408 



SOME NEW BOOKS. 



Fossil Fishes in the British Museum. 



Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History). 

 Part III. By Arthur Smith Woodward. Pp. xlii , 554, pis. xviii. London, 

 1895. Price £1 is. 



The Catalogues published by the Trustees of the British Museum are 

 held in special esteem by students of natural history. As a rule, 

 they are much more than their modest title denotes ; for instead of 

 being merely a systematic enumeration of the species and specimens 

 in the British Museum, they are often a comprehensive treatise on all 

 the forms of the particular division of the animal or vegetable kingdom 

 to which they refer. The Catalogue of Fossil Fishes prepared by 

 Arthur Smith Woodward occupies a prominent place among these 

 publications. That which L. Agassiz attempted more than half a 

 century ago and completed with such brilliant results, A. S. Woodward 

 endeavours to repeat in the light of the most modern principles and 

 the present state of knowledge. How enormous, however, has been 

 the increase of palseontological material since that time — how much 

 our knowledge of fossil fishes has grown and deepened — may best be 

 realised by comparing any section of Agassiz's "Recherches sur les 

 Poissons Fossiles" with the Catalogue of the British Museum now 

 before us. Not without a certain amount of sorrow is one convinced 

 by this comparison how fleeting and short-lived are the most important 

 works in the domain of natural history, and in this category may 

 undoubtedly be placed Agassiz's great volumes on fishes. Of the 

 classification of fishes based upon the skin-structures, which L. Agassiz 

 proposed, scarcely anything remains. The orders of Cycloidei and 

 Ctenoidei were long ago shown by J. Miiller to be entirely untenable ; 

 the Placoidei were limited and defined in a different manner; and that 

 of the Ganoidei alone, the establishment of which Agassiz regarded as 

 the most important result of his long-continued researches, received 

 stronger anatomical support from J. Miiller and Carl Vogt, and with- 

 stood all the attacks from different sides until quite recently. Its 

 limits have indeed been reduced considerably in course of years ; the 

 Placodermi, Dipnoi, and Acanthodi have been excluded and the 

 close relationships of the Ganoidei and Teleostei have been more and 

 more emphasised. Following Kner, Owen, and Cope, A. S. Woodward 

 has also given up this last remnant of the system of Agassiz ; his 

 Ganoidei are abandoned, and their former members are divided among 

 the sub-classes of Ostracodermi, Dipnoi, and Teleostomi. Whether 

 the direct opposition of the Crossopterygii to the Actinopterygii will 

 stand the test of time, may indeed be doubted ; and likewise the future 

 can only decide whether the complete fusion of the higher ganoids 

 with the bony fishes is to be regarded as a noteworthy step in advance. 

 The fundamental difference between the cartilaginous fishes (Elasmo- 

 branchii) and all other fishes becomes more and more recognised ; the 

 latter, on the other hand, like the birds, comprise a series of forms so 



