60 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
in 1789, published the descriptions and figures of 
some new birds; and subsequently, in 1790, he took 
up the examination of the much neglected class of 
reptiles, intending to treat upon them in detail, but, 
unfortunately, the work only reached to the second 
number: this was the more to be regretted, since 
Merram had evidently paid great attention to 
these animals. Hermann, the professor of Strasburg 
in 1783, deserves to be particularly mentioned, as 
much for his systematic descriptions*, published 
after his death, as for his very curious and valuable 
work on the affinities of animals, wherein he brings 
into comparison individuals of different orders, re- 
sembling each other. These tables are well worth 
the perusal, and even study, of the philosophic 
zoologist; for though Hermann was perpetually 
_ confounding the two relations of affinity and ana- 
logy, yet we can here trace the faint germ of those 
enlarged views on the natural system, which, after a 
lapse of many years, were to be so much expanded. 
His son inherited the taste of his father, and pub- 
lished a work on apterous animals; but this we 
have not seen. 
(26.) Ichthyology, one of the first departments of 
natural history which engaged the attention of the 
writers of the sixteenth century, had received but 
few additions since the time that Linnzeus began his 
splendid career. Dr. Garden, one of his most valu- 
able and learned correspondents +, had supplied him 

* J. Hermann. Observationes Zoologice Posthumez. Stras- 
burg, 1804. 1 vol. 4to. — Tabula Affinitatum Animalium. 
Strasburg, 1783. 1 vol. 4to. 
+ See Linn. Corr. 
