legist, the materials for conipariug the living with past creations 

 being so numerous and diversified that we cannot help thinking 

 that the question of the relations of the various epochs to one 

 another will be solved iu the field of ichthyology. Although fishes 

 ai*e mostly hidden by the element in which they live, so that the 

 knife of the anatomist generally first reveals new facts connected 

 with their life, we have sufficient evidence to show that the pheno- 

 mena of life are more varied in their difierent groups tlian in any 

 of the higher Vertebrata, and that their study will form a solid basis 

 for the solution of those general biological questions which, perhaps 

 rather prematurely, agitate the minds of many zoologists. 



" An interest in Ichthyology is generally diffused in England ; 

 but its study is much neglected. Nor could it be otherwise. Where 

 is it taught ? Of the teachers of zoology in the numerous German, 

 Scandinavian, Itussian, Italian, and Portuguese universities, there 

 is scarcely one who has not been an author in Ichthyology; and 

 consequently he takes care that this branch shall not be neglected in 

 his course of lectures. In Paris there exists a separate chair for 

 Ichthyology and Herpetology. In the United States Ichthyology is 

 taught by the author of the ' Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles ' 

 and his pupils. In England I have met with many struggling hard 

 to obtain ichthyological knowledge, with not one who was assisted 

 in it by a teacher. 



" Of course this state of things is in immediate connexion with the 

 defective system of scientific education ; but it must appear very 

 anomalous indeed when we consider that the public of the mother 

 country, as well as of the colonies, have the liveliest interest in ich- 

 thyology, as is proved by the daily requests for information, some- 

 times accompanied by collections made at considerable personal 

 sacrifice, expressly with the object of diffusing scientific knowledge 

 and of increasing the resources derived from this class of animals. 



" Finally, it may be asked in what way ichthyology has been ad- 

 vanced by the publication of the present work ? In the first place, 

 then, the entire collection in the British Museum has been named, 

 arranged, and described, so that, with the assistance of the Cata- 

 logue, every species and every individual specimen may be as easily 

 found as a book in a well-arranged library, and has been rendered 

 accessible to students and foreign visitors. Nearly 800 species have 



