RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. 6] 
with many new species from America; and the co- 
loured figures of Catesby had made known several 
others, peculiar to the coasts and rivers of Carolina. 
Miller, likewise, had touched upon the species of 
Denmark, and a few had been described by Forskal 
from the Red Sea; but these additions to ichthyo- 
logy were very insignificant, when compared to those 
which other branches of zoology had received ; while 
the want of good figures, even of the species already 
known, left the knowledge of these animals in a very 
backward state. The appearance, therefore, of the 
famous work of Bloch, who began the publication of 
his great undertaking in 1785, must have been 
hailed with pleasure. Bloch was a Jewish physician, 
settled in Berlin; and his Ichthyology, in twelve 
folio parts, containing no less than 452 coloured 
plates, was such an undertaking as no one would 
have courage to prosecute in these days, unless with 
the determination of submitting to a large pecuniary 
sacrifice. It is, without doubt, the most complete 
work, in regard to figures, that has ever been pub- 
lished: for although the subject was treated of sub- 
sequently by La Cépéde in greater detail, and with 
a considerable addition of species, the figures in the 
French work are small, uncoloured, and not alto- 
gether remarkable for accuracy.* Bloch, although, 
like Fabricius, the author of a system, followed the 
systematic style of arrangement pursued by Linneus ; 
and both his characters and his descriptions are ex- 
cellent. One only regrets that a work so essential to 
* M. E. Bloch. Ichthyologie, ou Histoire Naturelle gé- 
nérale et particuliére des Poissons. 12 parties, folio. Berlin, 
1785—1796. 
