24 THE NATURAL HISTOET REYIEW. 



acquiriug serviceable additions proportionately increase. At the 

 completion of Dr. Giinther's labours, therefore, he may fairly look 

 forward to having under his care the largest as well as the most per- 

 fectly catalogued series of Fishes in existence. 



ly. — Siebold's European Freshwater-fishes. 



Pie SiisswASSERFiscHE VON Mitteleuropa. Bearbeitet von C. 

 Th. E. V. Siebold. Leipzig, 1863. 8vo. 



"We believe that a feeling of some surprise, mixed with no little 

 curiosity, was excited among zoologists, when it became known that 

 one of the editors of the " Journal fiir "Wissenschaftliche Zoologie," 

 had descended to the level of ordinary Zoology — we mean the Zoology 

 of the old school, which considers an animal worth examining, even 

 when this can be done without the aid of the microscope and the dis- 

 secting needle. "Would one of the founders of the modern German 

 school of *' scientific zoology" treat his subject in a new style ? "Would 

 he discover new ways of distinguishing species, and put forward 

 hitherto unknown views leading to a more perfect systematic arrange- 

 ment ? "Would he teach us, as we have been taught in the case of the 

 North American Tortoises, that to study the adult animal is useless, 

 and that to understand specific and generic affinities, we must ex- 

 amine embryonic and subembryonic conditions ? How far conjectures 

 of this kind were verified by the result we shall shortly see. 



"When Bloch, the celebrated German Ichthyologist of the last 

 century, humbly requested Frederic the Great to order certain 

 officials to aid him in collecting the fishes of the Mark of Branden- 

 burg, he received the reply : " I am glad to hear that you occupy 

 yourself with fishes, but what you ask of me is nonsense; 

 for I know all the fishes in the Mark myself. There are carp, 

 Sander, perch, and eels. Are you going to count their bones ?" 

 "We need hardly say that Dr. v. Siebold found his Government 

 more enlightened than this. In fact, the present work owes its 

 origin to the order he received from it to prepare a report on the 

 fishes of Bavaria — and as by degrees he extended his researches far 

 beyond the limits first assigned to it, he not only enjoyed material 

 assistance from his own rulers, but also obtained aid from the govern- 

 ments of neighbouring countries. Having devoted nine years to a 



