INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



Tlii> present memoir i> a c«intinitati<m ^ti a |>a|)er eiititleil. Thr 

 Genera of Fishes, from LiniKCus to Cin'icr, 1758-1833, seventy-five years, 

 ivith the accepted type of each, a contribution to the stability of scientific 

 nomenclature, published by the present writer in 1''17. 



It i> hkewise a coniril)ution t<> the stability of scientific nomencla- 

 ture. It covers what may be termed the mediicval period of systematic 

 ichthyology, the time in which nomenclature is fairly established, but in 

 which, for want of a general zoobj^ical record, many papers have been 

 overlooked or forgotten. 



This period is especially marked by the studies of Professor Agassi: 

 on the fossil fishes, by the e-xhaustive record of tlie fishes of the East 

 Indies by Dr. Bleeker, and by the unification of ichthyological knowledge 

 by Valenciennes and by Dr. Giinther. Giinther's Catalogue of the Fishes 

 of the British Museum, 1859-1870, must always remain the solid founda- 

 tion on which systematic zoology is built. This period is also marked by 

 the studies in comparative zoology by Dr. Johannes Miiller and by the 

 opening to science of the rich freshwater fauna of North and South 

 .Vmerica. In this period wrote also the keenest of taxonomic critics. Dr. 

 Gill, whose conceptions of genera and of families are likely in a large 

 degree to constitute the last word in regard to the status of groups of 

 this grade. Other notable writers whose work has been of a high order 

 are Richardson, Schlegel, Lowe, Egerton, Reinhardt, Poey, Heckel, 

 Kner. Pictet, Holbrook. P.aird, Troschel. Owen, McClelland. Riippcll, 

 Menle, Storer, DeKay, .\yres. Cooper, Girard and Cope. Of the many 

 writers in the period preceding the year 1870, Steindachner only, one of 

 the most industrious and accurate, is still living. When the writer vis 

 ited him in \'ienna in 1913 he was still, at the age of 79, hard at work, 

 and one important paper of his bearing date of 1915 has found its way 

 through the vicissitudes of censorship to my library. 



In accordance with the philosophy of evolution, the writers at the 

 end of this period have inverted the fish series, the simplest and most 

 ancient types being placed first in taxonomic records, rather than the 

 perch and its relatives, so long regarded as typifying the perfect or com- 

 pleted fish. 



