2i6 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



1885 (Bd.), it means that the Heft containing it was published 

 in 1884, whilst the Band containing it is dated 1885. Two 

 such dates seem to be quoted indifferently by authors referring 

 to such a work. 



Again, it often happens in the case of German separate 

 works and dissertations of about 30 to 50 years back, that they 

 were published several times at different towns withm a period 

 of a few years, although each edition was in every respect essen- 

 tially the same, except for the imprint on the title page. In 

 these cases each edition is recorded, and indicated by the place 

 of publication and the date. 



Of course, such works as Carus and Engelmann's " Biblio- 

 theca Historico-Naturalis," the Royal Society's catalogue, 

 Agassiz's '• Bibliographia Zoologiae," etc., are immensely 

 useful to any zoologist, whether compiling a bibliography or 

 not. The principles upon which the latter work was written 

 often astonish me. It is a strange mixture of completeness, 

 important omissions and mistakes. Recently in following out 

 the numerous ramifications of Johannes Muller's "Ganoid 

 bible " it referred me to a volume of the Linnaean Society's 

 Transactions, which I presumed contained an abstract, transla- 

 tion, or a discussion of that famous work. On looking it up, 

 it was found to refer to nothing more than a mere list of books, 

 amongst which the work in question figured, recently added to 

 the library of the Society ! 



The difficulty of running down a species in the case of the 

 older authors is often somewhat tedious, and that it is really 

 always necessary to do so is evident when we remember that 

 the descriptions of the older authors are often both detailed 

 and valuable. Thus, A. von Haller, writing in 1768, gives a 

 description of the brain of a fish which he says is the species 

 of Trocta called Ombre (misprinted Omble) Chevalier in the 

 Lake of Geneva. Quite a small investigation is necessary be- 

 fore it can be determined to what fish he is referring. Atten- 

 tion has been specially directed towards this alphabetical list of 

 types and synonyms, since it is hoped that this will prove of 

 some value to neurologists working at lower vertebrates. 



