehensiveness and lucidit^y, Giinther's Catalogue will always 

 stand out as a great original exemplar. It is hardly possible to 

 overestimate the stimulating influence that it and his ' Intro- 

 duction to the Study of Fishes ' — another work of conspicuous 

 originalitv, — together with his " lie port on the 'Challenger' 

 Deep-Sea Fishes," have exercised in this one particular branch 

 of science. 



But even as a systematist Giinther's influence extended far 

 beyond the field of ichthyology. 



In herpetologv he was hardly less authoritative and stimula- 

 tive, and his ' E-eptiles of British India' is another of the big 

 landuiarks of natural history. It, and also his ' Catalogue of 

 Batrachia' and 'Catalogue of Colubrine HSnakes,' have been 

 superseded for practical purposes in the onward movement of 

 science, but time cannot stale their merit as foundation-work, 

 nor wither their rooted credit as incentive and directive forces 

 in that progress. 



In the history of systematic zoology Giinther will also long be 

 held in remembrance as one of the inceptors and, for the first six 

 years of its existence, the editor of the ' Zoological Record,' and 

 as for nearly forty j'ears one of the editors of the ' Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History.' 



To portray Giinther only as a great museum-administrator iind 

 systematist would be to give a very iucomplete impression of him 

 as a zoologist. 



His paper on Ceratodus, published in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Iloyal Society,' ranks as a classic in 

 Comparative Anatomy, for it remains a great original storehouse 

 of formulated facts of structure, even though all the phyletic 

 interpretations of fact have not been established. 



But beyond everything he had a perfect heart towards Nature, 

 and was an observer of the hunianest and most universal tem])er, 

 literally overflowing with delight in all things haying life. For 



e2 



